To strain or not to strain, that is the question.

For a few IPAs I've done recently, I did a zero minute hop addition.
Once I the wort is cool, seemed a shame to just strain all those barely used hops, so I just tossed the entire contents of the brew pot, hop additions and bittering hops into the fermentor.

All that goop sits in the the primary, but of course gets left behind when I rack to my carboy after a week or two.

Any harm in this?
I have yet to get any "vegetable flavors" so I think its ok.
Will the natural antiseptic qualities of the hops tend to hinder the yeasties from doing their job?

What does everybody else do?

I left it all in first couple of batches but have been straining ever since. I actually like my batches of strained wort better but the better quality is likely just due to the improvement in my brewing skills. I have only brewed 6 batches in total.

I think you can go either way with it, your preference, but certainly no harm in leaving it in. One thing to remember, if you boil less than 5 gallons and have to top off your wort with water, you need to bring the frementer volume up to around 5 1/2 gallons or so to make up for all the volume taken up by the hops and stuff.

Dennis

That's not a problem at all. You can just dump your entire batch directly into the primary, trub and all. I personally do not do that, but it will not really hurt any. I like to do a double-dose of "straining" when brewing.

First, I put all of my hops in a nylon bag to keep them from ending up at the bottom of the brew pot. I just pull that out when I'm done and don't have to worry about getting them out later.

I also pour my wort through a strainer when going into the primary just to catch some of the other particulates such as the proteins and any spices I may have put into the boil. Putting it through the strainer also really helps me get extra aeration into the wort before fermenting.

Good topic, this is a question I had when I started brewing, all of 3 months ago. My funnel came with a strainer so I figured straining the wort was the correct way to do it, even though the kit instructions didn't say one way or the other. The problem was the strainer kept getting clogged up with all the hops and other junk.

My next three batches I didn't strain. My buddy who's been brewing 8 - 9 years told me he never strains, so I figured leaving all the hops in isn't going to hurt anything. I may try straining the next batch again, just to see if I notice a difference.

I just recently had the same question about an Amarillo Pale Ale that I brewed on Tuesday. It had a hops addition at flameout.

Check out post #8, gives you the answer you're looking for.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/amarillo-pale-ale-late-hop-addition-106511/

This was was my 4th batch and i've now strained the last 3 and am happy with the finished product.