Straining the wort???

Hello,
I just finished my third batch of beer, and I really enjoy it. One thing that bugs me, however, is the process of getting the wort from the kettle to the carboy. I use a funnel with a plastic screen filter, and it gets clogged up really fast. I've found that the only way to make this work is to scoop out a cup or two of wort and pour it into the funnel, and then scrape the screen with my stirring spoon for a minute or two so that the good stuff can trickle into the carboy. It takes me forever to do this with my whole 3 to 4 gallon boil, which I'm sure at least partly defeats the purpose of the immersion chiller that I just bought! Is there a better way to transfer the wort to the carboy, or is my wort thicker than it should be? My last batch used 9 lbs of extract and 4 oz of hop pellets, with one of the ounces of hops added with 5 minutes left in the boil, and it was definitely the most difficult to strain into the carboy. I can't believe it's supposed to be that difficult.

I place a regular strainer over the funnel rather than relying on the screen in the funnel. While this doesn't eliminate the need to scoop I can usually get half my wort into the carboy before needing to remove hop and break material.

I use a nylon net on my primary bucket. It also allows me to sparge the wort off the hops.

If you do this I highly recommend 6 clothes pins to hold the weight of the water and hops...or else you'll get splashed on when the net falls in...

I just brewed on Saturday night and I strained for the first time. I bought a large plastic funnel from the automotive department of Wal-Mart and then looked around for a larger sieve size than most.

I also tried to employ the use of a sanitized nylon and it worked albeit it grew a "bulb" of trub through the neck and into the cavity of the fermenter and I didn't see this until I looked at the cavity from an angle!!

Needless to say, I had to stand there and gently drain the wort from the nylon while simultainiously pulling it back through! It worked like a charm but until I can engineer something a little more fail safe, I won't be doing that again....

Brewed this weekend and had the same thoughts. I have been getting a lot of trub into the fermentor and it kind of reduces the amount of beer you can rack off because of the trub layer. While it is only my third beer I'm planning to strain the cold break out of the wort next time and would like to devise a way to do it.

I know, whirlpool/siphon, filter etc. still haven't found the way I want to go yet.
I've also heard that you want to leave the trub in there for body. Haven't done any experiments yet but .....

A racking cane will avoid most of this. Just rack to the carboy instead of pouring. I aerate by pouring my cooled wort from my boiling pot to my bucket 3 times, then rack from the bucket to the carboy. Then I pitch the yeast. My racking cane clogs sometimes, but not very often and I don't have to clear a screen every 30 seconds. I tried a screen strainer once and it sucked bad enough that I never tried it again.

So it seems like most of the solutions are to use something that will let more of the trub into the fermentor, like a strainer with larger holes than the screen or a racking cane. Does this mean that it's not all that important to keep the trub out, as long as you make an effort to keep most of it out? This most recent batch I made had the customary layer on the bottom that is fairly easy to keep out, but the rest of it was pretty thick as well. But I guess this was probably because when I put in the immersion chiller, it stirred things up.

bobbo said:

So it seems like most of the solutions are to use something that will let more of the trub into the fermentor, like a strainer with larger holes than the screen or a racking cane. Does this mean that it's not all that important to keep the trub out, as long as you make an effort to keep most of it out? This most recent batch I made had the customary layer on the bottom that is fairly easy to keep out, but the rest of it was pretty thick as well. But I guess this was probably because when I put in the immersion chiller, it stirred things up.

Click to expand...

Mine was just a matter of hop sediment, I was brewing a hefe-weizen, could have left them, I don't mind particulated brew (in my glass or otherwise)

I just knew there would be an inordinate amount of hop residue there and tried to strain some. I'm sure some go through though.

I'm not a person who focuses on teh aesthetics of my brew as much as body, taste and head. Clarity is something that you don't get a lot of in Europe and I kinda liked cloudy brews......that's why I brew hefe's, stouts, porters etc. I want a beer with legs!!