Clogged thief

[signpost]

Am I an idiot, or have others of you clogged your thief while trying to measure gravity?

I was trying to take an OG measurement and apparently let too much of the hops fall into the fermenter. I had used a strainer in the funnel on my first batch (this is just my 2nd), but decided not to after watching numerous episodes of Brewing TV where they just poured straight into the fermenter without even using a funnel.

Did I miss something in the editing where they removed the hops somehow before pouring into the fermenter?

Was I just an idiot for putting the thief all the way to the bottom of the fermenter to take the sample?

The recipe (NB Honey Kolsch) only included 2 ounces of hops, so it wasn't even overloaded. In the end, I was able to get a good reading (came out a bit high), and was able pour back the sample without too much spilling (don't worry, it was sanitized). It was just frustrating and I had to pause and assess the situation before moving on.

Any thoughts?

 

[jester5120]

i always dump my beer through a screen filter on my funnel but many people don't. The very bottom of your primary fermenter will always have stuff in it (trub, yeast, hop) so it's best to pull your sample from the middle

 

[signpost]

Yeah. I used the screen in the funnel on my first batch and it got super clogged up. And with that batch, I had the hops in a bag and was able to remove them easily before pouring. With this batch, I just tossed the hops right into the boil kettle, so it was all loose and floating around. Although, this batch didn't have any specialty grains. Maybe the hops would be big enough that the liquid would still drain through and not clog the filter. Maybe it was the bits from the specialty grains that clogged it in my first batch.

One of those large strainers is definitely on my list of new equipment I want to purchase in the near future. That would fix that issue.

But then, even after topping off up to 5 gallons, it seemed that I wasn't getting enough liquid in the thief to get a reading. My guess is, I don't really need as much liquid in there as I thought. Brew & learn, brew & learn.

Oh, I noticed you listed a Pecan Chai Porter as a future brew in your sig. My wife was instantly intrigued by that. Would you be willing to share the recipe? I'm guessing it's an all-grain recipe, which I'm not up to quite yet, but I'd definitely be interested in taking a look at it.

 

[ArtimusBeerimus]

signpost, you're not an idiot. Being an "idiot" is forcing your auto-siphon into your wine thief, and then having the tip come off and get caught in your wine thief. Being a "resourceful idiot" is hacksawing off the top end of the wine thief off to get the plastic part out. I think you're doing just fine.

I usually line a normal stainless steel strainer with cheese cloth, set that inside my funnel with the built-in screen in place, and then pour into the carboy. Ultimately, the strainer itself really does nothing but hold the cheese cloth in place (the cheese cloth catches just about everything), but it also makes it easy to move the cheese cloth to the sink if/when I need to rinse it. Between the cheesecloth and my funnel filter, only pretty small material (like yeast) are actually making it to my fermenter. I've found that the funnel strainer alone gets clogged too easily and is a pain in the ass to deal with if there's any appreciable amount of trub to deal with.

FWIW, my thief never gets close to the bottom of my carboys, so I've never envisioned getting one clogged with trub, although I wonder if that's because I... errr... some resourceful idiot has shortened my wine thief...

 

[jester5120]

Oh, I noticed you listed a Pecan Chai Porter as a future brew in your sig. My wife was instantly intrigued by that. Would you be willing to share the recipe? I'm guessing it's an all-grain recipe, which I'm not up to quite yet, but I'd definitely be interested in taking a look at it.

Definately. I haven't tried to brew it yet but the recipe is written. I'll post it later when I get back to a computer (im on the Android app right now). I can try and convert it to partial mash on beer smith too.