Does anyone strain their wort?

Do any of you strain your wort as you pour it into primary?

Mod Edit: this is not specific to extract brewing, it's been moved to a relevant forum.

Yes, but only to catch the hops and to allow me to rinse them. I use a mesh screen that fits in the funnel.

All the trub goes into the fermenter, but I allow it to settle then rack it off into another fermenter before pitching the yeast.

That's just my process, fwiw.

Why do you ask? Any questions or concerns you are trying to address?

-Steve

the first time I did an extract I did(what a pain in the a$$, and loss of beer). Now I bag my hops in the boil to easily remove them, and pour the cooled wort right into the primary. anything left will settle out, then you can rack off the finished beer leaving the trub behind.

Yea, I feel like I'm losing beer by straining it. I'm experimenting with a gluten free batch and after the boil, there seemed to be so little left, I just poured it all in and added water. I'm doing 2 1/2 gal. batches.

Also, I'm using hop pellets, so it just clogs up the strainer anyway. On my 5 gal. batches of real beer, I strained until it got too thick and called it good.

I've just never poured all the wort into primary without straining and was wondering if it would affect racking. As in, will it all settle on the bottom?

I usually do, but I'm not really very particular about it. It's just less stuff in the primary that settles as trub- so I don't really care all that much.

I usually use whole hops, so I don't want them getting into the fermenter. Whenever I use pellet hops and they clog the strainer, I just scoop out the mass with a sanitized spoon then continue pouring the wort.

I wouldn't recommend dumping the pellet hops into the fermenter unless you let them settle out and then rack off the clear wort into another fermenter before pitching the yeast.

Losing wort during operations is what made me switch to 5.5 gallon batches, so I end up with a full 5 gallons at the end!

-Steve

i experienced some trouble making my first brew (a double ipa) a few weeks ago and straining the wort.. i was using TWO strainers (one mesh strainer attached to funnel, and a plastic colander type strainer i poured through first) and was getting some serious cloggage in both strainers after pouring not much wort through.. granted it was a hoppy recipe but damn were those strainers getting clogged..

Yes, we strain our extract batches. Like Yooper said above, less trub.

i have a false bottom on my boiling kettle, which stops a lot of the trub. i also sometimes use an in-line filter. for most 5 gallon batches, i just dump it straight in, as my smaller stockpot does not have a false bottom anyway and i just get a slightly smaller yield due to more trub.

I have used a wire mesh strainer between brewpot and primary after my first three batches. The only time I have problems is mentioned above, when I do my IPA. I just make sure the trash is close and flip the junk into it when it fills and continue straining. I've only used leaf hops once, and that was for dry-hopping. I'm harvesting some of my own soon, so it'll be interesting to see the difference in the way that they strain after the boil.

As for the first three batches, they had more problems from temperature control than straining issues. BUT!! They were still beer! I have a lot more variables in my process to worry about.

I think that most of the stuff that I strain would end up at the bottom of the fermenter anyways, so maybe its unnecessary to get that stuff out. I don't know, but I'll keep doing it until I don't have a helper to hold the strainer as I pour the wort through. If I want to brew and can't round someone up, I'll just dump it in and not worry about it.

+1 on remove most of the trub, but don't obsess over it.

I siphon the wort into the primary and leave the trub behind.

I had been straining my wort, but on my last beer (a stout) I said to hell with it and poured everything into the fermenter. It turned out just fine, even after a month in primary.

I always strain....

I strain with the small built in screen on my canning funnel and a separate stainless strainer. I find it also does a good job of aerating the wort as well.

The strainer gets clogged fairly often so I tend to fling the trub across the lawn in front of my porch. Last Saturday I finished a little late and it was pretty dark, during straining I flung the trub like usual and then looked up to find an owl land with talons out on the ground about 10 feet in front of me. I kind of shook my head and continued... Then during my next fling of trub, the same thing happened. It turns out the porch light behind me was casting a shadow of the strainer across the lawn that looked kind of like mouse on the run. My father-in-law was over and the same thing happened to him. It was by far the coolest thing I've seen while brewing...

I used to use a very fine mesh strainer that I used between the keggle and the carboy. It worked ok but clogged up quickly. I have since moved to a SS false bottom that works better in my opinion. I get a little trub at first, but then the hops actually create a filter across the false bottom, and not much of the trub makes it in.
While it doesn't keep as much stuff out as the fine mesh strainer, it does a good enough job for me, keeping the bulk of it out. It's good enough for government work

I always strain. For two reasons. One to keep the trub out and two to help aerate the wort. Yes, the strainer usually gets clogged about 3 or 4 times, so it takes a little longer to pour it in as I have to clean out the strainer each time, but I think my beer is worth the extra effort.

This little chap does it all for me.

I use a jumbo mesh bag that lines the primary. I pour my wort into the bag and then pull out the bag and hops. Simple and easy.
I guess its not really straining but it achieves the same affect.

Craig

I have strained all except one batch (first one). I do 5.5 gal batches so I end up with 5 gal in bottle. I just started bagging hops and now I have much less trub in strainer. Also, strainer helps aerate.

orfy said:

This little chap does it all for me.

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I thought that was an elephant turd at first! The coily stainless steel pan scrubber. I havn't seen any of those around these parts. That must work great!!!

I strain. I didn't with my very first brew and I lost a lot of beer to trub. Now I use a cheap funnel and a messling bag from my steeping grains that is washed and sanitized. I think it works pretty good, if it gets clogged its easy to clean it off and keep going.

Depends on what I am using to ferment in. Conical or 7 gallon pail I will use this


Gives you a lot of aeration too

If its going into a carboy I use a SS scrubber. Both work well even when i dont use a hop bag.

Use a strainer like you would have in your kitchen. Something like this....

http://www.stainless-steel-kitchenware.com/soup-strainers.html

Just place it above your funnel and it will get all of your hops out.

Gregredic said:

Use a strainer like you would have in your kitchen. Something like this....

http://www.stainless-steel-kitchenware.com/soup-strainers.html

Just place it above your funnel and it will get all of your hops out.

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I use a somewhat fine spaghetti strainer (with maybe 1/8" holes). I find the pellet hops themselves create a fairly fine bed for straining the wort. I don't notice any off flavors or anything strange from the residual hops. Perhaps they are there, but I've been happy with my brews so far.

I recently bought a CFC from a fellow brewtalker. I expect I'll be going the scrubby/hop-bag route from now on.

I use the funnel screen. When that thing clogs up, I sanitize my hands, grab it, and then rinse it out in the sink. Then I sanitize my hands and the screen and reinsert it into the funnel.

I used to just scoop the stuff off the screen, but it takes to darn long. Plus, the screen is still somewhat clogged with stuff and gets clogged again in a matter of seconds.

Mike

How bad is it if you just dump everything in?

imho, except for variations in wort volume, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference. If you're patient enough to let the beer clear, and rack carefully.

I never strain. My beer is always very clear. If I fear lots of hop particles, I strain going into the bottling bucket.

bergman1118 said:

i experienced some trouble making my first brew (a double ipa) a few weeks ago and straining the wort.. i was using TWO strainers (one mesh strainer attached to funnel, and a plastic colander type strainer i poured through first) and was getting some serious cloggage in both strainers after pouring not much wort through.. granted it was a hoppy recipe but damn were those strainers getting clogged..

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Just use a hop/grain bag for the boil and any dry hopping requirements. I've tried several times with and without the bags and the result is the same, just no clogging of strainers or floaties in your beer bottles. Cheers

Good to hear most people are straining. I didn't on my first batch, and left about an inch of wort in my pot. I still had alot of trub in the primary, so I left beer in there too. I only ended up w/ 4 gallons of beer. I've strained ever since.

I didn't strain on my first batch, but I did use grain and hops bags. Tonight was my second batch ever and i did a hefe. I am not planning on going into a secondary so I used a fine mesh strainer before going into a carboy to catch the irish moss. Worked great and I, too, like the aeration that takes place.

I only strain the wort if I use whole hops. Most of the time I use pellet and just dump it all in. The pellets tend to mostly stick to the sides of the fermenter at the top of the fermented beer and it is easy to rack the beer to secondary and get no pieces in the secondary. I don't even use a paint strainer or mesh bags on the racking cane, just a trub tip that came with the racking cane.

What's the obsession with getting the trub out?? Seems to me a lot of trouble for very little return. Even with all the trub, my beer ferments out just fine.

I always leave as much trub behind as I can simply because my first book on brewing told me to. Maybe I need to worry a lot less about that aspect!! I like any method that makes things even easier for me.

OhioBrit said:

I always leave as much trub behind as I can simply because my first book on brewing told me to. Maybe I need to worry a lot less about that aspect!! I like any method that makes things even easier for me.

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Same here. I've never done any experiments, so I can't really say from experience what effect leaving all the trub in the fermenter has. However, my last two batches had an extraordinary amount of trub-- I used Whirlfloc for the the first time in them-- so they fermented on more trub than I normally like to have, so I guess I'll have that opportunity now!

I'm sure Revvy could chime in about how this bit of brewing folklore came about.

SavageSteve said:

I'm sure Revvy could chime in about how this bit of brewing folklore came about.

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Nah, sorry...but give me some time maybe I'll dig something up.

If I'm fermenting in a bucket I use a big nylon paint strainer bag...If I'm going to carboy I use a funnel and a kitchen strainer which fits nocely inside of it...

I had an interesting experience yesterday. For some reason I decided I'd use my auto siphon to rack to carboy, rather than pouring through the funnel/strainer...

I brewed, cooled and whirlpooled, and had just started to siphon into the carboy when I noticed a TON of little hopleafs coming through the line.

So I stopped racking, and grabbed the big funnel and kitchen strainer which conveniently were sitting in my sanitizer bucket, and a binder clip. I put the strainer/funnel in the carboy then clipped the end of the hose so it flowed into the strainer.

By the end of the siphoning session the strainer was clogged with green goop.

I really can't figure out why so much was coming through the autosiphon...I usually don't get a lot of junk coming through that black plastic filter thing on the end...

Do EKG pellets dissolve into more tiny leaf matter than other pellets? Instead of being slime, they were really tiny leaf petals...

springer said:

Depends on what I am using to ferment in. Conical or 7 gallon pail I will use this

Gives you a lot of aeration too

If its going into a carboy I use a SS scrubber. Both work well even when i dont use a hop bag.

Click to expand...

I have the same thing. I used it yesterday to rerack a mead and remove some strawberry gunk.

I made a stout the last month and decided it was time to start straining my wort when someone showed me a piece of hops in their beer.

I've been wondering the about the same question. The hop pellets clog up any strainer so quickly that I've given up. But if it's all settling out in the bottom anyway I don't see how you could lose that much beer. ?

I dont strain, i use pellet hops, and i dont lose beer.

I didnt strain my first batch. Made my second batch on Friday and decided to strain. The only thing I had to use was a funnel with a strainer on it. I used hop pellets for the beer, and it was really hard to get the beer flowing through... the hops kept clogging the funnel. I eventually just kept scraping the straining screen with a spoon, and all the liquid went through. Although it was a bit annoying with the clogging, the straining aerated the wort so much that I didnt need to do anything else. I had like 4 inches of foam on top of the wort by the time I got everything in the carboy. I pitched a dry yeast on top of it without rehydrating because i was lazy, and 5 hours later I checked and already had a krausen starting and lots of airlock activity. Overall Im happy I strained.

I have a favorite recipe that I have brewed alot. The last three times I brewed it I have been a little pressed for time. So, I simply poured my entire brew pot hop pellets and all into primary without fussing with my usual screening routine. I may have transfered a little less beer into secondary than usual but the loss of a few ounces of beer was well worth the time savings and convenience. Most importantly, the beer tasted as good as it always does and it's not particularly cloudy either.

I think for certain "special" batches I may strain, but this works fine for me right now.

One other positive to not dealing with strainers and bags is eliminating one more contact with my cooled wort. Anytime I need to handle cooled wort with a utensil or anything, I worry about contamination --aseptic technique or not.

I beleive in the K.I.S.S. principle. The only thing I fuss about lately is cleanliness and consistancy and my brews have been just fine :rockin:.