To strain or not to strain.

[scottmc]

Gonna be brewing a Hefe Weizen today, and have all the necessary equipment this time( see other post, "what a failure") I was wondering how many of you actually strain the wort when pouring into your primary, my recipe calls for it, looking for opinions on this. And as far as other brews go does straining take away from any flavor or take longer to ferment by taking away some of the ingredients/nutrients.

Cheers, Scott.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I strain...and sparge the free-floating hops with 1-2 gals of water.

 

[rdwj]

If you're using a seconday, straining is optional. It's not a bad idea if you've got lots of "junk" floating around, but it's not necessary. It's going to settle and be left at the bottom of the primary when you siphon to the secondary anyway.

If you're not using a secondary - I'd strain for sure.

 

[scottmc]

So it doesnt take away from any of the flavors, etc..

 

[SteveM]

Alternatively, I never strain any beer, I just siphon carefully and use additional fermenter stages if I have reason to be concerned. I tried one time to strain it and I decided that it was (for me) not worth the effort.

 

[Rhoobarb]

When I did extracts with grains, I put the grains in a large straining bag, then removed the bag at the appropriate time. When cooled, I poured the wort into the carboy through a regular kitchen strainer. That caught the big stuff. The rest, I didn't worry about. It will settle to the bottom. Now that I do AG, I siphon.

 

[BeerLuvnGrl]

i just pour it all in the fermentor.. then when i rack off the primary to the secondary much of the trub is left behind..

the only thing i strain is my grains..when i sparge them...

 

[EdWort]

I strain into my primary. Not only does it catch trub & hops, it also helps areate the wort. Get yourself a nice big stainless steel on like this at Target.

You don't need any help to strain. It works great for me.

 

[david_42]

Straining won't change the flavors, unless you did a 0 minute addition. In that case, some oils will probably enter the ale during the fermentation. No additional bittering will occur.