From kettle to carboy

Paid a visit to my LHBS and picked up a funnel and screen expecting to simplify and shorten the time involved in transferring to primary.

Cooled the wort, sanitised the equipment and popped the filter into the bottom of the funnel. What i found was that i constantly had to try and scrape the hop debris in order to get the wort to even dribble into the carboy. After about 10 minutes of struggling this way and not even close to getting all the wort into primary i said screw it and removed the filter.

I just poured the remainder into the carboy with no problem at all.

My question is this; Is it even necessary to use the filter? Is there anything wrong with pouring the cooled wort into the carboy rather than siphoning it (which i did with my first brews)?

I pour my wort through a strainer and have the same issue. What I found is that if I pour until it starts to get slow. Then I stop and when the wort drains I take the strainer and dump it out in the trash. Then start over. I have to do this 5 or 10 times, but it filters most of the hop good and break material out and still takes less time than a whirlpool and siphon transfer.

Granted, I'm using a pail type fermenter and a large strainer. Yours is going to be smaller and need to be dumped more often than mine.

Nothing wrong with it, but I personally prefer to strain everything out. I suggest buying a plastic bucket for primary. It's a lot easier to work with. Otherwise...if you want to strain, you'll need to do the whirlpool method.

I use a plastic bucket and a HUGE 12" SS strainer I picked up at a cooking store. It's got plenty of room to filter everything out without ever needing to empty the strainer in the garbage. It also fits the top of my bucket perfectly.

I pour the entire cooled contents of the boil kettle into a five-gallon "homer" bucket from Home Depot, lined with a five-gallon paint strainer bag, also from Home Depot. Then I just pull the bag out, pour back and forth between that bucket and another to aerate, then pour through a funnel with a strainer into the carboy. The paint strainer bag removes most of the gunk, and the funnel gets the rest without needing to be scraped off. I also line my boil kettle with a paint strainer bag and use it as a hop bag.

Can't you just pour all the wort in the primary and everything settles out?

why not invest in some of those cool hop bags. their kinda pricy at 1.50-4.00 a bag but they work great. their also realy easy to clean out. i have two big ones and one small one, when i have **** loads of hop aditions i just pull one out open it and pour the hops in then drop it back in the kettle.

DizzyPants said:

Can't you just pour all the wort in the primary and everything settles out?

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Absolutely. It'll do no harm to your beer. The only things to keep in mind is to fill up your carboy/bucket more to account for the extra sediment you'll have (or you'll end up with less end product) and that it'll be easier to filter out that crud from your bottles/keg if you transfer to a secondary fermenter.

If you have a keezer or other temp-controlled environment, my LHBS suggests chilling the fermenter for a day or two before transfering to help settle out the crud. I have yet to try this, but it's worth a shot if you have the space and capability! My keezer's too full to try this ... terrible, ain't it? =P

Are we talking pellet or leaf? I use pellet and just pour the whole shabang in the primary and let Newton take over.....is that right? Of course what is 'right' in this hobby other than the end product and that to me......is RIGHT!!!

DizzyPants said:

Are we talking pellet or leaf? I use pellet and just pour the whole shabang in the primary and let Newton take over.....is that right? Of course what is 'right' in this hobby other than the end product and that to me......is RIGHT!!!

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Now that's the right attitude! I say do whatever works for you and makes beer that you enjoy. Time and gravity are your friends and will take care of everything. I've yet to use leaf hops though, so I'd imagine that filtering those guys would free up more volume in your fermenter for that precious liquid that we enjoy so much. But that's nothing that a hop bag during the boil won't solve!

I just use my autosiphon. It was only 10 bucks at my LHBS and works like a champ for multiple duties (I also use it as a thief for taking gravity measurements toward the end of fermentation). I also use whirlfloc in my boil to help the 'bits' settle out when I'm chilling. I brewed a brown ale Sunday night and managed to keep the vast majority of the break material and hop trub behind in the kettle with very little effort.

Well I use a immersian chiller and when it is cool I use my sanitized auto shipon and rack it....before that, EIther I just dumped everything in, without straining, just pour it in the bucket or in the funnel....Or I would use a big strainer that fit in the funnel for a carboy, or a sanitized 5 gallon nylon paint strainer bag in the bucket...

Many people don't bother straining at all..sometimes I don't bother....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.

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.

I dont strain the wort at all. I pour the contents of the BK into the primary bucket and when you get to about half a gallon left of cold break, hops etc I stop there. I use a bucket specifically for this reason as I don't feel like racking it to a carboy. I "try" to calculate it so that I have about 5.5 gallon in the BK so I end up with 5 gallons. I've read that both people who strain and not strain seem to have good results. Not sure if anyone has done a side by side or not.