Siphoning from kettle to fermenter vs just dumping?

I assume you are talking about 5 gallons or less. Also that the wort is chilled to pitching temperature in the kettle before transferring. Given those assumptions, I prefer to dump or pour it out of the kettle into my sanitized bucket to get a good start on aerating the wort before pitching the yeast.

With a larger batch that is not practical or safe to pick up and pour, I strain through a bazooka screen on its way into the fermenter.

 

By the way, the boiled hops will sink with the flocculated yeast to the bottom of the bucket once primary fermentation is complete. No need to worry about it. It's the dry hops that will drive you nuts.

 

if you can dump - dump

 

Sadly...no.
A tiny trub transfer into the fermentor does a brew day good but 'all in'...not so much.

 

Dumping gives you more oxygen for your yeast. Although I might fear the hop particals may give you off flavors if you keep it in the primary too long. That may me one of my issues though

 

With low ABV beers dumping into the fermenter is more than adequate aeration.It's what brewers have been doing for centuries.For stronger brews it certainly helps.And it's a lot quicker than using a siphon.

 

Leave as much trub behind as you can. A little is good for the yeast health, and that will come along with the wort. In this case you can let the wort splash from the top of the fermenter to help aerate the wort, then shake your fermenter if no O2 system.

Some of us pump it over, leaving as much trub as possible behind after whirlpooling.

 

Spend $15 on a large auto siphon and you can transfer from kettle to fermenter in 3 or 4 minutes.

 

I dump, but through a strainer to minimize trub. I'll probably do that until I become old and feeble, and then switch to siphoning.

 

I dump through a double lined large metal strainer that I got from NB and a paint strainer bag. If you use buckets this will work well. But I usually leave the last bit of hop material and trub in the kettle so it doesn't clog the paint strainer bag to much. If you don't have a good pair of sanitized gloves squeezing a couple gallons of wort out of the paint strainer bag is not fun.

I tried siphoning a hoppy beer from kettle to bucket once with a paint strainer bag on the end of the siphon and it did not work well. I had to restart the siphon over and over because it kept clogging. I have heard if you whirlpool the wort and get most of the hop material in the middle of the kettle it will work better.

 

If you are planning on using a lot of leaf hops for dry hopping I would definitely consider a bag. I have found that a couple of ounces of pellet hops for dry hopping doesn't make nearly as much trouble, even without a bag, and you can rack the beer off the debris fairly well when you go to bottle. Just be patient and hold the siphon off the bottom until you are drawing the last bit out.

 

If you don't use the hop bag put a paint strainer bag over the bottom of the siphon. This will keep almost all of the hop material out of the finished product. I had trouble doing this from kettle to fermenter because of the amount of hops used during the boil. But it has worked well for me when using dry hops and going from fermenter to the bottling bucket.

Expect some loss with recipes that have a lot of kettle hops and dry hops even with pellets. If I brew a 5 gallon batch with a lot of hops I usually end up with less than 5 gallons in the primary. And around 4.25 - 4.5 after transfering to the bottling bucket. I would expect a little more loss also if you transfer to a secondary.

 

I'm a dumper.

 

Mick, when you are my age and brew 10 gallons on a single tier, you pump the wort.

 

Siphoning INTO a fermentor is not for the feeble (or anyone), IMHO.

Siphoning is for racking...when you are not smart/lazy enough to use a spigot

 

I dump - through a big strainer. Also assists on getting wort aerated. When ten gallon system in place (soon, I swear!) it will be through a pump or gravity feed, as I am building a system designed to allow me to NOT be picking up full containers of anything.