First Filter was a Fail

Used one of the disc filters you can get on Williams Brewing last night for the first time (the kind the Brewing Network recommends). I was using a 'rough' filter.

I had a pale ale that crash cooled for about 3 days, racked to the keg, cooled it again, then filtered it. After 1.5 hours, the filter simply would not push through any more liquid. I believe I lost about 1 gallon of my 5 gallons of brew to the filter and left behind unfiltered.

Any advice for not jamming up the filter next time and getting a better flow rate? I was transferring at around 5-7psi - whenever I exceeded that, the filter started to ooze out beer on the sides.

After 1.5 hours, the filter simply would not push through any more liquid.

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A 5 gallon batch should not take more than 15-20 minutes unless you forgot to vent the receiving keg.

Any advice for not jamming up the filter next time and getting a better flow rate?

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Some old info.
If no help let me know.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/filtering-pad-usage-clogging-time-clearing-sanitizer-113176/

I was transferring at around 5-7psi - whenever I exceeded that, the filter started to ooze out beer on the sides.

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Over 7 psi the filter housing separates.

Cheers,
ClaudiusB

over 6 psi and you are going to have clogging issues. did you dry hop?

Can't answer your question as I've never filtered my beer. It's more of I am curious as to why bother as a homebrewer. I can understand a commercial brewer needing to clear the beer fast. I have a Pale Ale I did 30 days ago and it's as clear as can be, no filtering whatsoever. Whirlfoc in the boil, cold crash for a few days and that's it.

ClaudiusB knows his beer, I'd listen to whatever advice he puts forth on filtering.

filtering is a little much for homebrew. Beer will clear on its own if given enough time.

I did dry hop the beer - I think the reason it got clogged so quickly was because I shook the keg up beforehand and got the yeast back into suspension. I'm going to filter another beer sometime next week and not move the keg at all until then.

As for why to Filter - I personally have three reasons:

1) I am constantly transporting my beer. That big slug of yeast in the bottom of the keg gets stirred up everytime I move the keg. Aside from a taste difference, most of the people drinking my beer are non-homebrewers and don't really enjoy tasting a super hazy/yeasty beer.

2) At least two of the regular drinkers of my beer get some serious gas/**** problems from my yeastier beers. This is my attempt to make their enjoyment of my beer have less consequences on the back-end.

3) I'm super impatient and hate waiting for the conditioning to take place. Lagers and High Gravs I understand more, but if I can have my ales ready to rock in less than a month from brewing, I'm all for it

pacebrew said:

filtering is a little much for homebrew. Beer will clear on its own if given enough time.

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Not always. I've had beers that would not clear, maybe 1 in 10, 1 in 20. Filtering can also be useful for ciders and wines.

Filtering also can do more than to achieve visually bright beer. It can yield colloidally stable beer or micro-biologically stable beer. Time and cold doesn't do these well though it may produce a bright beer (nearly always with good technique and a wise choice of yeast).

I do think the primary application of filtering to home brew is one mentioned above, to produce a beer that is clear even after transporting a keg.

I think shaking the keg was the culprit. Not doing that and running off the first cloudy part before hooking up to the filter should fix the problem.

I haven't used the "disc" type filters but I've never had a holding capacity issue with 1 micron and 5 micron cartridge filters.

Stevorino said:

1) I am constantly transporting my beer. That big slug of yeast in the bottom of the keg gets stirred up everytime I move the keg. Aside from a taste difference, most of the people drinking my beer are non-homebrewers and don't really enjoy tasting a super hazy/yeasty beer.

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I know this isn't about filtering but you can basically eliminate this problem by transferring to another keg after letting it settle for a few days. Make a keg jumper and discard the first and last bit that come through