Straining wort

See recent threads I've written/responded to. There are quite a few links in there.

 

I have one of these and it works well...

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/double-mesh-stainless-strainer.html

ETA: It doesn't have three supports. I get my kids to hold it above/on the funnel that goes into the carboy.

 

I have the same one as VikeMan. Works really well. I also skim off the hot break during the boil using a slotted spoon. Gives me something to do in between hop additions. If you really want to filter out the bulk of the solids, you can always line your bucket with a paint strainer bag. Poor in the wort, lift out the bag.

A little bit of break material in the bucket won't harm your beer, though.

 

Thing about these (and I have one as well). More hops in your beer, most times you'll have to dump this thing out. God help you if you're doing a 10 gallon batch.

Hop spider from Utab Biodiesel Supply. 'Nuff said.

 

You do have to dump sometimes. (I bang the end against an open cardboard box.) But that means the strainer is doing what it's supposed to do.

 

Rapid chilling after the boil...gravity...and not decanting the entire contents of the boil kettle into the fermentor.

 

That's not fine enough I use 12' funnel with 12" Funnel Screen

 

You can use 12" Funnel + 12" Funnel Screen, it's fits right on 5 an 6 gallon buckets.

The screen is extremely fine, some time the screen is getting clogged and the funnel is over flow by the hops. Be ready to stop or slow down the wort flow.

 

You can make a hop spider for nearly nothing. Go to home depot and pick up A 4 inch pvc adapter, a hose clamp to fit, a 2 gallon paint strainer bag, and a wooden dowel. Drill two holes to allow the dowel to slide through allowing it to rest on the boil kettle. You can also just put a paint strainer bag in your bottling bucket, syphon wort from kettle into that, lift hop and break matter out. Then just open valve and drain into carboy. Clear.

 

I've only ever used pellet hops. Can't say anything about hop utilization but I honestly can't see a problem here. The hops move around during the boil so the wort is flowing in and out all of the time. Makes straining way easier: just lift the thing out or leave it in place as you siphon your wort out into your fermentor.

 

These 5 gallon paint straining bags fits a 6.5 gallon ale pale nicely but be careful not to dump to fast or the elastic band will come undone.

These are also super cheap.

 

For some of my lagers I have thought of using a technique the German lager brewers are said to use. The wort is chilled to lager pitching temps on its way to a holding tank were it sits for 24 hours. It is then transferred to the fermenter, oxygenated and yeast pitched. The trub is left behind.

This is another step that I have not taken. Maybe this year I will in my quest to brew the perfect German Pils.

 

I've started using this fine mesh bag(http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006O2F4FE/ref=pe_385040_30332190_TE_dp_4) attached to the tube end of my auto siphon. I use it when going from BK to fermenter and also from fermenter to bottling bucket if I've dry hopped. This thing catches so much debris that on my latest batch, while siphoning from BK to fermenter, it swelled to the size of a football and was difficult to get out of my big mouth bubbler. But it did a great job of filtering the 12.5 oz of hops that were thrown into the boil and hopstand.

 

Why not slide it over the uptake end of the auto siphon instead? Then there is no chance of overflowing it, dropping it back inside the fermentor or bucket, getting it stuck, etc.

 

I've been using an expandable kitchen sink strainer for years. Works great, fits on top any bucket or kettle..

http://www.amazon.com/Polder-6631-7...1560&sr=8-1&keywords=expandable+sink+strainer

 

I've seen mention of that method, including using washers to keep the bag out of the siphon intake, but I've never tried it. I've read some reports of the siphon clogging when going that route.

 

In the past I would transfer my chilled lager worts to a bucket and let the cold break settle out before transferring to a carboy for fermentation. It only takes about 30 minutes to an hour for the break to settle. The bucket I used has a valve with about an inch between the bottom of the valve and bottom of the bucket, so I would just transfer to the carboy using the value, keeping an eye on things near the end of the transfer to keep the break out of the carboy.

I cannot say that it made any difference in the final product, but this was before I knew anything about water chemistry, so I had bigger issues affecting the final product.

The main point here, I suppose, is that the relatively small distance the break needs to settle means that much less time is needed than in a commercial setting.