Kettle to Primary

Ok, I just brewed a batch an IPA today. (It is national home brew day after all.) So anyway, I've done a couple batches before with some friends but this was the first one I've done on my own and now I'm worried that I might have messed it up. I didn't siphon or filter the brew when I transfered from the kettle to the primary. I just poured it, hops and all, from the pot into the primary bucket, added the yeast, stirred it up to aerate it, and put a lid on it. Should I have gotten that crap out of there? Is it going to be okay if it sits in there until I transfer to secondary? I thought I had read before where some people did it this way, but now everything I read seems to say I should have siphoned it off the trub or at least poured it through a course filter or something.

it will be A OK....cuda..shuda.......its going to be a rockn IPA...I do try to keep the hop trub out....but its good...its all good..:rockin:

Nothing to worry about. My kettle is my primary. I just chill and pitch right there in the keggle. Super easy and they're getting better by the batch.

Just did a my first batch in a while today and the only reason I strained is because I had a buttload of whole leaf hops in the boil. Usually I don't worry and you shouldn't either.

Sidenote: Did you know there was a gathering of brewers in your town today? Did you brew this beer there? Normally good brewers miss a step or two when they step out of their normal process and take the show on ther road. Just askin'

cuinrearview said:

Just did a my first batch in a while today and the only reason I strained is because I had a buttload of whole leaf hops in the boil. Usually I don't worry and you shouldn't either.

Sidenote: Did you know there was a gathering of brewers in your town today? Did you brew this beer there? Normally good brewers miss a step or two when they step out of their normal process and take the show on ther road. Just askin'

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No, I didn't know. Like I said. I'm pretty new to this and I'm not really in the loop with the whole home community. I actually didn't even know today was national home brew day until someone at my LHBS (Siciliano's) said something to me when I stopped in to get supplies for the IPA.

carrotmalt said:

Nothing to worry about. My kettle is my primary. I just chill and pitch right there in the keggle. Super easy and they're getting better by the batch.

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Is there any reason you do this? Just because it's easier or do you actually prefer the way the beer turns out when you do it this way?

It really doesn't matter either way.

Some dump everything in, without straining, just pour it in the bucket or in the funnel....Some use a big strainer that fit in the funnel for a carboy, or a sanitized 5 gallon nylon paint strainer bag in the bucket...

I have done it all ways. It really doesn't matter...anything will settle.

In other words, there is no wrong way to do it, or better way, or way that will make the best beer...they all work...the choice is what will work the best for you. That's how you develop you own unique brewing process. By trying all ways and deciding what works best for you.

What I do with my IC, is chill the wort, then I lean the bottom of my autosiphon about two coils up from the bottom on the metal of the siphon. That rests it above most of the break material and trub, then I rack it to the fermenter until I'm down to that and carefully lower the siphon down into the gunk, just trying to get as much of the wort as possible without letting in the hops and break matter.

But pretty much up until I got my immersion chiller for christmas last year I just dumped for the majority of my batches.

Everything is fine, it won't affect the beer one way or another. It will settle down anyway.

Thanks for the response. I get that it will all settle eventually and since I'm going to rack to secondary, and I remembered to use my irish moss this time, I'm not too worried about the trub any more. I guess I was mostly worried about all the hops that are now in my fermenter. I had 4oz. in this batch and I was wondering if having them sit in there would affect the taste.

de5m0mike said:

T I guess I was mostly worried about all the hops that are now in my fermenter. I had 4oz. in this batch and I was wondering if having them sit in there would affect the taste.

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It wont. All the stuff that could affect taste has already leached into the beer, that's the point of boiling them. Nothing else will happen.

de5m0mike said:

Is there any reason you do this? Just because it's easier or do you actually prefer the way the beer turns out when you do it this way?

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Because it just simplifies my process. I don't have to worry about sanitizing a separate bucket for primary because I've just boiled the thing for over an hour. I simply chill it down with an immersion chiller, slosh the chiller up and down to aerate, pitch yeast, and slap a lid on (I cut my keggle out so that an existing stainless lid from another pot fits perfectly).

With whirlfloc tablets and a good cold crash, I haven't had any problems with clarity and I go straight from the keggle to the serving keg. I just polished off 5 gallons of BMs Centennial Blonde this way and it was amazingly clear (and yummy according to neighbors).

The only draw back is that your keggle is tied up for the duration of the primary, but I usually don't get to brew often enough for this to be a problem. I'm still a newbie myself, but this seems to work well for me.