Straining the wort?

When you're transferring your wort to your primary, it there any generally accepted opinion on whether or not to strain out the hops (or does the hop residue benefit the beer during fermentation)?

Some strain, some don't. I strain but don't get anal about it so some debris makes it into the fermenter. Works for me. YMMV Cheers!!!

Yeah the only time I would strain a beer is if I added in say a spice or something at flameout or it has a ton of hops in it. Just helps to clean up the beer but doesnt hurt to leave it in. Also I would recommend using a paint strainer bag in your boils to boil the hops in. That way you wont have to worry about straining anyways.

I've done both...for my first 4 batches, I didn't strain out the hops, with no noticeable detriment to the beer. That being said, they've done their job, and you don't need them at that point, so I now strain with a wire mesh kitchen strainer that has been boiled to sanitize (clogs up but I just dump it into the sink a few times during the straining).

thanks for the advise

I used to run my wort through the fine strainer that came with the big funnel that I got from my LHBS, but I have switched over to using something like the picture below. It filters out the huge particles, which is all I really wanted to do originally with the benefit that I don't need to scoop hop particles out of the filter to get the wort to flow through.

i cool and just try not to get much in the fermenter, either by pouring carefull and trying to leave hops behind or by siphoning and doing the same thing. but i definately don't worry if a little slips by, and actually one of the guys on here was telling me that he just dumps it all in and has had no ill effects. straining is fine if thats what you wanna do, but its one more thing to clean. do what works for you and what you like doing.

cheers!

I would follow the advice of others and try to strain as much as you can with as little effort as possible. The less cold break material going into the fermenter the better, if only because it is less that will get kicked up during fermentation and have to settle out. Generally though, the yeast cake in the fermenter will trap almost all of the floating matter in your beer and you can carefully siphon to a bottling bucket and leave all of that stuff behind. I have a little strainer attachment that fits into my funnel for the carboy - as it clogs I just dip my arm in the sanitizer bucket and then do my best to clear it. For the last bit of wort in the kettle, I take off the strainer and just pour very slowly until I am getting pretty much nothing but gunk and then I stop. I'm probably only leaving behind a few ounces of wort, but I manage to keep out a great deal of stuff that I don't really need in the fermenter.

Thanks again. Yeah, I was going to ask additionally about cold break material. Sounds like no big deal, though.

Last two batches I've put one of the 5Gal paint strainer bags in my primary bucket (after boiling the bag). Once I've dumped the wert I just pull the bag out. I've recently started washing my yeast from the primary so it really makes the yeast collection a lot easier.

Gunfighter04 said:

Last two batches I've put one of the 5Gal paint strainer bags in my primary bucket (after boiling the bag). Once I've dumped the wert I just pull the bag out. I've recently started washing my yeast from the primary so it really makes the yeast collection a lot easier.

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Yeah, I've been using the paint strainer in primary too. Much easier than pouring through a kitchen strainer. Haven't boiled the bag though, just let it soak in star san while sanitizing the primary.