straining wort?

[hejl]

I was listening to the archive from this Sunday and the discussion about transferring from kettle to fermenter.

I'm doing extract, partial boils and I was told to pour the chilled wort through a strainer and into the fermenter. Are these other ways better? What are the advantages/disadvantages to straining vs. whirlpooling and racking.

Thanks for your help.

Andy

[Lufah]

With straining your still getting a lot (probably most) of your break material into the fermenter. All you are really getting in the strainer is the hops. By whirl pooling you leave almost all of the break in the kettle. The whirlpool will settle all particulate matter into the middle of the kettle then you can either rack or open you valve on the side of the kettle.

The downside to whirl pooling and racking, in your situation, is that you are getting some aeration by pouring it through the strainer. This is a good thing as long as the wort has been cooled already.

Travis
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[BrotherhoodBrew]

Ok this is a bit off topic.... nice hat lufah:)

Back to the subject at hand. I used to use a strainer in my funnel that was a fine mesh screen. It was a pain in the ass it would clog with hop material all the time and would cause it to take forwaever for me to poor the wort into the fermenter. I soon just started dumping everything in and using a secondary a week or two later. Sine you are doing extract brew you may have less hotbreak material since the extract should already have it removed.

[Lufah]

The way I deal with the hops blocking the funnel is to set a large strainer in the funnel and then have the little screen as well. I couldn't find a picture of me actually doing it that way, but take a look at this and think of putting a larger strainer in the top of the funnel.



Travis

[hejl]

I have noticed that the hop crud tends to clog up the filter if it's just the tiny screen in the funnel and the bigger strainer over top was much better to do this.

I didn't realize about the break not getting out with the filter. I guess that since I'm doing extract I'm not getting as much of this, so I don't notice it as much. Someday I need to sit in with an AG brewer and see the difference.

It may also come down to how much you worry about all of this. I had a brown ale yesterday that I made and it was unbelievably clear, that was taking no particular care.

Also, Travis - love the Jayne hat. The episode where Jayne was the hero of the people may have been the funniest episode of Firefly.