Straining wort into carboy

[scottyb332]

The judgmental Dougie Downer of an employee at my LHBS had a meltdown when I told him I did this with my last batch. He insisted it infected/tainted the wort... Anyone see any problems with doing this?

After cooling my wort, I take a muslin bag, drape it over my funnel and let the wort siphon over the contraption, removing a good amount of hop trash. It also helps aerate it a little. The muslin bag and the funnel are sanitized along with all my other equipment in a bucket before doing this.

 

[BridgewaterBrewer]

This is fine. Don't have to filter because there's good evidence that leaving the break material in the primary is fine, heck a lot brewers actually prefer it. But I have used a similar method with a paint strainer bag and noticed that it seems to aerate very well this way. Nothing will be tainted if you sanitize well.

 

[brew_ny]

strain mine thru a stainless steel hop spider and it has not been a problem

all the best

S_M

 

[sfrisby]

Same process but use a mesh strainer instead of a hop bag. All is sanitized first. Maybe he thought you weren't soaking the bag in sanitizer?

 

[beowolf1911]

I do the same thing, works pretty well and costs next to nothing. I do sanitize the mesh.

 

[bzwyatt]

It seems to me a cloth bag could hold bacteria easier than a steel strainer, but if it is sanitary, a strainer is a strainer.

I sometimes use a steel strainer, the most significant purpose being to aerate the wort. The trub is cleaner too, but as posted above, that isn't a big worry for the final product, just easier to rinse yeast or clean carboys. Whirlpooling leaves a lot of break material behind too.

As long as the strainer is sanitary, it just aerates your wort and... strains stuff.

 

[pumpkinman2012]

+1 on the mesh strainer

 

[pdxal]

+2 on the mesh strainer. I use a kitchen strainer over the funnel to remove the hops on the way to the fermentor. Trub still gets in and settles in the bottom. Sanitized first. I still oxygenate, though.

 

[Soilworker]

You're fine as long as you sanitized the bag in some way and even if you didn't: RDWHAHB.

 

[firestem4]

I haven't had any issues with it. I've only done two brews but both times I have done it like yesterday when I brewed my steam beer. I use those stretchy nylon Paint Strainers. The LHBS owner is the one who told me I could do that in the first place.

 

[beowolf1911]

You're fine as long as you sanitized the bag in some way and even if you didn't: RDWHAHB.

at the risk of revealing my forum noobyness what is RDWHAHB?

 

[Kdog22]

+2 on the mesh strainer. I use a kitchen strainer over the funnel to remove the hops on the way to the fermentor. Trub still gets in and settles in the bottom. Sanitized first. I still oxygenate, though.

Yep. It kills 2 birds with one stone. Gets the big stuff out of the way and aerates the wort nicely at the same time. As long as it's sanitized, there should be zero worry of infection, IMO.

 

[brew_ny]

at the risk of revealing my forum noobyness what is RDWHAHB?

relax dont worry have a homebrew

 

[ntculenuf]

I strain through a sanitized mesh strainer also, done it since batch 2. No issues or problems just good beer.

 

[rlonardo]

I bought a funnel that has a stainless steel mesh strainer that can clip into it. Strains very well. Too we'll actually. It clogs up while the wort is passing through it quite often. Despite the extra process and delay in getting an airlock on the guy, I've not had an infection yet! *knock on wood*

 

[whoaru99]

I do things a little different. I've always racked mine from boil kettle to fermenter and when it starts sucking a little cloudy I stop. Gets 99% of the wort and leaves behind 99% (or more) of the trub. Probably takes a little longer though.

 

[bzwyatt]

I've siphoned as described above, after a whirlpool, and then poured it through a strainer a couple times. I keep a couple buckets of sanitizer around during chilling so I can rinse/clear the strainer, which gets clogged, and use it again.