strain wort or no

[ethangray19]

I strain my wort as pouring into carboy

I never strain my wort

 

[Joker]

I have always strained my wort when transfering to primary.

 

[5 Is Not Enough]

I've been having good success with irish moss and whirlpooling.

 

[BigNick73]

I never bother, I do stick my auto siphon in a hop/grain/paint strainer bag when transferring to secondary to help strain it but it usually too much in the wort when going from kettle to primary for bag to handle without getting clogged up.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Irish moss/whirlfloc, clearing stage, time, and RDWHAHB.

 

[Bosh]

I just use a sanitized colander, does fine for getting the hops out...
Low tech is often the best

 

[kenche]

I voted 'yes' on the straining, but am not sure what I will do for the next brew.

I have been straining my PM boil of 4 gallons, but I am jumping to a 10 gallon AG batch for my next brew. As you can imagine, it would be pretty difficult to pour my keggle through a strainer.

I must say however that I have always used Irish Moss, despite straining. My beer always clears with a week or two of cold conditioning, and I expect the same for the 10 gallon AG batch.

 

[Melana]

Yup, I strain my wort... but then i'm only doing partial boils and it's fairly easy right now... When we ramp up and start AG (when $ allows!) that might be a different story!

 

[david_42]

Which is to say there is a bazooka filter in my kettle. I also use a very fine mesh screen when transferring from fermenter to keg.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I have a nylon bucket net...

 

[cheezydemon]

I believe that hop particles left in the wort help it to clear later.

 

[Soulive]

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't...

 

[CBBaron]

I usually use whole hops and dumping that much solid matter into the fermenter make transfer to the bottling bucket or secondary a considerable pain. That is why I strain. I just use a jumbo strain bag that lines the bucket primary. I pour the cooled wort into the strain bag then pull the bag out of the bucket and squeeze a little to get most of the wort into the bucket.

Craig

 

[Flsurfdog]

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't...

+1

I didn't for the first few batches. Then a friend of mine did and it seemed like a good idea so I did too. Didn't really notice a difference.

Only time I think it's really important is to get the coffee grinds out of my coffee cream stout. Don't wanna let a bunch of coffee soak for weeks

 

[thelastdandy]

i could be wrong on this, but i thought i remembered reading somewhere that dumping wort vigorously through a filter into the carboy will help oxygenate the wort a little better to. anyway, i do just to get the whole hops out.

 

[itzkramer]

My process:

Pellet hops in a fine mesh boil bag.

Whirlfloc tab in boil.

Strain wort thru fine mesh strainer
to fermentor

Strain back to sanitized kettle through a superfine funnel strainer, then back to the fermentor through the superfine strainer again.

Super clean, super oxygenated

 

[DocksideBrew]

I strain. Keeps large matter out of fermenter also helps to aerate wort.

 

[stellaontap]

I always just dump the whole works into my fermenter......and by reading this thread I jujst realized that when I brewed today I forgot to use Irish Moss

Maybe I should have strained this batch

Eric

 

[petey_c]

Up until my last batch, I never strained. I wanted to see if it made a difference. If it's not significant, I'll skip it next time.

 

[itzkramer]

I just bought one of those plastic things that fits in the end of your siphon tubing and sprays the wort out. I'm gonna switch to whirpooling and only 1 straining.

I'm switching from partial boils to full and its a lot harder to pick up and pour 5 gallons of wort.

 

[rjwhite41]

I clicked that I strain but I don't really. I siphon off the top of all the junk so I get next to no trub in my beer. I believe the flavors are cleaner and more rounded that way.

 

[sillyburt]

I posted strain but I toss in the frist 1/4 to 1/2 without straining. then pitch then use nylon paint bag for the rest

 

[PKPils]

I didn't strain for the first couple of batches I did. I just siphoned from my pot into the fermenter. However, I began to notice that the trub was a brownish/greenish from the break material. After I switched to straining (I just use a grain bag), the trub is a creamy off-white color. Since I switched to straining, I've noticed that I get better attenuation, better carbonation, and better head retention. Though this could also be attributed to switching to late addition (I do a mini-mash). In my experience, my beers have only improved since I started straining.... so I won't be stopping any time soon.

 

[Brasco20]

I got a false bottom with my new brewpot for ag, will it keep the hops out, or is it not fine enough?

 

[Hang Glider]

I got a false bottom with my new brewpot for ag, will it keep the hops out, or is it not fine enough?

whole leaf hops, yes. Pellets, no.
False bottoms are usually used to keep the grain husks out of your mash effluent.

 

[PanzerBanana]

Nylon net here also. Just be sure to secure it. The elastic isn't that mighty.

 

[bdeck02]

I have a large funnel with a mesh screen built in that I place in the neck of my carboy. I just pour straight from my kettle... but it never fails that it clogs a few times while transferring. I use a spatchula to move the sediment off of the screen so the wort can continue to flow, but I end up having to pull the screen off a few times to rinse it out.

There must be a better way! Enlighten my noobie mind.

 

[bdeck02]

I have a large funnel with a mesh screen built in that I place in the neck of my carboy. I just pour straight from my kettle... but it never fails that it clogs a few times while transferring. I use a spatchula to move the sediment off of the screen so the wort can continue to flow, but I end up having to pull the screen off a few times to rinse it out.

There must be a better way! Enlighten my noobie mind.

Oh! and I do use hop socks, grain bags, and Whirfloc. The beer ends up pretty clear, but I hate the process of unclogging that mesh screen.

 

[neohistory]

After only doing my 2nd brew (and doing downsized 1 gallon recipes) I'm beginning to see how this is going to be a problem for me. I have a restaurant supply shop near me that sells lots of great cooking ware sometimes at great prices (sometimes, stuff is just expensive regardless.) So I thought, why not just have a "straining" bucket where you have a double mesh strainer like this one http://www.shop.cityrestaurantsupply.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=4875 for which you pour the worth through. Now 5 gallon I know could get pretty tricky to do, but to clean the strainer I'd just turn it upside down and sling out the gunk, then continue straining.

2nd brew I used a funnel with a splatter screen piece torn out and bent a little on the edges to fit in the funnel, with a piece of cheese cloth on top...I had to rinse it out probably 8 times. I'm thinking about trying this.

 

[djfriesen]

I don't think that strainer will work much better. From personal experience, it will clog just as fast. It will be easier to clean, I suppose, but there are better ways. If I could suggest, I would say BIAB, at least for your 1 gallon brews. I recently started this on my 1 gallon batches, and there is literally no way it could be any easier, short of telekenisis.

Once you move to 5 gal, it can work too. In fact, I bet you can find a strainer pot at this restaurant supply store that will fit inside your BK, leaving some room underneath it. Once your mash is done, hold your grainbag over the kettle, slip in the strainer pot, and set the grainbag back in the strainer. Pour you sparge water over, and then use something to wring as much liquid out of your grain as possible (mash paddle, another pot, etc.).

Another option is to dip sparge (like a teabag) in a separate pot of sparge water, and then pour this into you BK.

Then, when you're boiling, you can use this same bag as a loose hopbag. Leave a lot of extra space in your bag to account for saturation of the hops, and then use a binder clip to attach the bag to the rim of your pot.

All this said, it is not truly necessary to filter your wort. But, if you want to, there are ways.

 

[neohistory]

Pour you sparge water over, and then use something to wring as much liquid out of your grain as possible (mash paddle, another pot, etc.).

I promise you I'm not trying to say I know better than you or anything, but with the loads of information I've been reading/browsing, some say not to squeeze...from my understanding, squeezing would not really make tannins release, it's the temperature over 180 degrees F which cause the leeching of these bad flavors, right?

 

[djfriesen]

I haven't ever come across anyone saying not to squeeze. I don't pretend to have enough experience to know if it's a bad idea. If it is, I would appreciate someone explaining that to me.

The temps lead to tannins, as I understand it.

 

[neohistory]

I know it gets annoying hearing "some say" and this is simply to not have to reference the actual material since the particular place where I herd said info is not fresh on my mind. It was something on YouTube so that could be why. Gotta filter mentally in this generation of information.

 

[Rev2010]

I haven't ever come across anyone saying not to squeeze.

http://***********/stories/issue/article/issues/265-september-2009/2008-squeezing-grain-bags-mr-wizard

I think John Palmer (author of the book How to Brew) also recommended against squeezing but says a gentle squeeze is ok, just don't squeeze the crap out of it trying to get every last drop of liquid. Either way whether it's true or not I don't know has ever been fully proven outside of people stating their experiences. I wouldn't squeeze the bag more than a little which I sometimes do. You can also rinse the bag with warm water of equal or slightly great temperature.


Rev.