Pour or Siphon

[JerD]

I'm just curious as to whether most brewers siphon the wort into the fermenter or just pour it in and what the benefits and drawbacks are of either method.

 

[StunnedMonkey]

I'm just curious as to whether most brewers siphon the wort into the fermenter or just pour it in and what the benefits and drawbacks are of either method.

The questions is...is this a full boil batch, and is it chilled in the kettle? If it's a full boil then I'd not be inclined to pour it, just because pouring 5+ gallons (50+ pounds) from one container to another seems like a mess in the making. And if the wort is still hot (say it's a partial boil and you'll cool it in the fermenter) then it actually seems dangerous to pour it.

I run mine out through the ball valve spigot on my brewpot. I'd never try to pick that full kettle up and try to pour it.

 

[DrinksWellWithOthers]

Once my wort is cool, I pour through a strainer and into a funnel. At this point it is OK to aerate your beer because the yeast need it to develop and replicate. You need to siphon if your beer has already fermented and you are transferring to a secondary fermenter or bottling bucket. Pouring would introduce too much oxygenate and oxidize your beer giving it a cardboard taste.

 

[the_bird]

Assuming you're talking about cooled wort going into primary, pouring is perfectly fine. You need to aerate/oxgenate the wort right before fermentation; pouring (even pouring back and forth a few times) is one way to accomplish that. If you siphon, you'll need to do something else to get some O2 into the wort (the yeast need it for reproduction); I use one of those little red O2 bottles and a diffuser stone, other people use aquarium pumps. But, you need to do something to get O2 back into the wort.

What I used to do was pour the wort through a fine-mesh strainer on top of my fermenation bucket. This would both take out most of the hop matter and aerate the hell out of the wort.

Remember, you want to aerate after you've chilled the wort, before pitching the yeast. You don't want to aerate after the yeast have started fermenting the wort (that'll result in wet-cardboard off-flavors, not good). You should generally try and avoid aeration when the wort is still hot (hot side aeration), although that's definately an area of controversy. My take on the latter ("hot side aeration") is to be fairly careful, but don't stress too much about it; aerating when the wort is still hot MIGHT cause problems (premature staling, for example).

 

[adrock]

I think you might get varying answers depending on what your chilling method is. If you chill your wort in the stockpot or keggle you're boiling in, pouring should actually be a good thing, as it will aerate (read: oxygenate) your wort, which is beneficial for the yeast. If you chill your wort to pitching temps. in the fermenter -- which I have done -- some brewers will warn you away from pouring, so as to avoid HOT SIDE AERATION. I honestly don't know why hot side aeration is bad but I have heard just as many people debunk it as I have heard people scare me away from it.

OTOH, pouring several gallons of wort is heavy! if you have a racking cane and you want to take it easy, use it!

 

[bsay]

I Pour it, it doubles as my aeration method. I do partial boils, so picking up the pot isn't a problem, neither is getting the wort into the large opening on my plastic bucket fermenter. I cool my wort in the pot in a sink full of ice, a 16lb. bag of ice, 8lbs. at a time over about 10-15 minutes (change water/ice once) gets it nice and cool.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I pour 1-2 gals of freezer water into my primary. I use a nylon net on my bucket to capture the hops, etc...and I pour hot, but it's only 1-1.5 gals, and top off a couple more gallons to 5.25-5.5 gals.

I've tried adding 1 gal to the boil pot to cool down the hot wort, but I'm not sure there was any benefit against hot side aeration.

Been doing that since 1994...

 

[Seawolfe]

I siphon from the pot after cooling. 5 gallons is too much for me to pour easily, and the whole hops make such a good filter bed to keep out crud as I siphon. With the pot up high I can have the racking tube up high in the fermenter to splash, along with shaking the fermenter.

 

[brandona33]

What I used to do was pour the wort through a fine-mesh strainer on top of my fermenation bucket. This would both take out most of the hop matter and aerate the hell out of the wort.

I do the same thing, it does aerate the heck out of it, while also catching the cold break.

 

[Rezilynt]

I also pour through a fine mesh strainer

 

[Willy Boner]

I take a sanitzed stainless steel bowl and dip my cooled wort from my brew pot to the fermenter until it is easy enough to lift. I put it through a strainer to get out the hops and other solids.

 

[MgMt_Home_Brew]

I use a bucket to ferment and I just lift those 5 gallons up and pour from high up... I made a little mess once but not enough to make me change my ways :cross:

 

[Yooper]

I'm a weakling, so I siphon the first couple of gallons, then pour the rest. I just can't easily lift 5.5 gallons of wort. I'm such a girl!

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

I heft my 7.5g kettle up onto my workbench, then siphon out into my funnel/strainer and down into the carboy. The big height difference makes for a fast siphon, and the strainer in the funnel helps keep out some of the hot/cold break material and at the same time aerates the wort. When it's all in the carboy I've got a nice 3-4" head of foam on top of the wort.

 

[Yooper]

I heft my 7.5g kettle up onto my workbench, then siphon out into my funnel/strainer and down into the carboy. The big height difference makes for a fast siphon, and the strainer in the funnel helps keep out some of the hot/cold break material and at the same time aerates the wort. When it's all in the carboy I've got a nice 3-4" head of foam on top of the wort.

That really sounds like a great idea! (I wish I could left something that heavy- if I could, that is exactly what I would try).

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

I siphon, but from a rather high point and let it splash into the fermentation vessel. I have read and I'm starting to believe that oxygen in the wort is not nearly as important as a healthy, active, well oxygenated yeast starter.
If I'm pitching a new vial, I will rack around two gallons into my 6 gal carboy, cover it, shake the sucker until I need to call the doctor for pain killers. Then rack the rest into it.
Otherwise, I wash the yeast, then add boiled/cooled wort into it, and store it in 16oz cleaned soda plastic / bottles, and throw them in the fridge. When I start my brew day, I take out the bottle, and let it start warming up. Then I shake it up around every hour and crack the top to let out the air, shake again. By pitching time, it is one super active oxygenated slurry. Not quite as good as a starter from a stir plate, but it works well for me.

 

[Wind River]

I have been pouring from the kettle, trub and all, into my fermenter.

The last time I brewed, I auto-siphoned the wort from the kettle and just made sure that I shook the fermenter well (you may want to check out the recent aeration podcast on Basic Brewing Radio for great info on this...)

I won't be going back to pouring. I like the look of the clear wort with no trub, the beer is happily perking away even as we speak...and it wasn't any big deal cleaning the kettle (knowing all that crap wasn't in the fermenter).

And I did try straining the wort through a funnel with a screen but just never had good luck with that method.

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

That really sounds like a great idea! (I wish I could left something that heavy- if I could, that is exactly what I would try).

Isn't there someone who posted some sort of pulley system for their brew sculpture? Maybe I dreamt it, or came up with this in a drunken stupor but it seems to me a great way to have a compact sculpture is to put everything on a wheel. Just bear with me while I try to describe the Beeris Wheel!

Picture a ferris wheel, but a lot smaller, around 4 ft. tall. There would be 3 platforms, each of which could have a burner and a counter-weighted platform for the kettle/MLT/HLT. Instead of using a pump, or a tiered system you could simply rotate your wheel around to where the highest point is your full vessel. Crazy you say? Oh yes...but so crazy it just might work!

 

[MgMt_Home_Brew]

Just bear with me while I try to describe the Beeris Wheel!

It sounds like you are on to something... I would like to see a scetch of this

 

[HairyDogBrewing]

Just bear with me while I try to describe the Beeris Wheel!

Picture a ferris wheel, but a lot smaller, around 4 ft. tall. There would be 3 platforms, each of which could have a burner and a counter-weighted platform for the kettle/MLT/HLT. Instead of using a pump, or a tiered system you could simply rotate your wheel around to where the highest point is your full vessel. Crazy you say? Oh yes...but so crazy it just might work!

Add a Merry-go-round and a Caliope, then you could charge admission!

The full pot would want to find the bottom, in a bad way.
10 gallons = 80 pounds.
Maybe a kind of elevator?
With rollers on the main level to shift the keggle from burner to elevator and back?