hi everyone, i am wondering should you strain your wort? some people i see do it. other say not to. i am new to the home brewing and have created my first home brew a simple red ale. any feed back would be good and helpful.
thank you guys in advance 8)
Welcome.
I think that the answer is “it depends.” Some people strain, some people don’t. I used to, but rarely do these days primarily as a time saver (it’s not that much time, but every bit helps).
Straining will keep a lot of hop matter and other stuff out of your fermenter, but pretty much all of that will settle out anyway.
Straining the wort won’t cause any problems so if you’re inclined to do it, go right ahead.
I kept getting clogged bottling wands and finding hop matter in my beers until I got one of these.
As an added bonus it helps oxygenate my wort.
The only potential problem is you will raise the potential of contamination depending on your method.
I use bags for my grains and for my hop additions so I don’t get near the amount of gunk that Gymrat is collecting.
thank you for the insight. i am not worried about the time it could save in the long run. just want to make and bottle the best beer i can. i think i will stick with the non straining and maybe try it once or twice.
my first batch is in the bottles for 9 days now. i tried it at 7 days. just couldnt wait any longer. it was good. looking forward to when it is all finished up in carbonation stage.
thank again guys.
Chris
Beginner HomeBrewer
I strain. I think it makes sense. Less trub in the fermentor makes rinsing yeast easier. The strainer helps aerate the beer and once a layer of hop material has formed in the strainer it creates a natural filter to help strain out break material and other garbage I dont want going into the fermentor. I don’t think it necessarily aids the flavor of the beer but I do think it aids my brewing process and clarity, especially since I normally do not fine and only sometimes cold crash.
I do think you can make fine beer without straining.
+1
I strain using 5 gallon paint strainers. That’s a great strainer, anything special about it and where did you find it?
I drain my wort through a spigot and hose. I attach a sanitized lady’s leg stocking to the hose with a zip tie. I drain into a bucket and then pour the bucket through a funnel into a carboy. It is very effective and cheap. I just bought 20 pair at WalMart for 18 cents a pair.
doesn’t the ladies leg get sticky? She doesn’t mind?
Another nice thing you can do is put some whole cone hops in the strainer or funnel and drain through them. they will act as a filter bed and give you some great hoppy aroma
+1 to strainer bags
Love the 5 gallon paint strainer bags. I use them to strain wort and they also make an awesome dry hop bag. I buy them every time I go to Lowe’s.
I gotta figure that one out. When I’ve tried that in the past the hops float and swirl around. I don’t get a filter bed. What am I missing? Thanks,
perhaps let it drain through more slowly so it doesn’t float the hops? or press them gently between the funnel and a strainer. When I do it the strainer doesn’t fill up with liquid so the hops don’t float.
I use the pantyhose method when I’m doing this. I stuff an ounce or so of whole cone hops in the pantyhose then ziptie it to the end of my tubing. Then I rack to my fermenter through the hops. The hops help catch the trub and you can potentially extract some extra hoppy goodness on the way.
Thanks. Yeah, sounds like I’ve been overly aggressive with flow rate. I’ve always liked that idea as a simple hop back. Just couldn’t make it work. Does it get better or act more “filtery” as it begins picking up stuff?
Sorry if I took the thread down a different road a ways…
I know this is a couple months after the last post, but I am wondering about the shelf life of said paint strainer bags. Are you using as single use and dispose This would make “buying every time I go to Lowe’s” understandable. Are they beat up too much after 1 use, or just too difficult to clean? I just want to know, have not used or even tried to use, but I like the idea a lot as the biggest PITA I have found on my brew days is getting cooled wort through my funnel without it backing up constantly. I seem to have a lot of break material and hop particles at end of boil that clog like crazy, even using muslin bags for hop additions. I currently do not have a kettle with a hose, so I am hand pouring 2-4 gallons through my funnel with no regular help: big PITA. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
I use the nylon bags on occasion and I find they work just fine for several (many) uses. I wash them out as best I can, even going so far as to put them through the laundry once in a while, and soak them in sanitizer in the fermenter until I’m ready to run off from the kettle. then line the bucket and let 'er rip.