Filtering - The Real Cost?

[jbowers]

Ok, so I have just bought a filter. My reasoning is primarily because once my ready-to go hoppy and wheat beers are done, I just want to get them in me. Impatient, yes.

But it got me thinking. Presuming this thing actually works, am I perhaps saving myself some money? I regularly hear the same thing: after 2 pints, kegged beer is generally clear enough and tasting great. I agree based on my own experience. However, I find it totally ridiculous that anyone could enjoy those first two cloudy, trubby, yeasty pints. As far as i'm concerned it is certainly NOT a visual thing. Clear, or reasonably clear beer, just tastes better. I can't stand the taste of trub. I find great beers can quickly become terrible if you allow that stuff in to the glass (kooinda pale?).

I've rambled a little bit, sure, but I think I have a point somewhere in there. Aside from the perks in terms of speed in achieving a bright beer, has anyone found they are actually ending up with MORE drinkable beer as a result of filtering?

 

[adniels3n]

I do not filter. I know that my keg is about to run out when I pour my 1st clear beer.

Edit: Do you mean "MORE drinkable", or "A MORE drinkable beer"? (yes, that makes sense in my head).

 

[jbowers]

I mean a larger quantity of beer that is enjoyable to drink.

 

[MarkBastard]

I filter but after a tear in my filter cartridge have just kegged my last two straight from the fermenter after cold conditioning. Luckily they were both Belgiuns where yeast isn't the end of the world.

Anyway, I mostly don't have any issues drinking trub/yeast in any style of beer. Doesn't bother me. I find with filters you lose beer to the filtering process for sure so I'd say overall there's more waste with a filter.

 

[jbowers]

I filter but after a tear in my filter cartridge have just kegged my last two straight from the fermenter after cold conditioning. Luckily they were both Belgiuns where yeast isn't the end of the world.

Anyway, I mostly don't have any issues drinking trub/yeast in any style of beer. Doesn't bother me. I find with filters you lose beer to the filtering process for sure so I'd say overall there's more waste with a filter.

Maybe your cold conditioning process is better than mine, but I end up with a situation where the first few glasses of beer range from mildy enjoyable to reasonably bad. After that it's all awesome beer till the keg blows. Surely a filter wont hold more than a pints worth of wastage?

Also, does no one else out there hate yeasty/trubby beer? (I like belgian and german yeast too, and don't object to having that in my beer. It's just american and british yeast + hop debris that I find tastes bad).

 

[sim]

Mate i celebrate an unfiltered beer. not because it looks cloudy like coopers, but because its real live beer. I can drink un-filtered beer that is mighty clear, just not crystal sparkling, till the cows come home and feel great the next day. Yeast is good for you!

If its murky and full of trub then let it condition (cold if you can) for longer before you rack to keg.

 

[jbowers]

Only problem is that I cold condition in a chest freezer. I've cc'd beers for a couple of weeks in there and through lifting it out of there to where I bottle, it's got enough yeast to make the first couple of pints dirty as hell.

I don't mind a cloudy beer either. Just had a glass of my IPA, very cloudy but the yeast has dropped enough that it is only a minor part of the flavour.

 

[sim]

Surely a filter wont hold more than a pints worth of wastage?

Give or take id say definatley yes. Plus youve got set-up, cleaning and sanitation before and after (plus an extra keg possibly).

A filter certainly has its pros though, you'd be aware of.

 

[jbowers]

Give or take id say definatley yes. Plus youve got set-up, cleaning and sanitation before and after (plus an extra keg possibly).

A filter certainly has its pros though, you'd be aware of.

I'll be gravity filtering. Oh well, will see how it goes. Not a massive outlay if it turns out to be a waste of time.

 

[Nick JD]

I have a filter but I only use it to impress people.

Bright beer is like a hot chick - with the lights out and your mates don't know ... she might as well be a fatty boom bah.

 

[jbowers]

I have a filter but I only use it to impress people.

Bright beer is like a hot chick - with the lights out and your mates don't know ... she might as well be a fatty boom bah.

You honestly can't taste the difference? I thought hopwired IPA was pretty average if you let the yeast get in to the glass. Great beer otherwise...

 

[sim]

Shake up a little creature pale and see if you can taste the difference.

It can have a lot to do with just how much crap is in there, alot of yeast certainly can change how a beer drinks, though a minute amount will just put a haze through it. I mainly see a filter as fixing a cosmetic issue, though i do have one, and i do occasionally whip it out for aethetics, to fix my blunders, or for time reasons.

 

[jakub76]

OK I'm not going to pretend I've never plugged Fattie Boom Bah but generally I'd rather not be.

I have now bent all of my keg dip tubes to draw from about 3-5cm above the keg floor. I don't like cloudy beer unless it's Wit or Weizen and even then I don't want half a glass of yeast. With any American style, hop-driven ale I find the hop bitterness clings to that yeast so when it's still cloudy it's much more harsh and bitter than when it's finally cleared and balanced somewhere near your recipe's goal.

I'm probably too lazy to filter so I just bend my dip tube and suffer the lost litre...works for me.

 

[jbowers]

Shake up a little creature pale and see if you can taste the difference.

It can have a lot to do with just how much crap is in there, alot of yeast certainly can change how a beer drinks, though a minute amount will just put a haze through it. I mainly see a filter as fixing a cosmetic issue, though i do have one, and i do occasionally whip it out for aethetics, to fix my blunders, or for time reasons.

I have, and I reckon you can. Not a fair comparison either as little creatures is filtered and then has a lager strain added at bottling. Therefore no hop compounds tied in with the yeast. Just clean, fresh lager yeast so it contributes very little to the flavour.

Jakub, good move. I totally agree. The only styles I really object to yeast in is in american hoppy beers. I brew lots of those...

 

[Nick JD]

Two weeks of cold conditioning and gelatine and I can get any yeast to **** right off to the bottom.

If you want to bottle/keg from primary you HAVE to filter for clear beer. For BRIGHT you have to also get rid of the polyphenols unless you are serving at 10C.

I only filter the beers I want people who are commercial drinkers to appreciate. Other beers I leave "cloudy", which is not BRIGHT. Certainly not yeasty. Comparing an unfiltered beer with a secondary fermented beer shaken up is not the same thing.

 

[sim]

The only styles I really object to yeast in is in american hoppy beers. I brew lots of those...

Sounds like you should get stuck into filtering then mate.

 

[mje1980]

I keg from primary, and after a week most are clear. My koelsh is quite clear.

 

[milob40]

i filter, i love it, i do it to speed up conditioning, fv to glass in 2 weeks if needed but i usually leave carbed for a week, have compared both methods with longer conditioning and filtering wins. keg to keg filtering is faster and easier and just soak filter in nappy san o/nite and it comes out clean as. you lose about half a glass of beer when filtering so it is not an issue for me. as for actual cost the filter is good for 30+ brews if looked after and costs $18 from my beer shop.
co2 is the biggest expense but worth every penny.

 

[pk.sax]

Filtered beer tastes flavorless to me. That's krystall weizen and filtered kellerbier - commercial examples that I tasted and thought they'd lost all character. All the time I bottled, I never got any trub in my bottles, just beer and sugar. They all drop very clear. Not crystal clear but enough to read through the bottle if the bottles were clear.

I've kegged one beer so far and that was meant to be cloudy - galaxy. Honestly, the cloudiness is not unpleasant in it. I'm reasonably sure I didn't get much if any trub in the keg. I didn't even crash chill. Wlp001 as much as it drops out on it's own. I suppose if one is not greedy and leaves half a centimeter of murky beer at the bottom of the fermenter it makes a difference....

 

[Steve@PMF82]

You can keg very clear beer from primary, just takes some time, sometimes gelatine and polyclar and some cold conditioning.
Siphon from the top and you have clear beer in your keg, not hard at all.