wort transfer to carboy

[brewwitch]

Hi

How important is it to leave solids behind when transferring to carboy?
How is this easily done? I mean it seems quite a bit of wort remains if you try to keep solids behind, Also, in splashing wort in solids are bound to get into the fermentation bucket.

Thanks

[dparsons]

It isn't one of the more critical issues in brewing. Getting some solids acts as a yeast nutrient. Getting a LOT can make it a bit more difficult to get clean beer. Different people have different processes. I use hop bags for my hops (whole hops) and just pull them out as the kettle is draining so I have less trub to begin with. Racking to a 2ndary fermenter can leave a lot of trub behind. Cooling down your fermenter helps the yeast and trub to drop out of suspension (why lagers are cleaner).

[brewwitch]

Cool. Thanks!

oooh.. this is all sooo exciting....

[Mad Scientist]

When youo siphon the wort when you are going to secondary, your racking can will pick up a little bit of trub, but the 'anti-sediment' tip usually works well at keeping most of it from being picked up.
I'd recommend that you move you buck/carboy into position well in advance of racking to secondary so that any trub that gets disturbed in the move gets to settle back down.
When going from the kettle to the primary it is more difficult, in that those of us who have a valve on our kettle can generally drain the kettle and leave a majority of the trub behind. But if you are pouring from the kettle into the primary, you're going to be pouring most of the trub and hop debris as well...which as dparsons pointed out, can it hard to ferment a clean beer.

[brewwitch]

Good points all. Thanks so much for the helpful hints/suggestions!

[gestyr]

But if you are pouring from the kettle into the primary, you're going to be pouring most of the trub and hop debris as well...which as dparsons pointed out, can it hard to ferment a clean beer.

One trick I use is to run the wort through a strainer lined with leaf hops. It acts as a filter and adds a small amount of flavor.

[belsonc]

One trick I use is to run the wort through a strainer lined with leaf hops. It acts as a filter and adds a small amount of flavor.

When in doubt, shop at the company store...

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=11951678


That fits perfectly over the top of my bucket - and depending on what I'm doing, and when the last hop addition is, I may line it with cheesecloth. I still don't completely grok how the cheesecloth helps, but I know it does. :-) And if you ask me, the size of the holes in the strainer helps in aeration - I always have a nice frothy head on top of the wort once it's in the bucket, before I pitch, and haven't had any problems using that alone for my aeration. :-)