Reduce Trub in Primary Only Fermentation?

[hazedandconfused]

I have been doing a lot of reading on HBT for a while and a lot of people on here are doing longer primary only fermentations instead of the whole primary to secondary blah blah. I was wondering if those who go primary only take any measures to reduce the amount of break material that gets into their fermenter. Straining, swirling, siphoning??

Im finally reading "How To Brew" and trying to think up ways to improve my system. I normally try not to pour the last bit of wort in as it contains a ton of break and the past couple of times i have poured wort through a strainer of some sort into the primary - but thinking back to when i take my OG readings and let the sample sit for a little while there always seems to be a ton of trub in my hydrometer jar. That is still after pouring through a strainer.

 

[Malintent]

I don't strain anymore... not worth the trouble, as you mentioned (with break/hops/yeast, etc... ending up in there anyway), regardless if I plan to secondary or not (depending if I dry hop, add fruit, need to free up my primary for the next batch, etc..)

 

[heferly]

i strain, and you can't get out the break material...great for getting out hops, though (especially when harvesting yeast!). i still strain to reduce the amount of wort lost to hops (i squeeze them after straining)

best ways i've seen to get rid of break material is whirlpooling and siphoning

not much reason to get anything out, really, unless you're like me and harvest...just makes it easier without the hops at the bottom

 

[JJL]

Whirlpooling and straining can help, but it really isn't necessary. Stuff just naturally settles to the bottom. Then you just siphon off the trub when you're ready to bottle. I have been experimenting with using a secondary as sort of like a bright beer tank. Doing a long primary, then transferring to a secondary to cold crash for a few days, then transfer again and bottle. I do get really clear beer this way and I transfer less yeast to the bottle, but I can't say it's any better than if I just cold crashed in the primary.