Transfer to glass 6.5 gallon primary fermenter

Northern Brewer General
1

What is the best method of transferring the wort from the brew kettle to a 6.5 gallon glass primary fermenter? First time brewing again after a 10 year break. Previously had a 5 gallon plastic bucket as the primary fermenter and just poured the wort in. thanks

2

Chill until you’re no longer worried about thermal shock, then either pour through sanitized funnel, or rack with a sanitized racking cane/tubing.

3

I recently added a weldless fitting with valve on my kettle, but before that, I had decent success wiring on a Chore-Boy copper scrubber pad (make sure it’s the copper type) with copper wire to the bottom end of my auto-siphon. Did a great job keeping the hot break and hops out. I never clogged it. I did whirlpool first, but you will find more and more brewers finding out that keeping all that out of the fermenter makes no difference. You could easily attach the copper pad to a racking cane if that’s all you have.

4

You can also just pour from your boil kettle into the fermentor using a funnel. I use a piece of bent copper wire between the funnel and carboy neck to allow air to escape as the wort goes in. Wort and carboy should be near the same temperature to avoid thermal shock.

I do pour through a fine mesh grain bag, which rests in the funnel, to take out hop debris. My jury rigged bag holder failed, so my wife helps hold the bag as I pour. This is only for harvesting cleaner yeast.

5

I pour through a strainer into a bucket and then through a strainer in a funnel into a carboy. The first pass gets most of the hop debris. This gets me decent aeration, too.

6

I pour my cooled wort through a strainer & funnel into my carboy. I pause and scoop out the hops when they start to clog the strainer. Fortunately my kitchen table is just the right height for me to clamp the handle of the strainer to the table top so I don’t need to wait for an assistant. The only problem I have with this technique is getting the pour started. Pour too fast and it splashes onto the floor. Pour too slow and it dribbles down the side of the kettle…and onto the floor. The thicker the wort (hop & beak material) the messier it can be. So, I think I’m going to use BrewingRover’s technique of pouring through a strainer into a bucket first, then through a funnel into the carboy. I just wish I knew of this technique yesterday!

7

Oh how I love my weldless ball valve on my boil kettle!

:cheers:

Ron