Midwest Gift Certificate = Clarity Filter System

What the heck. It was $58 delivered to my doorstep, and I had $60 remaining on a gift certificate.

I'll only use it on my lighter pales, blondes and cream ales...but it was more or less just a toy than an absolute necessity.

It adds about 1 hour to the kegging process (for 10 gallons), but I don't mind the extra beer cave time.

SWEET! I'd be curious to see pics of a pint of filtered vs. non-filtered side by side.

ohiobrewtus said:

SWEET! I'd be curious to see pics of a pint of filtered vs. non-filtered side by side.

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You and me both.

I suspect that there will still be chill haze (these aren't professional polishing filters), but the time it takes for the haze to clear should be shorter.

I'm also confident that the yeast has been filtered out so moving a keg of beer that has cleared, shouldn't make it cloudy again.

Pretty neat - definitely would be nice to filter some light ales for non-craft drinking party goers, etc. I thought it would run more than $58 shipped; not bad!

I'd also like to see a side-by-side...

And if you decide it's really not worth it as a beer filter, you could use it as an uber hop back...A club had one of those jammed with hops @ natl homebrew day. It was sweet!

Revvy said:

And if you decide it's really not worth it as a beer filter, you could use it as an uber hop back...A club had one of those jammed with hops @ natl homebrew day. It was sweet!

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G E N I O U S !!!

I was just going to say...



"Here comes Randall, he's a beserker..."

the_bird said:

I was just going to say...

"Here comes Randall, he's a beserker..."

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c'mon lower hop prices...c'mon lower hop prices...

P'shaw! You only use six pounds of grain in those ***** little recipes of yours, you can afford the damn hops!

the_bird said:

P'shaw! You only use six pounds of grain in those ***** little recipes of yours, you can afford the damn hops!

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Yeah...butt eye lak to add about 5 pounds o table suuugar to get the alcheehol up thar...

BierMuncher said:

5 pounds

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That's supposed to be spelled 5ive powndz... Olde Timer

Did you flush the whole system with CO2 before you started to run the filter? It seems like you're getting quite a bit of bubbling on the out side. It would really suck to have crystal clear cardboard flavored beer!

Not that I'm one to begrudge a boy and his toys...






But haven't you long been our house advocate for fining with gelatin? How many times have you posted a picture of a crystal-clear beer? Don't I recall more than once you specially responding to a n00bie asking about filtering "Not necessary - look at this!"

thats awsome. does that filter wine also?

Speaking of noob's asking questions about filtering...

Has any one used compressed air (filtered) from a shop air compressor to pressurize the beer through a filter like this?
I would think this would be less expensive than emptying a CO2 tank. Or would you get some funky flavors from using air instead of CO2. I would think it might be ok since they make hand pumps for kegs that basically do the same thing just no pumping with compressed air.

Any ideas?

benedums said:

Speaking of noob's asking questions about filtering...

Has any one used compressed air (filtered) from a shop air compressor to pressurize the beer through a filter like this?
I would think this would be less expensive than emptying a CO2 tank. Or would you get some funky flavors from using air instead of CO2. I would think it might be ok since they make hand pumps for kegs that basically do the same thing just no pumping with compressed air.

Any ideas?

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Hand pumps to pump beer out of a keg are meant to be used when the keg is going to be killed over a couple days. Once you start pumping beer with air, you're introducing too much oxygen and the beer will spoil pretty quickly.

Oxygen kills beer.

BierMuncher said:

Hand pumps to pump beer out of a keg are meant to be used when the keg is going to be killed over a couple days. Once you start pumping beer with air, you're introducing too much oxygen and the beer will spoil pretty quickly.

Oxygen kills beer.

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So air after secondary fermentation = dead beer...:cross:

makes sense.

Lowe's has a similar house pre-filter setup for $37. I bought two and have one with a .5 micron prefilter and the next with a carbon filter. I use them in-line like that for my brewing water. This looks like a budget version of the one I got, but likely with some vinyl tube and the beer ends for cornie kegs on the tubes, right? You can change out the filters easily enough, I just wonder what you do with it in between filterings. Do you take the cartridge and save it? Rinse it out? Will this unit allow you to backflush it with water and cleaners? Would filtering a stout leave the insert unusable for a pilsner?

Anyway, too many annoying questions. After you play with it a bit, let us know how it goes.

I found centennial at lhbs, so my stab at your blonde is bubbling happily away (on cal-ale rather than dry notti).

Question on this, BM: do you need a march pump or something to push the beer through the filter?

It's pushed by CO2. You put this thing in-line between two kegs, one full of unfiltered beer and one empty. I believe you might first use the empty keg to purge the system with CO2, then hook it up inline and push beer from full keg, through filter, into empty keg using CO2.

How much beer is left behind in the housing?

Evan! said:

Question on this, BM: do you need a march pump or something to push the beer through the filter?

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Like Nathan said.

The keg on the left is full and the clear line is the out post. The red (gas) line is the in post. The keg on the right is empty and I have the clear line (beer) going into the out post. The lid is just setting loosely on top. This way the beer is pushed into the empty keg from the bottom.

I set the PSI to about 8 or so and it slowly pushes the beer out of one and into the other. I usually shut off the gas when it appears the keg is about ¾ full. The residual pressure will usually continue to push the beer.

Once the keg is full, I swap out for the polishing filter, switch the lines and reverse the process back into the original keg.

I usually end up with about 2 cups of beer in the filter canister.

If using tieing a keg up is not your cup of tea, you can use a carboy cap and use a hose barb to hook the CO2 in the offset port and cross-over hose going into the filter. Worked VERY well when I did it with a batch of wine back in January.


EDIT: With kegs, make sure to have the pressure relief open on the receiving keg open. Otherwise, it'll just cause the pressure to equalize to whatever PSI you have.

Also, with the carboy cap, if you over pressurize, it'll just blow the cap. No exploding carboys. That is all.

nathan said:

...I just wonder what you do with it in between filterings. Do you take the cartridge and save it? Rinse it out? Will this unit allow you to backflush it with water and cleaners? Would filtering a stout leave the insert unusable for a pilsner?...Anyway, too many annoying questions. After you play with it a bit, let us know how it goes...

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I have the same filter. I've used it a few times. The jury is still out on its effectiveness.

As for "cleaning" the filters all you need to do is backflush and it'll clear/clean up even after a stout.

Afterwards I'll let the filter drip dry. The instructions say to place it in the freezer. Strange?? After it's dry I place it back into the holder and fill it up with vodka and place a plastic wrap over it and hold it in place with a rubber band. There it sits until I need it again.

homebrewer_99 said:

I have the same filter. I've used it a few times. The jury is still out on its effectiveness.

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I agree. Not stellar results. One advantage I've found is that once the beer has cleared, if you move the keg you don't have to wait a 1/2 day for the beer to resettle.

I'd say it does a good job of filtering yeast, but is maybe only 50% effective in filtering proteins that cause chill haze.

I think I'll restrict its use to beer that I plan to serve at off-sites.