Filtering: Siphoning vs straining

[NotaBrewMaster]

I've read a number of recipes that call for siphoning wort from the brew kettle into the fermenter. Is this because the auto siphons leave a good amount of sediment at the bottom? If so can this be achieved by just using a strainer? I have brewed about 6 batches of beer so far, all of them extract, and I'm still sort of clueless on when it's appropriate to strain, or maybe it varies based on type of beer? Also I'm not really interested in extreme clarity, just removing sediment and trub. For example I made a pumpkin ale and used a reg wire mesh kitchen strainer to remove most of the real pumpkin from my brew while pouring it into the fermenter

 

[hunter_le five]

I use a siphon to gently pull the wort off of the trub into my fermenter (after I've let the brew kettle settle for a while). It works pretty good. Straining in my experience works good for removing big chunks of sediment and hop matter, but allows a lot of finer stuff to get through.

To be honest, neither siphoning nor straining is truly necessary, but it does help make clarifying the beer easier in my experience.