flipper51
Well-Known Member
I am curious how many people, at the end of the boil, siphon the wort into the fermenter vs. how many pour it through a funnel. I guess the question really only applies to those that don't have a valve on their pot and use carboys as a primary.
I've been brewing about 10 years now, and in that time I've changed pretty much every aspect of my process, but not this one. I prop up a sanitized funnel (with filter) in the neck of the carboy and pour as much will go until it backs up with trub. Then I stir back and forth until that funnel-load gets through, scoop out the sludge, and repeat. For an average beer, about half the wort goes straight through before things start to slow down.
I've wondered for a while if this was normal, or way more trouble than most were bothering with. A few years ago I got the clone brew books by the Szamatulskis, who recommend siphoning from the kettle to the fermenter. Motivated by their claim that whirlpooling would keep all the trub in the pot, I tried it a few times but quit because, to me, it doesn't seem worth the risk of infection from the siphon water (or human vacuum, even worse).
Now that I've bought the sterile siphon (from B3, a really cool item), and I've discovered the joys of starsan, I feel like I have virtually no openings for contamination in my process. That's why I hesitate to change from the pain-in-the-butt funnel method to siphoning (which can't be done with the sterile siphon - it works by creating air pressure in a carboy).
Funnel method pros:
everything is sanitized
good aeration (if it flows fast, it foams up big from the fall, if slow, you are constantly stirring)
no wort lost (I even push the wort out of whole hops with the spoon!)
cons:
slow (as much as a half hour)
possibly more trub in carboy (is the cold break getting through the funnel?)
physically strenuous
I've been brewing about 10 years now, and in that time I've changed pretty much every aspect of my process, but not this one. I prop up a sanitized funnel (with filter) in the neck of the carboy and pour as much will go until it backs up with trub. Then I stir back and forth until that funnel-load gets through, scoop out the sludge, and repeat. For an average beer, about half the wort goes straight through before things start to slow down.
I've wondered for a while if this was normal, or way more trouble than most were bothering with. A few years ago I got the clone brew books by the Szamatulskis, who recommend siphoning from the kettle to the fermenter. Motivated by their claim that whirlpooling would keep all the trub in the pot, I tried it a few times but quit because, to me, it doesn't seem worth the risk of infection from the siphon water (or human vacuum, even worse).
Now that I've bought the sterile siphon (from B3, a really cool item), and I've discovered the joys of starsan, I feel like I have virtually no openings for contamination in my process. That's why I hesitate to change from the pain-in-the-butt funnel method to siphoning (which can't be done with the sterile siphon - it works by creating air pressure in a carboy).
Funnel method pros:
everything is sanitized
good aeration (if it flows fast, it foams up big from the fall, if slow, you are constantly stirring)
no wort lost (I even push the wort out of whole hops with the spoon!)
cons:
slow (as much as a half hour)
possibly more trub in carboy (is the cold break getting through the funnel?)
physically strenuous