from the pot to the primary

I was just wondering something since I never read it in any of the home brew books.

When you are transfering the wort from your brew pot to the primary fermenter, do you strain it to get out the hops and mass that built up during the boiling (irish moss)

I just use my auto-sipon to transfer to the primary. Then I dump my fresh water on top to aerate it.

I've seen where some people strain it though.

i don't strain it. I just try to siphon as carefully as possible. Avoid letting the tip of the racking cane suck a bunch of crud into it. If a little of that stuff gets in your primary, its fine. In the primary, that stuff will all settle out. Then when you siphon to the secondary, even more of the trub, hops and crud will be left behind. After a few weeks in the secondary, your beer will be nice and clear, and the trub will be a distant memory.

I strained mine, until I put a bazooka tube in the kettle. A colander works well enough. As ATG points out, the rest ends up in the trub.

Do a search on whirlpooling your wort in these forums. I asked a question about this a while back. Check out: Whirlpooling question thread

I personally am lazy and just pour most of my pot into the primary without siphoning. I do whirlpool though, its just that I'm not that efficient about how I transfer. But I justify this by thinking that I need some way to aerate, especially when doing 3.5-4 gallon boils. However, I will still have some hops and hot break material in my pot which gets thrown down the drain instead of going into primary.

I strain using this method. it not only helps aerate, but gets all the hops out as well.

this pic was from racking my pumpkin ale. I had to empty the strainer 5 or 6 times before it was finished

I strain in into my primary using my mega strainer that I picked up at Target.



I don't need any third hands with this puppy!

EdWort said:

I strain in into my primary using my mega strainer that I picked up at Target.

I don't need any third hands with this puppy!

Click to expand...

Hey,
Stay outta my kitchen!


That thing works great doesn't it. After I bought mine I quit bagging my steeping grains and my efficiency went to the mid to high 90%. :rockin:

Rdracera1 said:

Hey,
Stay outta my kitchen!

Click to expand...

Sorry man, I saw that stainless puppy and snatched it! Lucky my 7.9 gallon primary is big enough for it, and it still is adjustable for bigger buckets.

I toss mine in the dishwasher afterwards and have no problems with hops sticking to anything. Pretty sweet deal and it areates my wort as well.

I run mine through a strainer, to get all the hops and other crud that builds up during the boil. Just wanted to make sure i wasn't doing anything funky, that may have cut down on some of the taste.

thanks for the info

EdWort said:

I strain in into my primary using my mega strainer that I picked up at Target.

I don't need any third hands with this puppy!

Click to expand...

I have seen that, thinking of getting one, right now I have a 8" diameter strainer that I use.

I use the same strainer over the bucket that EdWort uses.

Jason

So would that bad-azz Target strainer not work well on the usual 6.something Ale Pail? Because it looks pretty neat, and if I ever do a pumpkin or something like it again, I will want that, no doubt.

I bought that same strainer, without thinking it might not fit in my bucket. Alas, it does not - but as long as you pour carefully, it's not a problem. You can kind of cram it in place so it doesn't move, you just need to be careful to not pour too quickly so that it plugs up and overflows. It's still a huge improvement over the small kitchen strainer I have that I needed SWMBO to hold for me, and I like its texture better than the collander's for both straining and aeration purposes.