filtering after fermenting?

Hello everyone?
in the past week or 2 ive read alot about home brewing on this forum, online and such so i decided yesterday to buy a kit and some ingreidents. i made 'Mesa trail pale ale'. so heres a question that had me thinking.

is it okay if i 'filter' after fermenting? just to get clarify my brew?
like, can i attach a paper coffee filter at the end of a siphon hose when transfering to the bottling pail?

Thanks in advance.

No, you cannot if you are bottling.

This is because when you bottle, you add sugar to the beer so that the yeast will eat the sugar in the bottle and emit CO2 - thus carbonating the beer. If you filter the beer, you will filter out the yeast and thus bottle carbonation will not be possible.

ah that acualy makes sense...not sure why i didnt thought of that lol. thanks!

you can transfer to a secondary for a few weeks to help it clear. Or perhaps use Gelatin. I'm trying gelatin right now. There is a thread about it's use here:https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/gelatin-finings-53912/

irish moss...whirlflock......do a search for fining agents. I always use the later because gelatin always scared me for some reason. If and when you ever begin to keg your beer you will be able to filter it because its carbonated via a tank and not yeast. Atleast it will give you something to shoot for

The advice already given is good do what they said. But for the record a coffee filter is no where near fine enough to filter out so much yeast as to prevent carbonation.

You also want to avoid mixing up the fermented wort when you transfer. Adding oxygen to it at this stage could lead to the dreaded off flavors.

Use gelatin finings in the secondary. But the most import thing is time. The longer you let your brew sit in the primary/secondary the more particles will fall out and become compact on the bottom.

When racking from the primary to the secondary tie a sanitized nylon hopping bag to the end of the racking cane. Rack through it and it will help filter out most of what you don't need and let all the good stuff through. I have posted this a number of times, am I the only one that does this? It works great!

I don't do that because it's not necessary. If you need some kind of filtering mechanism during transfer, odds are that you're not giving the beer enough time to drop the yeast and sediment out. The beer pic in my avatar used no finings in the boil, no finings in secondary, no filtering at any time. I simply wait.... then I crash chill the secondary for 3 days, then I keg. I'd do the same if I was still bottling but then I'd stash the beer in the fridge for two weeks after I verify carbonation.

jsullivan02130 said:

You also want to avoid mixing up the fermented wort when you transfer. Adding oxygen to it at this stage could lead to the dreaded off flavors.

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+1 to this. You will definitely oxidize the beer by doing this.

I do use whirloc tabs but i truly think the key is time. once the yeast are done they have to lay down and go to sleep. leaving you clear beer. I bought a filter about a year ago and have only used it once. What a waste of money imho.

Bobby_M said:

I don't do that because it's not necessary. If you need some kind of filtering mechanism during transfer, odds are that you're not giving the beer enough time to drop the yeast and sediment out. The beer pic in my avatar used no finings in the boil, no finings in secondary, no filtering at any time. I simply wait.... then I crash chill the secondary for 3 days, then I keg. I'd do the same if I was still bottling but then I'd stash the beer in the fridge for two weeks after I verify carbonation.

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I agree with you that patients is important. I find the hopping bag can save your butt if you accidently dip your racking cane in the crud.

since this is my frist brew, ill do this without using anything and ill let you guys know how it turns out.

Thanks for the replies!

JohnnyKim said:

Hello everyone?
in the past week or 2 ive read alot about home brewing on this forum, online and such so i decided yesterday to buy a kit and some ingreidents. i made 'Mesa trail pale ale'. so heres a question that had me thinking.

is it okay if i 'filter' after fermenting? just to get clarify my brew?
like, can i attach a paper coffee filter at the end of a siphon hose when transfering to the bottling pail?

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

To filter your beers, you'll need a kegging setup to drive the beer from one keg through a plate or cartridge filter into a second keg. As others have said, attempting to filter beer that is to the bottle conditioned doesn't work and you'll end up with oxidized or sweet and flat beer, or both.

There are numerous ways to improve the clarity of your beer, ranging from additives/finings that are added at various stages of the brewing/fermenting process (e.g. Whirlfloc late in the boil or gelatin in the fermenter), to physical methods like cold crashing and extended storage.