i’m just moving into partial mash and still haven’t found a need to strain; my fermentors usually sit for two weeks and are generally clear before i’m siphoning to the keg. when i bottled, i never had anything but a thin yeast layer in the bottom of the bottle.
although i may slowly pour into my carboy, to prevent the worst gunk; the rest seems like it would provide nutrients for the yeast.
Those 5 gallon paint strainer bags work great. I take the bottom and use in boil with the hop additions. Then cut the top around 8 to 10 inches from the top and lay it in a kitchen strainer while going into the primary. It cuts down on the hop and trub in the primary, ultimately making for a clearer resulting beer in the end.
I just started a system a month or so ago as a result of trying to fit two brews into one extended brewing session. I don’t know the exact sizes, but I have a 4-5 gallon pot and a 6-7 gallon pot. The first one is a standard size that comes with a starter kit.
Basically I do all my boiling in the larger pot. I do partial boils, so I end up with about 2.5 gallons on hot wort. I put a fine mesh bag over the mouth of the smaller pot and pour the hot wort in. This frees the big kettle up for my next batch which I can start right away.
I then take the small pot inside to where I have my counterflow chiller set up. I lift the bag up and put it on a large strainer over the pot where it drains in. However, the mesh is a little too fine and it takes forever to drain the bag. Eventually it empties, about the same time the hot wort finishes up going through my CFC.
Here is the part that I would like any comment on: After this, I rinse the trub with ice water, right into the same pot several times. In my mind, this makes sure that I get all the sugars out, and at the same time flushes my CFC lines with clear(er), cold water that it helping to get the wort down to pitching temps. I generally flush with about 1-1.5 gallons of very cold water. I will squeeze the bag a bit (with sanitized hands) to help it drain before discarding the trub. Anybody see any real issues with this??
Before I was having real issues with my CFC getting clogged up when cooling very hoppy beers.
I cool the wort with an immersion chiller to 60F and then let everything settle for a half hour or so. My kettle has an outlet similar to a racking arm so I angle it up and drain most of the wort which is clear. I keep angling the tube down until I start to see some cold break flowing into the fermenter, then stop the flow. I put a sanitized knee-high nylon stocking over the opening of the fermenter then angle the drain tube down to drain the rest of the wort, along with the pellet hops and trub. The nylon collects all the crud leaving clear wort into the fermenter. sometimes it takes a few minutes for the stocking to fully drain, but I end up with just about all the wort.
I figure that with the cold break I let into the fermenter along with the trub from the yeast starter, there should be enough nutrients for the yeast. seems to work fine.
