Trub Straining

[Morrey]

Greetings. While using pellet hops in my wort boil, I am trying ways to strain my wort to get most of the hop sediment out going into my FV. I have tried strainers with cheese cloth, strainers made for food grade buckets...etc. All of which quickly clog up and keep the wort from flowing in the FV.

Can anyone suggest a way (or devices perhaps) to allow pellet hops to do their job but to contain them making straining more simple?

 

[ifnotuthenwho]

I use a hop spider which keeps the hops in a mesh bag in the kettle. If you're not familiar with a hop spider, mine is a length of 4 inch PVC pipe in which I drilled three holes. I put three long bolts into these holes so it can sit on top of my kettle. Then I attach a mesh bag to the PVC pipe using a clamp. The bag sits in the wort, and when I need to add hops, I just dump them in through the PVC pipe. Then when I'm done, I can remove the hop spider and all the trub stays inside.

You do have to work a bit to get the wort to drain from the bag, but it doesn't clog your filters that way.

 

[ncbrewer]

You don't have to strain the hops out if you don't want to. See this exbeeriment: http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/

 

[theseeker4]

Greetings. While using pellet hops in my wort boil, I am trying ways to strain my wort to get most of the hop sediment out going into my FV. I have tried strainers with cheese cloth, strainers made for food grade buckets...etc. All of which quickly clog up and keep the wort from flowing in the FV.

Can anyone suggest a way (or devices perhaps) to allow pellet hops to do their job but to contain them making straining more simple?

I use a cheap 5-gallon paint strainer bag, which I boil in water for a few minutes, then soak in star san. I line my fermentation bucket with the sanitized bag, and pour the cooled wort into the bucket. The hop debris is caught in the bag, and it is a lot quicker and easier than trying to strain through a smaller bag, etc.

 

[McKnuckle]

The key is to contain the hops during the boil, not try to trap them afterwards.

Use a hop bag or canister to contain them. The bag can be dangled in the center from a spider, or just attached to the kettle rim with a binder clip. A stainless canister is more costly but basically does the same thing with a bit more panache.

 

[IchLiebeBier]

I rigged up a bike pulley on the ceiling so that I can slightly lift the weight of the boil kettle off of the burner after it's cooled down. That way, I can tilt the kettle and pour it into the carboy or big mouth.

Before I pour it, I put a big funnel in the mouth of the FV, and then I put a big SS strainer sitting in the funnel. As I pour it in, it strains the trub, and does a great job of aerating the wort.

But, I have to dump the trub out of the strainer 3 or 4 times. All I do is smack it against the edge of one of my clean pots, upside down to knock the trub out.

I usually prepare 2 strainers in case I drop one on the floor or something.

 

[Trox]

When I want to reduce the amount of trub that goes from pot to fermentation bucket I will whirlpool my wort so that all the junk collects in the middle, and then just siphon from the pot to through a strainer. If you stay along the edge of the pot you won't collect much trub and the strainer will catch most of what you do suck up. This also will give the added benefit of making sure your wort is fully aerated also.

 

[Auger]

When I want to reduce the amount of trub that goes from pot to fermentation bucket I will whirlpool my wort so that all the junk collects in the middle, and then just siphon from the pot to through a strainer. If you stay along the edge of the pot you won't collect much trub and the strainer will catch most of what you do suck up. This also will give the added benefit of making sure your wort is fully aerated also.

I do this. Whirlpool in the boil kettle while chilling (used to just stir, now I'm all fancy and use a pump), then let settle for a few minutes. Then I drain out the BK into the fermentor. The pickup arm in the BK is offset from the center to ideally avoid the cone of hot and cold break and hops in the center. Using an autosiphon against the side of the BK works for this as well.

 

[lolcats]

The key is to contain the hops during the boil, not try to trap them afterwards.

Use a hop bag or canister to contain them. The bag can be dangled in the center from a spider, or just attached to the kettle rim with a binder clip. A stainless canister is more costly but basically does the same thing with a bit more panache.

+1

Hop sock + Binder clip = cheapest and most effective

 

[MrJoel]

A while back I started using an 8 inch strainer when transferring wort from pot to fermenter. It sits inside my Funnel and captures a lot of the gunk. It will sometimes clog up a bit and I will need to scrape the gunk to the side a bit to get the wort flowing again. I feel like this helps me reduce off flavors and helps improve clarity. My result since straining have seemed better to me, but It could also be just better results as a result of increased brewing experience. I only ran 3 brews without and all since have used the strainer.

 

[beerkench]

Let your wort stand for 30 min or so after the boil. This gives time for the trub to sink down to the bottom and gets the most out of the final hop addition. It's ok for some of the trub to get in the fv anyway.