Free Funnel Filter

[kevinb]

I read the posts about funnel filters and thought I would give it a try. I thought it might help to aerate and would make it a little easier to rack later with less junk in bottom of my carboy. What a nightmare

The filter immediatley clogged with what looked like dense mud and I could not get the wort to pass through even when I tried to clean the filter with a sterile spoon. I won't be trying that again anytime soon.

 

[scottedk]

I read the posts about funnel filters and thought I would give it a try. I thought it might help to aerate and would make it a little easier to rack later with less junk in bottom of my carboy. What a nightmare

The filter immediatley clogged with what looked like dense mud and I could not get the wort to pass through even when I tried to clean the filter with a sterile spoon. I won't be trying that again anytime soon.

I just recently bought a funnel with a strainer to trasnfer my wort from the BP to the carboy. I had the exact same problem. A LOT of trub that completely clogged the strainer. I ended up just pushing the trub back and forth on top of the strainer to get it out of the way for the wort to fall through (I had to continue using a strainer because my glass thermometer broke in the wort and I had to try my very hardest to not let any get into the beer). I eventually got it all through but it was pretty tought and took a long time.

In the future I might reserve the filter for just the last little bit of wort from the BP. I will pour most of it in without the filter and then as it gets close to the bottom of the BP I will put the filter in (because the bottom is where most of the trub is).

 

[spokaniac]

My wife thought to use a sleeve of cheese cloth with a knot tied in one end, turned in inside out so the knot was in, then stretched it over the funnel. Worked great as it stretched in to the funnel a little as we poured. It did plug a little about 2/3 of the way into the pour, but just because all the chunks had pulled down into the neck and formed a plug. A little tug on the upper part of the cheese cloth to get it out and was flowing free again. When we were done, just pop off the rubber band and lift it out of the funnel and into the trash.
It was a BM clone so there were a lot of coriander seeds and bits of orange peel to strain as well as the hop sludge.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

I use a sanitized 5 gallon paint strainer bag to filter the trub and hop particles out when transferring to the fermenter. No clogs yet since the strainer goes almost to the bottom and the mes is very fine so it grabs almost everything.

 

[H-ost]

I just recently bought a funnel with a strainer to trasnfer my wort from the BP to the carboy. I had the exact same problem. A LOT of trub that completely clogged the strainer. I ended up just pushing the trub back and forth on top of the strainer to get it out of the way for the wort to fall through (I had to continue using a strainer because my glass thermometer broke in the wort and I had to try my very hardest to not let any get into the beer). I eventually got it all through but it was pretty tought and took a long time.

In the future I might reserve the filter for just the last little bit of wort from the BP. I will pour most of it in without the filter and then as it gets close to the bottom of the BP I will put the filter in (because the bottom is where most of the trub is).

Whoa, its not just the glass you need to worry about, you have mercury in there now.

 

[Hoosier-Brewer]

Whoa, its not just the glass you need to worry about, you have mercury in there now.

That may or may not be true. Most thermometers today don't use mercury.

 

[DoubleAught]

that may or may not be true. Most thermometers today don't use mercury.

+1

 

[DoubleAught]

I use the cheese cloth method as well. Works perfectly.

 

[scottedk]

Whoa, its not just the glass you need to worry about, you have mercury in there now.

1) It wasn't a mercury based thermometer
2) The glass with the liquid didn't break, only the casing which allowed some of the steel pellets to fall in as well...another reason why the strainer was so important.

 

[zeg]

I used the fine mesh strainer that came with my funnel with success. It did require a few stops to clean it out, but it wasn't too bad.

One key: use a coarser strainer first to remove some of the bigger junk and to minimize the finer particles that reach the fine strainer. It's only got so much capacity, so if you can use the coarser strainer with the big particles as a filter bed, that'll mean less material to jam up the fine strainer.

I also find it helpful to use a spoon to scrape/stir the material on the fine strainer. So I find I pour a bit into the funnel, then help it through the strainer, and repeat until it's taking too long.