Filtering Leftover Krausen

Hey all,

One quick question before we bottle on Sunday. I'm noticing that, 5 days after adding gelatin for fining the beer, that there are still some noticeable chunks of krausen and what appear to be hops left floating on the surface of the beer.

They're not anything that will likely be all that noticeable, but with the beer being surprisingly clear (and tasty!) otherwise, it's just frustrating to still have 'floaties' on the surface. I really don't want these in the bottles, and will be using every ounce of caution available to avoid pulling up trub from the carboy.

My question is whether or not I can pass the beer through a fine sieve when transferring it from the carboy to the bottling bucket. I'm not talking about anything ridiculously fine like a proper beverage filter, but more something like this:

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_vZHCWTndBBY/SXj54tOz_HI/AAAAAAAAAWU/g0wvo6aPzxc/IMG_0323.JPG

I think that should get rid of all those little solids that the gelatin failed to clear out. Chill haze won't bother me as I'm used to drinking Hefs and other cloudy beers. Will I cause any significant aeration if we go slowly when siphoning through the filter into the bottling bucket? I'll be as careful with sanitation as I have been otherwise, but the addition of oxygen was brought up by my brewing partner as a concern.

Thanks again for all your help and support! Beer is a hell of a lot of fun when you're making it yourself.

- Budista

You might get rid of some of the chunks, but you'll oxidize the crap out of your beer and be left with nothing but wet cardboard flavor. Even if careful, you're probably opening yourself up to some oxidation concerns, so IMO it is not worth it.

Besides, after a week or two in the fridge those particles will usually settle to the bottom and they won't be of any concern anyway.

That was exactly our concern, so thanks for saving us from taking a chance and messing things up. It's been one mistake after another and we seem to still have something drinkable, so I'd rather not take my chances.

Thanks for the quick reply.

- Budista

No problem. Most of the particles will either be in the trub at the bottom or floating at the top, so as long as you siphon in a manner that stays just above the trub and doesn't suck in all of the top floaties there's a good chance you'll be left with almost crystal clear beer in the bottles. Here's to a good brew

Pantyhose over the bottom opening of the racking cane.

hope2perc said:

Pantyhose over the bottom opening of the racking cane.

Click to expand...

Take them off first......................................

I use a hopbag over the output of the syphon hose with a sanitized rubber band.
Hop bags (or pantyhose for that matter) over the intake can get fairly clogged and slow syphoning to a crawl.

i have found the use of pantyhose over the racking cane side to cause alot of air bubbles to form and loss of suction. i do however use it on the hose/outflow side and have had no issues.

Rowdy said:

i have found the use of pantyhose over the racking cane side to cause alot of air bubbles to form and loss of suction. i do however use it on the hose/outflow side and have had no issues.

Click to expand...

I couldn't say for sure since I haven't seen it, but that probably isn't air, it is probably CO2 coming out of solution as the beer passes through the "filter". Loss of suction is no good though.

Lost a long post full of questions. That's always frustrating.

Anyhow, with pantyhose do you just stretch it over the end of the tube that's in the bottling bucket? Do you leave some slack (like a filter pouch) so it doesn't back the siphon up with the accumulated solids? Is it necessary to use synthetic pantyhose; if so, how does one sterilize that? I use Steri-clean... will that work?

I'm all for kludging something together, but want to do it at least somewhat right. What I really want to avoid is aerating the beer and potentially screwing it up even more. These floaties are persistent and have been on top of my secondary for over 2 weeks now, so I have trouble believing that another 2 weeks in bottle will cause them to settle out.

Is it better to get something more HB specific like a hop bag? Can I use a sachet made out of cheesecloth that's been soaked in steri-clean and then thoroughly rinsed in clean water? This is confusing, as I'm worried about even freshly store-bought fabrics being full of potential chemicals or such that might affect the beer.

Any clarification would be appreciated.

- Budista

i use a sanitized rubber band and put it on the end of the tube in the bottling bucket. i do also leave a couple inches of slack so, 1. it dosent clog and 2. it dosent just push the trub through the stocking. works like a charm. as part of my cleaning i soak the stockings in hot oxyclean between uses rinse well and dry between layered towels. before use i put in a bowl along with a bunch of other stuff to be used during bottling caps and whatnot and fill the bowl with starsan solution until needed.
i try to buy the stockings that havent been dyed the color is slightly off white. walmart by me has these little eggs like what comes in the 25 cent machines.
each egg contains a pair of calf/knee high stockings for 33 cents.