Quick wort question

pour with a mesh screen to trap crud (and aerate)

 

I have a ball valve on my kettle. it makes my life easy. Prior to this I was using a double screen from no brewer and pouring my wort through it. I still run my wort through the screen though. I'm doing it as we speak, er, type. Just finished a wheat that has a lot of citrus zest I want out. This screen works awesome.

 

I have a valve on my kettle. It's up high enough that I can let it rip after a whirlpool and cooling, that it mostly settles it all out.

Put a funnel in the glass carboy, and let it go.

 

I'd look into a valve. It's cheap, and easy to drill with a step bit.

For the time being, it's easier to just siphon it. Cool it down, and stir it really fast in a circle and let it settle while you clean everything else up.

Hold the siphon near the edge of the pot and let it rip.

If you use a bucket, put a 5 gallon bucket filter bag over the bucket.. Pour everything in there, and then lift the filter out of the bucket. Obivously you'll want to have it dunked in sanitizer before hand, but makes it really easy if you use buckets. Glass carboys, I just put a small mesh paint can filter over my funnel, put the hose into it, and siphon.. Catches most of what gets by when you start getting greedy.

 

I usually have around a 1/2 gallon of trub, but a gallon's not that terrible. If you're a little more careful siphoning and you run it through a mesh filter of some kind when transferring to the fermentor you can probably catch 1/2 of it. If you want to recycle the yeast without a lot of hassle, just leave a skim of beer over the trub. Mix it the trub/beer/yeast real well with a clean spoon, then pour or dip out 2-3 cups and store it in a sanitized container. Refrigerated it will last weeks or even months. Pitch the reserved yeast mixture into your next batch, it will probably take off like a rocket.

 

Whether you siphon or pour...stop when you reach the break layer.

Letting a little break material into the fermentor does your wort good but try to leave most of it behind.

 

I pour through a double mesh strainer (right now at least). Rarely does the strainer clog, but if it does (usually from lots of pellet hops), I bang it out, dunk it in sanitizer again, and keep going. I try to leave as much of the break behind as I can. You can be successful if pouring/straining.

 

Have a cardboard box (I line mine with a trash bag) handy. When the strainer clogs, flip it upside down and whack the 'far' end of the strainer (the protruding frame part) against the far edge of the box. Resume straining.

 

I use the double metal strainer and 5 gallon paint strainer bag on top of my bucket. I leave the last bit of trub in the bottom of the kettle. The metal strainer will usually not clog. I will have to squeeze a little bit out of the paint strainer bag but I use gloves so its not a big deal. I used to dump everything in the kettle through the two strainers and had lots of clogs. Now that I leave the last little bit of trub and hop material behind in the kettle it has made a big difference.

 

I use a strainer but I don't feel like it is a necessity. It's become part of my normal routine and there's no harm so I don't see a reason to stop. It's helpful to strain that stuff out when you will have a tight fit giving the beer enough headspace and removing the excess material will buy you a little extra space. It's also easier to rinse the yeast with less stuff in the bottom.