Does anyone strain their wort?

[jayhuff]

I didn't strain on my first batch, but I did use grain and hops bags. Tonight was my second batch ever and i did a hefe. I am not planning on going into a secondary so I used a fine mesh strainer before going into a carboy to catch the irish moss. Worked great and I, too, like the aeration that takes place.

 

[BrewBob]

I only strain the wort if I use whole hops. Most of the time I use pellet and just dump it all in. The pellets tend to mostly stick to the sides of the fermenter at the top of the fermented beer and it is easy to rack the beer to secondary and get no pieces in the secondary. I don't even use a paint strainer or mesh bags on the racking cane, just a trub tip that came with the racking cane.

What's the obsession with getting the trub out?? Seems to me a lot of trouble for very little return. Even with all the trub, my beer ferments out just fine.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I always leave as much trub behind as I can simply because my first book on brewing told me to. Maybe I need to worry a lot less about that aspect!! I like any method that makes things even easier for me.

 

[SavageSteve]

I always leave as much trub behind as I can simply because my first book on brewing told me to. Maybe I need to worry a lot less about that aspect!! I like any method that makes things even easier for me.

Same here. I've never done any experiments, so I can't really say from experience what effect leaving all the trub in the fermenter has. However, my last two batches had an extraordinary amount of trub-- I used Whirlfloc for the the first time in them-- so they fermented on more trub than I normally like to have, so I guess I'll have that opportunity now!

I'm sure Revvy could chime in about how this bit of brewing folklore came about.

 

[Revvy]

I'm sure Revvy could chime in about how this bit of brewing folklore came about.

Nah, sorry...but give me some time maybe I'll dig something up.

If I'm fermenting in a bucket I use a big nylon paint strainer bag...If I'm going to carboy I use a funnel and a kitchen strainer which fits nocely inside of it...

I had an interesting experience yesterday. For some reason I decided I'd use my auto siphon to rack to carboy, rather than pouring through the funnel/strainer...

I brewed, cooled and whirlpooled, and had just started to siphon into the carboy when I noticed a TON of little hopleafs coming through the line.

So I stopped racking, and grabbed the big funnel and kitchen strainer which conveniently were sitting in my sanitizer bucket, and a binder clip. I put the strainer/funnel in the carboy then clipped the end of the hose so it flowed into the strainer.

By the end of the siphoning session the strainer was clogged with green goop.

I really can't figure out why so much was coming through the autosiphon...I usually don't get a lot of junk coming through that black plastic filter thing on the end...

Do EKG pellets dissolve into more tiny leaf matter than other pellets? Instead of being slime, they were really tiny leaf petals...

 

[toastermm]

Depends on what I am using to ferment in. Conical or 7 gallon pail I will use this

Gives you a lot of aeration too

If its going into a carboy I use a SS scrubber. Both work well even when i dont use a hop bag.

I have the same thing. I used it yesterday to rerack a mead and remove some strawberry gunk.

I made a stout the last month and decided it was time to start straining my wort when someone showed me a piece of hops in their beer.

 

[FSBrewer]

I've been wondering the about the same question. The hop pellets clog up any strainer so quickly that I've given up. But if it's all settling out in the bottom anyway I don't see how you could lose that much beer. ?

 

[FishinDave07]

I dont strain, i use pellet hops, and i dont lose beer.

 

[Festivus]

I didnt strain my first batch. Made my second batch on Friday and decided to strain. The only thing I had to use was a funnel with a strainer on it. I used hop pellets for the beer, and it was really hard to get the beer flowing through... the hops kept clogging the funnel. I eventually just kept scraping the straining screen with a spoon, and all the liquid went through. Although it was a bit annoying with the clogging, the straining aerated the wort so much that I didnt need to do anything else. I had like 4 inches of foam on top of the wort by the time I got everything in the carboy. I pitched a dry yeast on top of it without rehydrating because i was lazy, and 5 hours later I checked and already had a krausen starting and lots of airlock activity. Overall Im happy I strained.

 

[Lost Dogma]

I have a favorite recipe that I have brewed alot. The last three times I brewed it I have been a little pressed for time. So, I simply poured my entire brew pot hop pellets and all into primary without fussing with my usual screening routine. I may have transfered a little less beer into secondary than usual but the loss of a few ounces of beer was well worth the time savings and convenience. Most importantly, the beer tasted as good as it always does and it's not particularly cloudy either.

I think for certain "special" batches I may strain, but this works fine for me right now.

One other positive to not dealing with strainers and bags is eliminating one more contact with my cooled wort. Anytime I need to handle cooled wort with a utensil or anything, I worry about contamination --aseptic technique or not.

I beleive in the K.I.S.S. principle. The only thing I fuss about lately is cleanliness and consistancy and my brews have been just fine :rockin:.

 

[fat x nub]

Yep. To collect the irish moss and the left behind gunkynesss