Finally Used My Beer Filter!

[pokolbinguy]

Well finally after most probably two years since I bought it I thought I should finally take the plastic off my filter and give it a whirl.

So took it apart, gave it a clean and set her up..



Having a spare reg laying around made thing easier as I could just take my gas bottle from my keg freezer into the kitchen.

First of all I racked my finished ferment into another keg and gassed with CO2 then transferred using gas the unfiltered beer from the keg on the right through the filter to the keg on the left. Did this in two batches to fill an 18ltr and a 9litre keg from the same batch as there was too much for one keg.

Finished filtering, sealed the kegs and purged them with CO2 again and will leave them till I want to carb and drink them

Overall a really easy process...the results...well....sorry about the shit photo....filtered is on the right.



Not really as great as I was hoping for but it is somewhat clearer. I had how ever racked the ferment off the trub and it was already pretty clean.

Surely something is not right...

Well now I can say I have used it....

Pok

 

[mje1980]

Well finally after most probably two years since I bought it I thought I should finally take the plastic off my filter and give it a whirl.

So took it apart, gave it a clean and set her up..

View attachment 28014

Having a spare reg laying around made thing easier as I could just take my gas bottle from my keg freezer into the kitchen.

First of all I racked my finished ferment into another keg and gassed with CO2 then transferred using gas the unfiltered beer from the keg on the right through the filter to the keg on the left. Did this in two batches to fill an 18ltr and a 9litre keg from the same batch as there was too much for one keg.

Finished filtering, sealed the kegs and purged them with CO2 again and will leave them till I want to carb and drink them

Overall a really easy process...the results...well....sorry about the shit photo....filtered is on the right.

View attachment 28015

Not really as great as I was hoping for but it is somewhat clearer. I had how ever racked the ferment off the trub and it was already pretty clean.

Well now I can say I have used it....

Pok

Lucky sonofab&tch!!!.

I borrowed one when i did an american blonde for my sons first b'day. WOW, instantly crystal clear. Only problem was the swill drinkers drank a lot more of it coz it was clear!!. If i win lotto, im buying one.

 

[pokolbinguy]

$145.00....a little bit more than they are maybe worth but not too bad

 

[Sammus]

i bought one when they were released and used it once... worked well, came out crystal clear, but yeah.. cbf doing it usually. that was about 2.5 years ago now

 

[sqyre]

View attachment 28015

Not really as great as I was hoping for but it is somewhat clearer. I had how ever racked the ferment off the trub and it was already pretty clean.

Well now I can say I have used it....

Pok

Pok, there is something seriously wrong there. <_<
Even with a crappy pic we should be able to see straight through that glass on the right.
Perhaps the filter isn't seating properly or something?
Also what micron is it?

I have never had a beer i couldn't read a newspaper through after i filtered it..and thats without polyclar..

The Pic Below was filtered, it came out of the fermenter looking like soup about 10minutes before this pic was taken.

Sqyre...

 

[technocat]

G'day Pok

Looking at those photo's something is wrong and the filter is not doing its job. What pressure did you push the beer through the filter and what size in microns is the filter. A 5 micron filter is only good for filtering water, if you have a 1 micron or less all the better even with one pass it should have came out much better than your pic. I filter at 6-8 psi which takes about 10-15 minutes to do a keg and use a .5 filter. It helps if your beer is reasonably clear after fermentation this really starts from when you drain your kettle. Your beer looks a little cloudy and with a 1 micron filter would need a couple of passes through it as clogging with fine filter doesn't do much to clear beer with your setup, and you would need to back wash the filter more frequently. The filter needs quite a bit of care as just running water through it doesn't seem to clean everything out of it as if left like that it will stink like hell after a few days so I soak it in a mild bleach which seems to kill anything living in it. Also sanitize it prior to using it. It helps if you have a compressor when cleaning as chewing up CO2 gets a bit expensive.

Cheers.

 

[benno1973]

Yeh, I didn't want to say, but the glasses looked identical. I'd hate to have wasted $145 on a filter that made bugger all difference...

 

[pokolbinguy]

Sqyre and Beernut....

your comments are exactly why I wanted to post this up....I figured someone would come out and say that it doesnt look right.

Not exacltly sure what pressure it was being pushed through at, didnt take much notice of that to be brutally honest.

Filter is a 1 micron "absolute" cartridge.....Linky

After looking at the pic Sqyre put up it is pretty clear that it did not work properly. Cartridge seemed to be seated correctly but I could have been wrong but seemed to fill up and drain properly to me.

Is there any particular things I should try next time to try and make it clearer? How does the back washing work??

Also Beernut with the cleaning you are talking about using a compressor do you mean using an airgun to blow the crap out of it???

Cheers, Pok

EDIT: Went and had a look at my reg...would take a punt that it was running at about 20-40 kpa

Will have to have a fiddle and try again.

 

[pokolbinguy]

Yeh, I didn't want to say, but the glasses looked identical. I'd hate to have wasted $145 on a filter that made bugger all difference...

More the reason I wanted to post it up. I want to make sure I can get this puppy to work.

 

[gibbocore]

G'day mate, i'v never bothered backwashing, (not saying it doesnt work) but i've never had to, i have had problems though when the cartridge wasnt sealing properly, but that was due to a severely overused cartridge. One pass for me at about 4-5 kpa does the trick or i just gravity filter, i also use the 1 micron absolute and get crystal clear beer.

 

[pokolbinguy]

Maybe slower is the key....might have to let it run via gravity and see what happens.

I am going to go and set it back up and let gravity do its thing...see what happens.

 

[technocat]

Pok

Back washing is just running water through your filter in reverse out becomes in and visa versa. By using a compressor I mean hooking it up instead of the gas bottle to push water through from one keg to the other when cleaning not recommended for beer though.

 

[pokolbinguy]

Pok
Back washing is just running water through your filter in reverse out becomes in and visa versa. By using a compressor I mean hooking it up instead of the gas bottle to push water through from one keg to the other when cleaning not recommended for beer though.

Got cha...considering it is the first use of this filter it really shouldn't need to be back flushed.

Anyway cleaned the filter again and have set up to filter via gravity....will see what happens.



The cartridge seems to be seated properly so not sure if that could have been the problem. Will report back with a photo of the beer after filtering again and see what its like.

It could be haze however that needs fining out with polyclar or similar.

Pok

 

[Maple]

Not exacltly sure what pressure it was being pushed through at, didnt take much notice of that to be brutally honest.

EDIT: Went and had a look at my reg...would take a punt that it was running at about 20-40 kpa

hey pok, i'd say if you were on ~40kpa you'd have blow the yeasties right through the filter. perhaps not, but I've always just done it via gravity - takes a while but comes up trumps

 

[pokolbinguy]

Hmmm doesnt seem to be any better at all. I interrupted it and got myself a sample....



No idea what I am doing / have done wrong. Only thing I can think of is that the cloudiness is a haze due to some part of my AG process. Chill haze from no chill maybe? (cant say I really know what that is though so could be completely wrong).

So any suggestions on what I should do would be great....I will most prob just leave this batch and wait till I have a new batch to trial...don't want to go passing this puppy through the filter for a third time if I am doing something wrong.

Pok

 

[pokolbinguy]

hey pok, i'd say if you were on ~40kpa you'd have blow the yeasties right through the filter. perhaps not, but I've always just done it via gravity - takes a while but comes up trumps

If this is the case I assume this would render the filter useless?? Stupid me if this is what has happened...will have to fork out for a new cartridge...bloody $70 they are, so I hope this is not the case.

 

[Maple]

If this is the case I assume this would render the filter useless?? Stupid me if this is what has happened...will have to fork out for a new cartridge...bloody $70 they are, so I hope this is not the case.

Certainly hope not, but unless there is a seal that is not working properly...

Give the next batch a go and see how it comes up, here's hoping.. best you grab a beer and forget about it for now.

 

[pokolbinguy]

Certainly hope not, but unless there is a seal that is not working properly...

Give the next batch a go and see how it comes up, here's hoping.. best you grab a beer and forget about it for now.

All the seals seemed fine, all bar the threads of the of the nipples where the hose goes into the housing but that shouldn't make a difference as it was leaking a little to the outside...I need to put some thread tape on it.

Will give it a go with another beer next week that I have in keg (a K&K) so will see how that goes, it works then I can put it down to my AG process (haze etc)....if it doesn't then will have to look closer at the filter.

Pok

 

[gruntus]

Are you turning the filter upside down after bleeding all the Air/C02 out (in the photos it is the wrong way around....compared to when I use to use mine)?

 

[dicko]

All the seals seemed fine, all bar the threads of the of the nipples where the hose goes into the housing but that shouldn't make a difference as it was leaking a little to the outside...I need to put some thread tape on it.

Will give it a go with another beer next week that I have in keg (a K&K) so will see how that goes, it works then I can put it down to my AG process (haze etc)....if it doesn't then will have to look closer at the filter.

Pok

hi Pok,

If the beer is chilled when you are filtering then let the filtered sample warm up, - if it goes clear then it is chill haze, if it doesn't then it is yeast and the filter is not working properly.
FWIW I only filter with gravity now, as I found when I transfered with co2 pressure it allways forced a bit of yeast thru the cartridge.

Cheers and clear beers