Transferring Wort to Carboy

[Dlawrence529]

I was recently given a free 6 gallon carboy by someone who hadnt used it in years. This weekend i tried fermenting in a carboy for the first time. After I cooled my wort in my brew pot, I tried to transfer my wort to the carboy. It was a bit of a disaster. I tried to pour it into the carboy through a funnel with a strainer. The strainer immediately clogged with trub. Then i tried to transfer it with a sanitized 4 qt measuring cup. It took forever and my unsanitized hand kept touching the wort when i cleared the strainer and scooped more wort out of the pot.

Does anyone have tips or tricks on transferring cooled wort to a carboy? Do most people use a siphon? I don't have a valve on my brew pot.

If I choose to add a valve to my pot, how do you sanitize it for use on cooled wort? Is he heat from the boil enough to sanitize it if it takes 15-20 min to cool the wort?

 

[ancientmariner52]

I think most people use a kettle valve. The heat from the boil will be plenty to sanitize the valve. You'll probably want to add a piece of hose to better direct the flow. If so, remove the hose before heating, and put it on when the wort is cool. Don't forget to sanitize the hose, inside and out, with your preferred sanitizer. I wouldn't go smaller than 1/2 inch id, to avoid clogging. Silicone hose is best, but food grade vinyl is ok for cooled wort.

 

[Griffin495]

Easiest thing would be to use your funnel without the screen and don't worry about trub getting into the fermenter. I've never seen any noticeable difference and I think Brulosophy did an experiment comparing trub vs no trub. I've got valves on my kettles now. I put the tubing in the sanitizer along with the rest of the stuff. As for the valve, I spray the outside of it and inside it with Star San right before I place the tubing on it to drain.

 

[GPP33]

Get a valve. Disassemble and sanitize it before you put it on to begin your boil. Once cooled spray a little sanitizer into the open end before putting your sanitized hose one and letting it rip.

Ball valves are impossible to clean without disassembling so take em apart when you are done to clean them and leave them loosely assembled so they are easy to sanitize before use. Only the boil kettle requires sanitizing (and that’s debatable), if you have one on your mash and sparge vessels just take em apart after use to clean/dry.

 

[flars]

My wife would hold the funnel and scrape the screen to keep the flow going near the end of the pour. I do it solo now by pouring into a bucket holding a fine mesh bag with a tube going into the carboy. Lift the bag to drain at the end of the pour from the boil kettle.

 

[lump42]

The cheaper option to adding a valve would be to use a siphon.

 

[muledogus]

I always used a siphon for transfers into carboys. The Auto-siphon was my favorite piece of equipment for quite a while.

 

[Lefou]

The brew kettle with half-inch ball valve is probably the most expensive item I have.
To transfer cooled wort to carboy I attach a nylon barb and half-inch silicone tubing to the ball valve and drain. The auto siphon still has a use, though, and it's good for draining raw beer from the carboy via gravity feed to the bottling bucket.
A nylon barb costs all of $1 at Home Depot. I have a nice steel barb but don't really use it much because it needs sealing tape to stop leaks.
A nylon barb is cheaper and easier to replace.

 

[RPh_Guy]

1. Pouring into a funnel with no strainer*. Cheap, somewhat difficult.

2. Auto-siphon. Cheap, easy.

3. Kettle ball valve. More expensive. Needs installation unless you buy a kettle with it pre-installed. Very easy.

*Straining your wort is absolutely unnecessary.

For options 2 & 3 consider this attachment to help aerate. Cheap & easy

Cheers

 

[Dlawrence529]

Thank you all for the advice. I think I am going to go with a valve. I'm debating whether to buy a kit to retrofit my existing pot or buy another kettle with a valve. Are there any advantages or uses for having a second pot with no valve?

I'm currently brewing partial mash recipes, but I will eventually make the jump to all grain or brew in a bag.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Are there any advantages or uses for having a second pot with no valve?

I'm currently brewing partial mash recipes, but I will eventually make the jump to all grain or brew in a bag.

I use a 3-vessel 2-tier gravity system, my 5 gal kettle without a spigot I use as a HLT and also mixing sanitizer, which I make fresh each time.

 

[El Nino]

Auto siphon. 2 pumps and it's done, story of my life. Oh wait... ;D

 

[Lefou]

Owning a second pot with no valve has multiple uses!

I've done decoction boils with a 5 gallon pot. Since my brewing typically takes place on the stove and my 7.5gal boil kettle can double as a directly heated mash tun, that second steel pot comes in handy.

 

[jonny24]

Adding a valve is pretty easy, and then you can wait till you upgrade your system to buy he new one, which will probably help make sure you buy what you need then.