Proper Straining Techniques

So I was looking to see if anyone can shed some light on the straining process. I purschased a nylon bag for the hops while boiling, I also purchase a nylon bag to go over the primary buckets to filter out from the boil to the primary. I was also wonder should I filter from the primary to the secondary carboey with funnel that has a strainer. Or is all of this over kill ?

Not only overkill but highly not recommended.

You want to siphon quietly into the 'secondary'. Any type of filtering at that point will introduce undesired oxygen into your beer.

My opinion would be overkill. I put the hops right in the kettle, though I did use a bag once. Just seems like extra work to me. Once cooled, I siphon the wort from the kettle to my primary. I try to keep the sediment (hop sludge and break material) out, but no harm no foul if some moves from kettle to primary. Some folks just dump the entire contents of the kettle--hop sludge and all--into the primary. My neighbor, a fellow brewer, does this, with no problems that I've been able to detect.

I've only used a secondary 2 times: my first batch and when I let a beer sit on oak for week or 2. In both cases I tried to get as much beer and as little sediment as possible, but again it's not big deal if some sediment is picked up.

Thanks alot I am just trying to get the best possible grasp on the whole process before I start my first batch.

I just started using a hop bag two batches ago. I used to clog that little strainer in the funnel so badly that I'd give up, pull it out and dump everything into the primary. Ugh, what a pita. No longer. With the hop bag (and I've now used it with pellet and whole hops) I no longer have any issues of that strainer clogging. Much less junk goes in the primary. I won't go back to not using one now. Mind you, I do not have a boil kettle with a valve on it. So I'm pouring the kettle into the funnel. If you whirlpool and have a valve, you likely wouldn't have the problems I have with the strainer.

As for going to secondary (or bottling bucket for that matter), once initial fermentation has slowed, any movement between vessels should be as "quiet" as possible. You should be siphoning, not pouring via a funnel.

Does anyone use two glass carboys for your brewing process. One for the primary and one for the secondary. I just feel like the glass is always better.

bluepaddle said:

Does anyone use two glass carboys for your brewing process. One for the primary and one for the secondary. I just feel like the glass is always better.

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I did at one point, but now I just use one plastic bucket. I don't use a secondary at all except for lagering.

Maybe this is unconventional, but I usually siphon as much as possible from kettle to the primary fermenter, leaving behind about 20% with all of the sludge (hops + break material). I will then take this remaining 20% and pour it through a 5gal nylon strainer bag, swishing it around to get as much liquid through as possible, and then I squeeze the remainder out by hand. This captures most, if not all, of the hops and a good portion of the trub stays in the bag as well. I don't like wasting wort, and it doesn't seem to matter if some trub goes through the bag. I DO like to get all of the hops out of there, so this method works well for me.

As far as filtering at any other point, it's a no-no due to airation of the wort. Airation is desirable during transfer from kettle to primary, so filtering is okay at that point.

bluepaddle said:

Does anyone use two glass carboys for your brewing process. One for the primary and one for the secondary. I just feel like the glass is always better.

Click to expand...

You'll get over that eventually.

bluepaddle said:

Does anyone use two glass carboys for your brewing process. One for the primary and one for the secondary. I just feel like the glass is always better.

Click to expand...

I don't secondary, but I do prefer glass. It may be all in my head, who knows, but my beers fermented in glass have seemed better to me. Could be completely coincidence that those batches came out better, or again perhaps all mental and just my perception.

I'm thinking of doing a split batch (glass and plastic) to see if there is a noticeable difference, perhaps recruiting some beer loving neighbors to do a blind taste test of the final products.