Siphon kettle, skip secondary?

[MeBrew2]

I’ve been brewing for several years now… started with Mr. Beer and then upped the anti to a 5 gallon partial mash program. Two brews from now, my first all grain recipe is scheduled (lager). Currently I have a triple tap and 3 kegs for a top loading temperature regulated freezer (Johnson A19 controller). Having fun lately with the thermal well stoppers and directly regulating the temperature of the beer rather than just the ambient freezer air… so much fun.

In my process I usually use Carapils in the boil, super Irish moss last 10 minutes of boil, and then biofoam in the bottling bucket later on.

I do yeast starters with fermlock-s, cultivated on a stir plate with 02 injection, chill, decant, slurry, measure, add.

Everything I’ve listed so far I do partly because of clarity (moss/yeast starter) and head retention (carapils and biofoam).

I’ve been recently reading up on the forum and seeing a lot of people mentioning that transferring to secondary is becoming a step that is skipped more and more these days. I as a practice (until this week) always transferred to secondary with the exception of 4 ‘hefs’ I made.

I read in “new brewing lager beer” by Gregg Noonan (sp?) something like ‘achieving a good hot break and cold break is useless if you do not leave the cold break sediment in the brew kettle (i.e. siphon the wort into the fermenter, don’t pour)’…

realizing that this is a book specific to lagers, 1). I now wonder how some of the more experienced brewers treat this rule with other beers?

2). Does skipping a transfer to a secondary vessel demand us to siphon not pour?

My cold break? Personally
I put the wort chiller in 10 minutes till the end along with the super irish moss
At flameout, move to ice bath in sink on carboy wedge (I use the wedge sideways so the kettle is still mostly upright but slightly tilted)
stir for about 5 minutes after flameout while the emmersion wort chiller is running cold water and in an ice bath…
stop stirring
don’t move the kettle at all and leave the chiller in the kettle as not to disturb the sediment
Reach temp
Start siphon from near the surface slowly working down keeping the line just below the surface always
once siphon gets cloudy, stop
take picture
Looks like this once the siphon is done and i really tilt the kettle.

 

[MeBrew2]

 

[flars]

I brew ales. I pour from the kettle into the fermentor through a mesh bag to capture most of the hop pellet debris. I leave my ales in the primary until they clear. Usually about three weeks.
I don't use a secondary.

 

[MeBrew2]

You ever tried siphoning the beer from the kettle leaving the trub behind and seeing if you get different colored flavored aromad beer?

 

[eastoak]

consider what happens when you run hot wort through a plate chiller, like commercial brewers do, all of the break material goes into the fermentor. this does not affect the flavor of the beer.

 

[MeBrew2]

consider what happens when you run hot wort through a plate chiller, like commercial brewers do, all of the break material goes into the fermentor. this does not affect the flavor of the beer.

Ok got it.

But the the commercials also drain the trub with the valves in conical fermenters. Homebrewes with kettles and carboys are Ina different boat. Speak to that?

 

[eastoak]

Ok got it.

But the the commercials also drain the trub with the valves in conical fermenters. Homebrewes with kettles and carboys are Ina different boat. Speak to that?

they can do that but i'm not sure the reason for doing it is to get the trub out for fear of introducing off flavors. it also depends on the size of the conical. i have a friend who owns a small brewery and he does not do this until he is ready to pump the beer out. i can imagine industrial brewers doing it because of the effects of pressure on the yeast, not relevant to us home brewers. a larger brewery near my house, Drake's, also dumps the trub before pumping into the bright tanks otherwise it's in there when i go bum a flask full of yeast from them. it certainly does not hurt to get rid of the trub if you have the time and the inclination but i would claim that you are not achieving anything.

 

[MeBrew2]

A vey comprehensive answer thank you