To strain or not to strain!?

[underwaterdan]

I am brewing my big ben pale ale kit tomorrow and I am doing some reading. I guess there is a choice of removing the hops when transfering into the fermentation bucket. Why would or wouldn't you remove? and what do most people do? (The hops I have appear to be pellet style.)

 

[tom777]

I usually try to strain the hops or use a siphon get the beer into the fermenter leaving most of the hop residue behind. I don't actually think it's bad to get the hops in the fermenter either though as they'll settle out.

 

[phidelt844]

I usually try to strain the hops or use a siphon get the beer into the fermenter leaving most of the hop residue behind. I don't actually think it's bad to get the hops in the fermenter either though as they'll settle out.

+1. This is purely a matter of preference. You may save yourself some gunk on the bottom of the fermenter, but you're going to siphon off the trub anyways. If you want to use a hop bag, go for it. If not, happy brewing!

 

[JoeMama]

Just use a hop boil bag. (Then strain) Otherwise if you strain your brew, you will have to continuously scrape the screen to keep your beer flowing through the funnel. Then you might end up like me and drop your funnel into the bucket, curse alot etc etc... Use a boil bag for your hops - you will thank yourself post boil
-Me

 

[Benthic]

I use pellet hops, and I just pour them into the fermenter with everything else. They settle out with the yeast at the end of primary.

Brian

 

[MajorTom]

I am brewing my big ben pale ale kit tomorrow and I am doing some reading. I guess there is a choice of removing the hops when transfering into the fermentation bucket. Why would or wouldn't you remove? and what do most people do? (The hops I have appear to be pellet style.)

Good question.... I am doing an experimental brew to answer my own same question. You can follow it here. So, for this one I didn't use any hops bags and I didn't strain anything out when racking. Everything in the brew pot went into the primary fermenter. There is not going to be a secondary as I see no reason to.

 

[Saccharomyces]

I don't usually secondary but rack straight to the keg, so I have found it is easier to avoid getting sediment in the keg when racking if I strain the hops first.

 

[craigd]

I strain but mostly because I think it helps aerate the wort and I'm not using any of the fancy aeration methods yet. I use a hop bag and I still use a strainer in my funnel (which does catch some gunk - probably more hot break though.)

 

[Willy Boner]

I always strain, but I mostly use whole leaf. I don't want my blow off tube getting plugged up if I can help it and even with straining I get a leaf or so in there anyways.