This morning I plan to start my first batch of home brew - I’m beginning with the Caribou Slobber Brown Ale. Everything seems pretty straight forward, with one exception - straining the wort as it goes into the fermentor. The video and instructions say nothing about straining the wort, yet The Complete Joy of Home Brewing suggests to always strain the wort if hops are added.
One thing I noticed - I think all three of the hops I’m using in this recipe are pellet hops…maybe they will dissolve and thus straining is not necessary???
My questions are:
Does the Caribou Slobber not require straining?
Can I/Should I always straning my wort? Advantages/disadvantages?
Do hop pellets dissolve? If so, then maybe that is why this recipe calls for no straining.
I’ll do some online research myself this morning. Thanks for the help. I’m fired up!
Using a sanitized strainer will help keep out some of the undissolved trub, but if any gets in the fermentor it will settle during fermentation. Then, when you eventually transfer to a bottling bucket just be careful to avoid sucking up the sediment on the bucket bottom.
If you don’t have a strainer, just pour slowly and try to avoid dumping all the trub into the fermentor.
During the boil not everything dissolves - or at least it doesn’t always for me - so having a strainer is handy. Find one that fits across the top of your fermenting bucket solidly - and doesn’t require someone having to hold it - and then pour the wort slowly to avoid clogging up the strainer (if you happen to have a lot of undissolved hops, as happens occasionally).
Caribou Slobber is a good one - tasty stuff.
Enjoy your first batch and welcome to an addictive hobby…
:cheers:
No, that recipe does not require straining, as most don’t “require” it.
You can. As mentioned in the above post, it will help keep stuff out of the fermentor. You don’t have to, though. It can also help aerate the wort when it goes into your fermentor.
Hop pellets do not dissolve. They actually expand when they get wet.
Are you pouring your beer from the kettle to the fermentor, or racking it? If you rack, you can let it settle once it’s cooled, and just try not to get any hope sediment from the bottom. If you are pouring (as I did for a long time), you can again let it settle, then just not pour the last bit of liquid into the fermentor. Some people pour it all in and don’t worry about it.
I plan to pour the wort straight from the brew kettle into a bucket fermentor once it has cooled adequately. Your comments confirmed what I planned to do–stop just short of the trub, and leave a little bit of the wort in the kettle–small price to pay for tasty beer, eh?
I have an 8 inch funnel (that can hook onto the edge of the fermenting bucket) with a strainer screen inside it, as well as one of those “hair net” looking strainers that has elastic around the edges–you can put it over the top of the fermentor and then pour right through it. The hair net one looks finer than the funnel one.
Most funnels with screens are very fine and will very quickly clog with the trub and hop particulate. There are lots of ways to strain and I would not sweat it on your first batch. Everything will settle to the bottom during fermentation.
Eventually you may want to strain. I started doing it because I use a counter flow chiller and it kept getting clogged, so I invented a straining method out of necessity. Basically I wrap a rectangular metal mesh kitchen strainer in a paint strainer bag (much finer mesh) and pour my hot wort thru that. It goes from my 20 gallon boil kettle into my 7 gallon SS kettle with a valve which I use to gravity feed through my CFC.
Just an update on the process. All went well on fermentation day. Moved the beer to secondary after about 10 days. Fermentation ended faster than I expected, and as of the day I moved it to secondary my gravity was stuck at 1.022…FG for this beer is supposed to be 1.013. I’m relaxed, not worrying, and looking forward to having a home brew. I have not seen any action in the secondary carboy so I expect my final reading next week when I bottle to be right around 1.022. It looks like it is darkening up in the carboy, which is either an illusion, or something I didn’t expect.
Thanks for the feedback on this post and the many others I’ve read.
[quote=“Idahorusty”]Just an update on the process. All went well on fermentation day. Moved the beer to secondary after about 10 days. Fermentation ended faster than I expected, and as of the day I moved it to secondary my gravity was stuck at 1.022…FG for this beer is supposed to be 1.013. I’m relaxed, not worrying, and looking forward to having a home brew. I have not seen any action in the secondary carboy so I expect my final reading next week when I bottle to be right around 1.022. It looks like it is darkening up in the carboy, which is either an illusion, or something I didn’t expect.
Thanks for the feedback on this post and the many others I’ve read.[/quote]
I don’t think that’s stuck. The extract version of that kit usually finishes in the 20’s.
Congrats on making beer. If you can, try and hold back a few bottles for six months. An aged slobber is nice
[quote=“Idahorusty”]Just an update on the process. All went well on fermentation day. Moved the beer to secondary after about 10 days. Fermentation ended faster than I expected, and as of the day I moved it to secondary my gravity was stuck at 1.022…FG for this beer is supposed to be 1.013. I’m relaxed, not worrying, and looking forward to having a home brew. I have not seen any action in the secondary carboy so I expect my final reading next week when I bottle to be right around 1.022. It looks like it is darkening up in the carboy, which is either an illusion, or something I didn’t expect.
Thanks for the feedback on this post and the many others I’ve read.[/quote]
Fermentation should be complete before moving to a bulk aging vessel. Unless you add a new yeast strain (brett, and lactic) or add new fermentables, (fruit).
Or you can leave it in the fermenter for bulk aging.
