Question about Dry Hopping & Filtering

In my last few IPA batches, I've experimented with large quantities of dry hops. Usually 5-7oz. in a 5 gallon batch. The problem I always have is the oils released usually cloud the beer quite a bit, even if I cold crash for 5-7 days. So yesterday, I was at the LHBS, and the owner and I were talking about filtering beer. I told him I was thinking about getting one of those whole house water filter systems that everyone seems to use, and trying it to see if I can get my heavily dry hopped beers any clearer. Below is what he said....

1.) He felt that those filter systems decreased the shelf life of beers, because no matter how much you purge the system with star san, there is always going to be oxygen trapped in the filter element that will be introduced to the beer.

2.) He felt the filter systems were really only good for removing suspended yeast & other sediment from beer. I asked him why he thought this, and he said that on heavily dry hopped beers, the filter will actually remove some of the oils from the beer, somewhat diminishing the returns of dry hopping. He apparently filters into a keg, then adds leaf hops in a bag to the keg, which then adds oils to the beer.

He wasn't trying to sell me an alternative product or anything, so I took it as interesting theories. Any thoughts on these, or common reasons that could debunk these ideas?

In addition, if anyone has any methods for getting clear beer that still has excellent hop aroma, that would be awesome.

IMHO any real hoppy beer should be cloudy from those tasty resins. I would actually be a little disconcerted if I saw a clear hop bomb, like a pliny.

If you really want to filter it you'll probably need a small micron filter (I'm not sure what the filter size is for the product your talking about but you'd probably need to be at .5-1 micron). Cold filtering would help to some extent too.

The other thing you might want to try is using a clarifier like gelatin or chitosan(sp). Might have better luck binding the resins to something like that than filtering.

As far as flavor differences, if be willing to bet you'd lose some hop flavor but I've never tried so that is by no means a guarantee

Are you sure its not chill haze? Personally my most heavily hopped beèrs are still clear and I also crash for several days before kegging or bottling

Do you bottle or keg? Are you sure you're not stirring up sediment when you pour? How long are you cold storing before consuming?

Filtering hombrew don't feel right somehow, just my opinion.
Cloudy beer can still taste fine.

Could always tell yourself it's a dirty glass

duboman said:

Are you sure its not chill haze? Personally my most heavily hopped beèrs are still clear and I also crash for several days before kegging or bottling

Do you bottle or keg? Are you sure you're not stirring up sediment when you pour? How long are you cold storing before consuming?

Click to expand...

I keg all my beers after cold crashing for 4-7 days.

I dry hop 3oz leaf hops in a secondary for 10 days, transfer to a keg and filter right into another keg using a 5 micron filter. This is with a citra hop. Still smells and taste's amazing. I wouldn't say it's super clear but it doesn't have floaties from the hops.

This works for me.