What is your technique to transfer your cooled wort into your carboy?

Asking this because I brewed a Chocolate Porter tonight and had some troubles transferring it into a better bottle. The last beers I've brewed I was lucky enough to have some vacant fermenter buckets, so the act of transferring the wort wasn't a big deal. No spillage at all. Tonight I had a lot more trouble.

Started with asking my roommate to hold the funnel into the carboy so I didn't have to worry about that. Now I don't know how I did it in the past, but tonight when I poured the wort in, I had some of it leaking down the side of my stock pot onto the floor and it just killed me knowing I lost some concentrated brew! ( I use a 4 gallon pot).

I must have been holding it weird or tilting it weird or maybe my funnel just isn't big enough. Wondering how you guys did it without all the hassle of cleaning up the dropped, and very precious, wort.

Thanks!

Um, a racking cane, auto siphon or funnel. That carboy mouth is a tad small to pour wort into w/o, no?

I got this nice double funnel...maybe at the grocery store. You put a smaller funnel into a larger one and there is a filter in it to catch anything as well as aerate wort. I use a strainer when i transfer my wort to my chill pot so I get 90% of everything out then. I actually open up a cabinet and put a small strainer on top of the funnels in the carboy. not necessary but it holds the funnels solid and the handle of the strainer rests on a shelf in the cabinet. Works like a charm every time.

I use a 12-inch funnel with a screen inserted into it. Can buy that at any homebrew shop. I've never had a problem transferring into the primary.

I purchased a funnel set when I started brewing that includes a massive funnel that I've been using to pour my wort into the primary. I just cover it with a grain bag as a strainer and start pouring. I do lose some in the process though, never had a clean pour yet. I've been considering using my auto-siphon or getting a stainless steel racking cane and using that to move the wort. Probably will try that on my next brew.

You're getting the spillage from probably pouring slower due to the smaller target of the funnel. Its running back down the other side of the pot. That's why pitchers have the notched lip, it lets you pour faster while keeping the stream smaller. If you use a siphon to get it out of the better bottle, use it to put it in. Unless you have a fancy schmancy BB with a spigot... Best of luck.

auto siphon with a clip on it. it is like having an extra pair of hands

I do the whirlpool method in the brew kettle, let it sit for 20 minutes or so while I clean up, then rack to the carboy. Never have any problems with spillage. When I rack, I use a long tube from the racking cane and put the kettle on a high shelf and the carboy on the ground--the height disparity makes the siphon work faster, and I let the tube hang right at the top of the carboy so the beer falls a foot or so into the carboy, to help with aeration.

I transferred to a better bottle fermenter the other day and had an issue when the funnel was resting on the opening of the BB. Having limited space for air to escape from around the funnel, the wort kinda bubbled due to the pressure and some went over the side. Fixed that by having my brew day bi#&h (dad ) lift the funnel slightly from the BB opening.

I just brewed my first batch and this was my biggest hiccup. I was actually transferring the cooled wort into a fermenting bucket, not a carboy, and I was pouring into an 8" funnel with a screen. My problem was that the sediment in the wort clogged the screen almost instantly. I tried pouring through a straining bag and had the same problem. It took me 3-4 pours between the bucket and pot to finally filter out most of the sediment in the wort. Is it normal to have so much sediment in the wort? I steeped the grains in a straining bag, but the other ingredients (malt extract and hops) I added straight into the wort.

The benefit, I guess, is that by this point the wort was good and aerated, but I have to find a better way next time. I have an auto-siphon, but I didn't think to use it at this stage in the process. Maybe I should have done that.

John

Is it normal to have so much sediment in the wort?

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There's usually a good amount of cold break material. That plus the hops (not in a bag) can lead to a lot of stuff in the wort. I use a nylon bag for hops and also a screen on my kettle. I would definitely try to use a muslin bag or something to help reduce the trub.

JohnK93 said:

I just brewed my first batch and this was my biggest hiccup. I was actually transferring the cooled wort into a fermenting bucket, not a carboy, and I was pouring into an 8" funnel with a screen. My problem was that the sediment in the wort clogged the screen almost instantly. I tried pouring through a straining bag and had the same problem. It took me 3-4 pours between the bucket and pot to finally filter out most of the sediment in the wort. Is it normal to have so much sediment in the wort? I steeped the grains in a straining bag, but the other ingredients (malt extract and hops) I added straight into the wort.

The benefit, I guess, is that by this point the wort was good and aerated, but I have to find a better way next time. I have an auto-siphon, but I didn't think to use it at this stage in the process. Maybe I should have done that.

John

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Why are you using a funnel when using a bucket?
Just up end the pot and dump the whole thing in.

Everything will settle to the bottom of the bucket/carboy anyways, unless your using whole leaf hops i dont know why everyone bothers straining.

+1 for the 12" funnel with the screen. I just pour straight through it. I bag my hops during the boil, and dry hopping too, so the hop debris doesnt clog the screen. I use the screen because it helps aerate the beer, thats all. I'm pouring into better bottles, so the funnel is needed. I have a friend who uses buckets, and he just pours everything into the buckets, hop material and all. It all settles out during fermentation, and his beer is great.

When the screen clogs, stir what is in the funnel with a sanitized spoon to get it through the screen, then rinse the screen in sanitizer and continue. Its kind of a pain in the ass, and it isnt even necessary to use the screen, but it's what I do, again, just to aerate the beer.

I'd like to switch to a tier setup some day, to save lifting 5 to 6 gallons in a heavy ass kettle (about 80 pounds total), but for now lifting and pouring through a funnel is nice and cheap, and the beer turns out great.

BA funnel works fine for me...

+1 for not worrying too much about excess material in the carboy/fermenter. Yes, if you can siphon or pour off and stop when it's mostly just junk in the bottom of your kettle, fine. But I've done many beers where I just dumped the entire contents of the brew kettle into the fermenter, warts and all, and they come out just fine. Might need a little bit of extra time to clean up, but that's no problem. The worries about autolysis (yeast death) or off-flavors associated with extra stuff in your fermenter are, IMHO, seriously overblown. If you're planning on leaving the beer in the fermenter for months, then it could become an issue, but in that case I'll usually rack to a secondary after several weeks anyway, which will leave all that junk behind.

Try this: once your wort is reasonably cool (<80F), stir it briskly for at least a couple of minutes in one direction to get a good whirlpool going. Let that spin itself down and let the wort sit for 20 or 30 minutes--your wort should form a bit of a "cone" of trub in the center, from the centrifugal action of the spinning wort. Stick your siphon in the kettle on one side and siphon out as much wort as you can while leaving behind the worst of the trub...don't worry if some (or even all) of it ends up in the carboy, it's not going to hurt your beer.

That's what I do and I find that it works really well for me. Other folks undoubtedly have equally good/better methods, but the bottom line is that if you're taking 3-4 hours to transfer between kettle and fermenter, you're worrying too much about junk in your fermenter. In fact, the risk of infection is probably much more salient at that point than the risk of off-flavors from transferring trub to the fermenter.

Just my .02. Cheers!

I just set my funnel into the mouth of the carboy with a small length of SS welding rod (sanitized of course) bent into a hook so it fits between the funnel and mouth. This will allow the air to escape so I can pour without wort gurgling and running down the sides of the carboy.

Why are you using a funnel when using a bucket?

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It was more of an attempt to use the filter that was in the funnel than the funnel itself. I thought this was the best way to filter the wort, but I guess I didn't really have to be so concerned about this step.

Dump. Splash. Stir.

I use a bucket though, not a carboy

Sorry for the noob question but what kind of screen are people using in the funnel?

dkopacz said:

Sorry for the noob question but what kind of screen are people using in the funnel?

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Either a paint strainer bag or no screen at all. It will mostly settle out anyway.

To a carboy, I use an auto siphon. To my buckets I just dump and stir.

Lately I've been using an autosiphon. In the past, I used a funnel (which had built in ridges to prevent the airtight seal that would cause splash-back) and used an old 2 or 3 quart pot to scoop out small quantities of wort until I neared the end and the kettle was light enough to pour safely.

I'll be using an autosiphon for my carboys for now on, at least until most of the liquid is transferred so that I can just funnel the rest (hops and all) in there. I could like to get rid of all my carboys and move to buckets though.