Filtering And Bottle Carbonating

[felten]

Everything that would normally fall out with time+finings is filtered out, its faster.

 

[milob40]

Why is filtering on a homebrew scale worthwhile, when there are so many positive reports of using gelatine finings and crash chilling? I have done neither because cloudy beer doesn't bother me, but might start CC'ing some of my paler beers for competition purposes.

dont knock till you try it, beer is drinkable immediately and no green taste, i crash chill beer to 2deg then 1 mic filter, also takes away most chill haze.
my friend doesn't do this and he admits my day old beer is way better than his 2 week old beer. you do use a little bit more gas but its worth it :icon_cheers:

 

[Silo Ted]

dont knock till you try it

What are you talking about ?

 

[edddy57]

I only filter into Kegs but there is always 6 - 8 stubbies of beer left that I need to bottle. To play safe (probably over cautious) I usually take a bit of yeast slurry from the fermenter with a sanitised syringe and put 1 -2 drops into each stubbie. You may consider that defeats the purpose of filtering, but as I say, I filter for the keg and force carbonate and by the time I get to drink the bottles its 7 -8 weeks anyway and they are crystal clear. Never had a problem. I wouldn't bother filtering just for bottles as sediment is always the by product of natural carbonation.

Regarding the filters I have been using the cheap $25 one micron filters from ebay and filtered 10 brews so far without any issues. My only beef is that they need lots of soaking in napisan as the plastic casing traps heaps of crap. I soak them over a week changing the napisan 3 times. Eventually cleans up. Not a problem unless you are filtering beer every 3 days!!

Question: will all 10" filters fit into the range of housings that are out there? My cheap filter has 2 large silicon seals that are placed onto the top and bottom of the filter... is this standard?

 

[milob40]

What are you talking about ?

time saving and a much better result, been there done that with finings and conditioning for long periods of time.
, i just don't know why so many people are reluctant to try it.
it also cuts down the amount of kegs needed because the process is speeded up.
when you pour a crystal clear home made beer over your very own bar to your mates, the feeling of satisfaction is ace!
:icon_cheers:

 

[Thirsty Boy]

We,re talking about filters... Because the OP asked about filtering. People might like to recall that he also asked about filtering specifically to reduce bottle sediment, and not to produce clear beer.

OP - it takes about 20-30 minutes for me to gravity filter my beer through a 1 micron filter. A five micron filter would be much faster.

You might also want to consider the pad filters used by wine makers.. They use disposable pads. Not better, not necessarily worse, but definitely another option for beer filtering. They come in a few different grades from rough to polish, you could just experiment to see which pads gave you the result you were looking for.

But you could also look at cold crashing and finings to give you a similarly effective way of reducing bottle sediment.

TB

 

[Silo Ted]

We,re talking about filters... Because the OP asked about filtering.

Forgive me, it was the 'don't knock it till you try it' comment that perplexed me, when I expressed no aversion to filtering, but merely asking why this would be preferred over alternatives such as fining or CC'ing. In fact, one of these days I'll try it, because I have ready access to a 1 micron filter, which may or may not work via good old gravity feed. I just think at times too much stigma is attached to opacity. I'm yet to perfect the process of making the perfect beer, both aesthetically & fan-Taste-ically but some of my brews have been quite clear without any post-mash-day additions, and favourably commented on by BJCP judges. I don't have all the answers yet, but suspect that the early stage process, along with a longer wait time in primary might be a key.

Just for fun, I once used gelatine in a cloudy hefe, to see how much yeast was pulled out by the process. It was remarkable. Ended up being rubbish for the interest sake, but showed me how effective gelatine can be, at ambient temperature.

But you could also look at cold crashing and finings to give you a similarly effective way of reducing bottle sediment.

Exactly ! If it's similarly effective, then CC & finings appear to be easier than filtering.

Mate what is a pad filter? It's crossed my mind to have an inline buffer out of the lauter tube, to catch some of the bigger particles. It would be a fine balance between clean, free flow and a blocked hose though

 

[Thunderlips]

Mate what is a pad filter?

You can get an idea here...

http://www.ibrew.com.au/html/equipment/fil...gfiltering.html

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Exactly ! If it's similarly effective, then CC & finings appear to be easier

And that's probably where the "don't knock it till you've tried it" sentiment came from... Because, I have tried it, and find it not only to give superior results to just finings and CCing & to be far more suitable for my particular circumstances, but also to be quicker and easier.

So from my perspective, appearances seem to be a little deceiving. Of course, i know perfectly well that there are other people out there who find exactly the opposite. It all horses for courses

 

[Silo Ted]

Fair call. Not that I was knocking it though I will get around to trying it soon, if just for the experience. But when I get judges sheets back saying "good clarity" on brews that have had no filtering, no finings and no crash chilling, I struggle for justification in taking any further steps.

Is it possible to gravity-feed through a filter unit, or do you need some pressure to help things along?

 

[milob40]

Fair call. Not that I was knocking it though I will get around to trying it soon, if just for the experience. But when I get judges sheets back saying "good clarity" on brews that have had no filtering, no finings and no crash chilling, I struggle for justification in taking any further steps.

Is it possible to gravity-feed through a filter unit, or do you need some pressure to help things along?

i have tried gravity feeding at first but the filter clogged too quick . i think you need a bigger inlet and outlet pipe and a fair height between fermenter and filter housing to get a decent flow. pressure filtering is much easier for me but you need a spare keg.
i use 2 black liquid disconnects, siphon from fermenter into keg then attach filter to keg out on both kegs, this way you don't allow air into the mix as it fills the filtered keg from the bottom, just pop the relief valve on the keg to be filled, make sure the filter housing has a purge valve to expel air when the filter first
fills. i get better results by chilling beer first, i dont seem to get chill haze anymore, i know this doesn't affect taste but i love presentation, and no waiting,
i've got a lot of thirsty friends :icon_cheers:

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I'm pretty sure milob40's experience is in the minority though... While a lot of people do prefer to filter from keg to keg, there are a lot of other people out there filtering directly from their primary fermenters too.

I'm just putting the fermenter on the kitchen bench and the filter housing on the floor next to the receiving keg.

For the op's purposes - i'd be filtering from the bench top, and then using a picnic tap on some line from the outlet side of the filter to get the beer into the bottles. Nice controlled filling, straight out of the fermenter, through the filter and into bottles. I could and have done that with a 1 micron filter... And I think a 5 micron filter would serve the op's purposes of reducing sediment. One micron for clear beer though.

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Did you buy craftbrewers complete housing/filter assembly or are you talking filter cartridges only?

I am feeling the pain everytime I try to filter with my clarence water filter setup.

I bought the complete setup from Clarence, then started using the CraftBrewer filter in it when the Clarence filter got thrown away. I'm now on my second filter (ever) after nearly three years of filtering.

I filter using gravity from the primary fermenter, always via beer tube and a picnic tap with a stainless steel extension to the tap (the stainless tube from a pressure sprayer) into the bottle. A recently-sanitised heavy champagne bottle makes a great place to put the bottler when you don't want to put it in a bottle and an Ikea circular cutlery basket makes a good Target Bottle Stabiliser if you want to be able to put the bottling wand into your bottle and not have to stand there holding the bottler. (I bottle prime and cap as the next bottle is filling, so both hands are otherwise occupied.)

Now I have the system working, I am very happy with the result. I'm now playing with very cold conditioning and it looks like it will be good too if/when I have sufficient patience.

I think the original point as I understand it is something that most home brewers will experience. I feel that I can't give unfiltered bottle-conditioned beers to my friends to take home and try until they demonstrate their l33t pouring skills and that isn't fair on anybody.

 

[Crusty]

i have tried gravity feeding at first but the filter clogged too quick . i think you need a bigger inlet and outlet pipe and a fair height between fermenter and filter housing to get a decent flow. pressure filtering is much easier for me but you need a spare keg.
i use 2 black liquid disconnects, siphon from fermenter into keg then attach filter to keg out on both kegs, this way you don't allow air into the mix as it fills the filtered keg from the bottom, just pop the relief valve on the keg to be filled, make sure the filter housing has a purge valve to expel air when the filter first
fills. i get better results by chilling beer first, i dont seem to get chill haze anymore, i know this doesn't affect taste but i love presentation, and no waiting,
i've got a lot of thirsty friends :icon_cheers:

+1

This is exactly what I do. I originally purchased a gravity feed filter & constantly had problems with clogging. I siphon from secondary to the keg, add 100kpa & chill overnight. Filter from keg to keg via Co2, works perfectly.

Crusty

 

[Silo Ted]

I'm pretty sure milob40's experience is in the minority though... While a lot of people do prefer to filter from keg to keg, there are a lot of other people out there filtering directly from their primary fermenters too.

I'm just putting the fermenter on the kitchen bench and the filter housing on the floor next to the receiving keg.

You know Im going to have to try this now ! If gravity feeding works OK, next brew I would like to filter half through the 1mic device I can borrow, then dissasemble and bottle the remaining unfiltered batch, then compare the two after 2 months in the botle. I could just be a convert In saying that though some of my beers are crystal clear anyway, but that depends a lot on the yeast. A london ale yeast I used earlier in the year dropped out so well that it left a tight compacted sheet of bottle trub that Ive never seen before.

Thanks Thirsty Boy.