SigsNanoBrew
Member
My take on filtering is that stripping out every bit of live yeast "kills" the beer. You don't want to do that. The whole point of home brewing is to end up with a healthy, vital, living beer. Whenever I drink even a single pasteurized, filtered commercial beer, I have a hangover the next day. Even decent commercial beers like Guinness and Batch 19 Pre-Prohibition Style Lager.
Completely filtering out the yeast and then force carbonating produces a different carbonation than bottle or keg conditioning with yeast. With natural yeast conditioning, the CO2 is more highly dissolved and the bubbles are smaller, creating a better mouth feel and taste.
The way to produce a clear beer that's naturally carbonated is to use a highly flocculant yeast for the conditioning phase, such as Safale T-58. After racking to secondary and cold crashing out the main yeast, bottle or keg with your priming sugar and pitch with a small amount of a highly flocculant yeast strain.
The highly flocculant yeast will settle out fully giving you a clear beer and the other advantage is that carbonation will occur much quicker when you re-innoculate with fresh yeast. Your beer may not be as crystal clear as the over-processed junk that comes from the big commercial breweries but your living beer product will have more flavor and better health qualities. When conditioning in a keg the first slug will contain most of the yeast and the rest of it should be relatively clear.
My wife and I are vegetarians so I won't use isinglass or gelatin in my beers. Agar and pea protein are two vegetarian fining agents that I may experiment with in the future for light beers. But for most ales using Irish Moss (or Whirlfloc) in the boil plus cold settling is enough to produce an acceptably clear homebrew that tastes great and retains all the vital nutritional qualities.
Completely filtering out the yeast and then force carbonating produces a different carbonation than bottle or keg conditioning with yeast. With natural yeast conditioning, the CO2 is more highly dissolved and the bubbles are smaller, creating a better mouth feel and taste.
The way to produce a clear beer that's naturally carbonated is to use a highly flocculant yeast for the conditioning phase, such as Safale T-58. After racking to secondary and cold crashing out the main yeast, bottle or keg with your priming sugar and pitch with a small amount of a highly flocculant yeast strain.
The highly flocculant yeast will settle out fully giving you a clear beer and the other advantage is that carbonation will occur much quicker when you re-innoculate with fresh yeast. Your beer may not be as crystal clear as the over-processed junk that comes from the big commercial breweries but your living beer product will have more flavor and better health qualities. When conditioning in a keg the first slug will contain most of the yeast and the rest of it should be relatively clear.
My wife and I are vegetarians so I won't use isinglass or gelatin in my beers. Agar and pea protein are two vegetarian fining agents that I may experiment with in the future for light beers. But for most ales using Irish Moss (or Whirlfloc) in the boil plus cold settling is enough to produce an acceptably clear homebrew that tastes great and retains all the vital nutritional qualities.
