Filtration

Need a good recommendation for a filtration system. I have been looking at the plate filter available from Williams Brewing but I've heard good and bad. What is the go-to filter for those of you who do this regularly?

wdwalter said:

Need a good recommendation for a filtration system. I have been looking at the plate filter available from Williams Brewing but I've heard good and bad. What is the go-to filter for those of you who do this regularly?

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Well, I don't filter regularly, but sometimes with a powdery yeast that resists cold crashing. Yeah, some years ago I tried the plate filter thing. Mine leaked like a bucket with a hole. I went to Lowes and got one of those 10 in under-sink filter units and rigged it to filter between kegs with a 5 micron filter. The thing works well.

I use the plate filter you referred to. It works fine for me, never really had any leaking problems. You can buy coarse, medium, and fine filters for it, but I've never needed anything other than the coarse filter to get clear beer. Make sure you cold crash before filtering, and use a really low pressure (~2 or 3 psi), otherwise it starts to bulge like it might pop a gasket. If it does start bulging just back off on the pressure until it has time to release. Also make sure you take care to tighten everything down with an even distribution of pressure on the wingnuts. The more sediment you have in your beer, the longer it will take as the filter begins to get full. Last time it took me about an hour, but I had a lot of sediment from spices. Overall I like it, but it requires some patience, close supervision, and a bit of tinkering to get it working just right. Hope this helps,