Filter Size

[whatwhat]

About to buy a filter for the brew to cut down on the cloudy appearance. Was thinking of getting a .45 micron absolute, surely it can't strip to much flavour? Any advise on keg to keg or gravity feed units? I have been told if adding hops to the keg for aroma to do this after filtering, won't this make the beer cloudy again?

 

[jbowers]

Why not just use a 1 micron filter? I've found that, combined with cold crashing, gives very clear beer and about a 45 minute (not able to get fermenter up very high) fill for a keg.

That being said, I don't filter any more. Quicker fill, and I've found that using a filter has, on a couple of occasions, led to some strange flavours (bad practices on my part, but easier to just not use it than bother ironing those problems out). Cold conditioning is your friend, I'll say that. Filter or no filter.

 

[whatwhat]

Why not just use a 1 micron filter? I've found that, combined with cold crashing, gives very clear beer and about a 45 minute (not able to get fermenter up very high) fill for a keg.

That being said, I don't filter any more. Quicker fill, and I've found that using a filter has, on a couple of occasions, led to some strange flavours (bad practices on my part, but easier to just not use it than bother ironing those problems out). Cold conditioning is your friend, I'll say that. Filter or no filter.

So if you ere recommending a filter set up sounds like you are saying that you use a gravity feed? 45 minutes to fill a keg? I'm sure i could use a 1 micron filter but i am wondering why not a .45 micron?

 

[jbowers]

So if you ere recommending a filter set up sounds like you are saying that you use a gravity feed? 45 minutes to fill a keg? I'm sure i could use a 1 micron filter but i am wondering why not a .45 micron?

Other people have had more luck filling quicker, 30 minutes seems to be the average. From my understanding, you can't gravity fill using a .45 micron filter, it will have too much resistance to be feasible. The other issue is stripping flavour. People have reported a difference in flavour when using filters that fine, I think. 1 micron seems to be widely agreed upon here as the best comprimise between getting bright beer and maintaining the flavour profile of the beer.

 

[angus_grant]

You can gravity filter through a .45 micron filter. It does require some on-the-fly modifications. :lol:

I will need to look at force-filtering for the next batch.