Polyclar And A 5 Micron Filter

[jeremy]

Hey guys,

Just asking a question on behalf of a mate (who is at work at the moment). He has a party tomorrow, and has dutifully been brewing up a ultra light/dry k&k for the swill lovers. He wants to keg it tonight, and would like to filter / clarify it to within an inch of its life. He is concerned at the moment that if he adds polyclar and passes it through a 5 micron filter, the polyclar might not get filtered out, and might end up in the glass, ie he is concerned that 5 microns is not fine enough.

Any thoughts? Is it praps not worth worrying about filtering if he only has a 5 micron filter?

Cheers,

Jeremy.

(PS, it was to be gravity filtered)

 

[marlow_coates]

If you add Polyclar to cold conditioned beer (still cold - the colder the better) it is fine to filter within 10 or 20min. The polyclar falls out of solution very quickly.

I would polyclar, let sit for half an hour, rack off into keg, filter from keg to keg, force carb, and serve.

Presto.

Of course I don't filter, and I have only Polyclar'd once :icon_cheers: This is just my understanding but I see no major flaw in it.

Good luck

Marlow

 

[jeremy]

Cheers Marlow,

Its in the keg and cold conditioning at -1 atm. I will pass your comments on.

Anyone else had any experience on the subject?

 

[floppinab]

I'm assuming you are talking about Polyclar VT, there are a few other specifications, all with different particle sizes. I understand VT has around 140um particle size. Given that a 5um filter should give you no problem at all.

 

[lobo]

thanks fellas, i will be into it shortly.

Lobo

 

[technocat]

Jeremy you could spit peas through a 5 micron filter and you are right it aint fine enough for filtering beer. I use a 5 micron filter for water via a pump from a tank as we are on rain water but IMO 1 micron absolute would be max for beer

 

[buttersd70]

it aint fine enough for filtering beer.

it all depends on what you want to filter out....5 micron will do diddley squat for clarity from the perspective of yeast/protein, but for the sake of filtering out particles >5 microns in size, it's fine.

I don't know the specs for PPVT, but if it is 140 mic as stated, then that is a lot bigger than 5 micron....

(and it wouldn't surprise me. The particles are small, but not microscopic.)

 

[technocat]

Don't agree with you there butters, if you are not going for clarity and sparkle why bother using a filter at all.

 

[buttersd70]

Clarity doesn't have to come from the filtration itself...in this case, the filter isn't for the purpose of clarity (or at least that's how I interpreted the question). It's to stop the polyclar from making it into the keg.....the drinkers surely won't want to be chewing on plastic particles, I'm sure.

For clarity, it would either need to have already been cleared, either through extended cold conditioning and/or fining; or alternatively passed through a 1micron absolute.

That being said, if the beer is cloudy from yeast, there's no point in polyclaring it purely for aestentic purposes, because the yeast haze will be worse than any chill haze would be. I presume he's not using it for stability, given that it's going to be drunk quickly, anyway.