Best way to strain wort?

[Woodro]

As of right now I have been pouring my cooled wort into my fermentor through a funnel with a screen filter in it. this works but takes alot of time because the funnel screen gets clogged with hops and what not. I have to constantly scrape the surface of the screen to get any wort to go through. I've been thinking of using a mesh sock like the ones I use for steeping my grains to put my hops in. I only use extract recipes as of now. Any sugesstions?

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

Whirlpool with a sanitized spoon while you're cooling and siphon from the edge of your kettle into the primary. The whirlpool will create a cone of hops & break material in the centre of the kettle that you can avoid. Just remember that anything going into the wort after the boil needs to be cleaned/sanitized, including the inside of the hosing.

 

[frazier]

It also helps to remember that any sludge that gets into the fermentor will just end up at the bottom, so you really don't need to worry about it anyway. So whirlpool, avoid what you can, and don't worry about the rest.

 

[Grumpybumpy]

I've done only 3 brews and taken 3 different approaches to this. I top off, so my wort is 3 gallons.

1. Used a stainless strainer into the fermenting bucket. Left quite a bit of trub, but the beer is clear after racking to the bottling bucket.
2. The second time, I fermented in my carboy so I had to find a way around your current clogging issue. Instead of going straight to the carboy, I placed the same strainer over my 5 gal bottling bucket, but also added a 5 gal paint strainer from home depot to pick up the stragglers. I then poured that filtered wort to the carboy straight through the funnel. Not a whole lot of trub left over, but I have yet to bottle it.
3. Didn't filter that s**t at all. I figured my ipa could benefit from the late hop additions swimming around in the fermenter. (anyone know if this is a good excuse?)

 

[lumpher]

you can always use your auto-siphon (if you have 1). works very well

 

[onipar]

If you're using a bucket to ferment, you can line it with a 5 gallon sized grain bag (paint strainer bag from Home Depot) and just pour the wort in, then lift the bag out. This was probably the easiest of the methods I have used.

 

[Woodro]

I use a 6 1/2 gal glass carboy as my primary otherwise i would give the paint bucket strainer a go. I think i"ll use my auto siphon and whirlpool the wort. Thanks for the helpfull hints!

 

[RevZen]

I tried the screen filter on the first brew, and like you, was really frustrated with how long it took. For the next four brews, I have just sanitized a screen kitchen strainer and used that - it's not quite as fine a mesh as the screen filter, but seems to do just fine without being painfully slow.

Sláinte,
Susan

 

[justinakajuice]

If you're using a bucket to ferment, you can line it with a 5 gallon sized grain bag (paint strainer bag from Home Depot) and just pour the wort in, then lift the bag out. This was probably the easiest of the methods I have used.

This my method. They are cheap.

How I brew on my stove: Brew with about 3 gallons of wort following instructions, but always with at least 3 gallons of water. Pour the pot into my primary through the paint strainer(sanitized of course). Dump ice into my wort to hit the target temp--maybe 6 or 7 lbs or so, pour in water to make it 5 gallons while taking the temp to ensure 70ish degrees. Add yeast and stir it up a bit. Put the lid on and add the airlock.

Last batch I made on my stove, I had to run to the store to buy the paint strainers from HD or Lowes, picked up a bag of ice, and still finished up with everything cleaned up and put away in two hours.

The paint strainers take a long time to get clean though so sometimes I just buy new ones out of laziness.

Just to make it clear, these are the net type of strainers, not the paper funnels with netting in the nose. Those would be a nightmare trying to strain your wort, the netting you just dump the pot and pull the netting out. Don't squeeze your hops(ever).

 

[danorocks17]

i use a colander/strainer with a handle that rests on top of my funnel. this does two things for me. One, it strains off MOST of the hop/grain material. This gets to be a little tougher when you get to the bottle of your kettle because all that material is at the bottom, you just have to dump the colander when it gets clogged. This also aerates my wort, which incorporates oxygen for my yeasties. In my early brewing days I used my auto-siphon, but that was a disaster.

 

[JLW]

I whirlpool, I have yet to create that tight trub cone but I find that the trub settles nicely to the bottom of the BK. After I whirlpool I lt sit for 30 min, then I siphon. Once I get down to the trub in BK I use a SS colander and filter the rest of the ber from the trub. It's easier into the bucket but I bought a giant funnel from Tractor Supply and I set the collander into the funnel for the carboy.

Here is a noce how to:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/whirlpool-big-how-7682/

 

[Grumpybumpy]

Don't squeeze your hops(ever).

Why?

 

[boomtown25]

I have tried several methods and always seem to prove too impatient for most. I recently decided to use my funnel (for my carboy) and I stretched a 1 gallon paint strainer bag from Lowe's over the top. The bags cost $1.47 for a pack of two, are reusable, and the elastic at the top stretched over the wide mouth of the 8 inch funnel easily. This worked great and will be the way I do it from now on- I go every bit of the wort and the trub left in the bag resembled used wet coffee grains. I just poured down the sink and washed it out. (p.s.- I did soak bag in Stansan before using)

 

[kh54s10]

Why strain at all? With the extract kits being talked about there is not much trub. I just pour slowly from the boil kettle through my funnel (no strainer) into my BB fermenter. At the end I pour very slowly to get as much wort as possible with as little trub as possible. Then when racking to the bottling bucket I just tilt the BB and use my auto siphon and get as much as possible without sucking up the trub. The last time I poured what was left in the BB into a glass and it was less than 3/4 full.

 

[HomebrewMTB]

Don't squeeze your hops(ever).

Yeah, it might make your beer bitter.