Straining Your Wort

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A large fine-screen colander/strainer works well for me. It fits in the top of the fermentation bucket and traps all the hops particles and other hot break materials very well.
 
Ideally, all of the particulate would settle to the bottom of the kettle during the chill. Real world: most of it will settle, try not to siphon much over. You will lose some liquid because of it. Try to account for it by increasing your volume as needed. The rest will settle over the next couple weeks in primary. Hopefully you won't need a secondary.
 
I don't. There is no need to. I just dump the pot into my Better Bottle avoiding the thickest part of the sediment. This is accounted for in my recipes as trub loss. It usually is a quart or less.

The sediment that gets into the fermenter settles to the bottom and when I siphon off I leave the rest in there.

I have tried straining and decided it was not worth the trouble for the one or two extra bottles I might get.
 
****, I have been using a sanitized measuring cup and manually straining my wort into my plastic fermenter... I really should start putting my immersion chiller right into the brew kettle shouldn't I? lol

I'll post some pics of my latest brew where I strained from the brew kettle to a bucket, then from the bucket I siphoned with a hop bag over the tip of the siphon tube, then I repeated this a second time... yeah, a lot of hard work.. but after 9 days in primary at 66°... well let me just post the pic, brb
 
My immersion chiller is semi-permanently mounted in my kettle. So, yes.

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see photos attached of a cream ale i just transferred to secondary (probably not necessary)... after it spends 3-5 days in secondary I intend to cold crash it for 48-72 hrs prior to bottling

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KurtisCummings said:
see photos attached of a cream ale i just transferred to secondary (probably not necessary)... after it spends 3-5 days in secondary I intend to cold crash it for 48-72 hrs prior to bottling

Looks good. I skipped bottling almost altogether for kegging. I am not positive but the cold crash may hurt you in bottle conditioning. They will probably still carb but may take a good while. You could crash it and then add a very small amount of dry yeast afterwards to ensure carbonation, a la Sierra Nevada. I am almost positive they sterile filter instead of a simple cold crash though.
 
I don't strain anything. I want every last drop of wort into the primary, trub can come along for the ride. I then ferment 3-4 weeks. Then place the fermenter into a 30 degree temp controlled freezer for a few days and rack to a keg. You could do the same racking to bottle bucket. My beer always comes out clear, very clear.
 
I picked up a funnel with a strainer at my LHBS and it works great. I siphon into it after chilling/whirlpooling with a spoon. It strains as well as aerates the wort on the way into the carboy. I get a good 4 inches of foam, then I shake it some more. What it doesn't catch either settles out or doesn't make it to the bottling bucket bucket, I siphon through a paint strainer bag going into the bucket. Cheers.
 
Voodoo_Child said:
I picked up a funnel with a strainer at my LHBS and it works great. I siphon into it after chilling/whirlpooling with a spoon. It strains as well as aerates the wort on the way into the carboy. I get a good 4 inches of foam, then I shake it some more. What it doesn't catch either settles out or doesn't make it to the bottling bucket bucket, I siphon through a paint strainer bag going into the bucket. Cheers.

I have a strainer funnel. Not a bad idea using it in the aeration process.
 
I have a strainer funnel. Not a bad idea using it in the aeration process.

Aeration is another benefit of the fine-screen strainer when pouring wort into the primary fermenter. Since I do not have a ball valve on my brew kettle, I have to manually pour from the kettle into the fermenting bucket. Pouring it though the screen does seem to help with aeration. I have never done any additional aeration other than pouring, stirring, or shaking. (never used an aquarium pump, etc.) With this method, I have been able to successfully ferment some pretty big beers, including a 1.080 Belgian Tripel, and a 1.094 Imperial Stout with no issues whatsoever.
 
I also use a sanitzed paint strainer bag and pour everything from the kettle into the bucket. I get all the wort, but remove all the trub. Makes washing yeast a breeze.
 
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