Some Filtering Discussion

Ive been brewing ales for about 8 months now and Im fine with the fact that theyre a bit cloudy and I do my best to pour my brews into pub glasses and attempt to avoid most of the sediment. My curiousity however is with filtration. Should I filter, will I have less sediment, will my peers be more impressed with my homebrews? Whats your opinion on filtering and some possible inexpensive methods to employ filtration at home?

scottmd06 said:

Ive been brewing ales for about 8 months now and Im fine with the fact that theyre a bit cloudy and I do my best to pour my brews into pub glasses and attempt to avoid most of the sediment. My curiousity however is with filtration. Should I filter, will I have less sediment, will my peers be more impressed with my homebrews? Whats your opinion on filtering and some possible inexpensive methods to employ filtration at home?

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Filtering will do you no good - I'm assuming you bottle, by your statement about pouring. And assuming you do a pretty good job of leaving the trub behind when you rack from the fermenter to your bottling bucket, the beer will clear out quite well.
the issue is carbonating in the bottle. That process will always create sediment, and that sediment can make your pours cloudy.

The only way I know of to get real, clear beer in a bottle, is to carbonate in a keg, and fill bottles with already carbonated beer - No sediment that way.

Who cares what your peers think about the cloudiness of your beer? I'll judge a homebrew on taste, but not cloudiness. Especially bottle conditioned beer - It's gonna be cloudy - That's the style. It's not a competition - And if you want it to be, make it a competition with yourself. JMO, really, but while I try to make better beer all the time, and hope my friends like it when they try it, but it's really all about me

IMO and experience, a bottle conditioned beer will not necessarily be cloudy by nature. I often bottle condition light beers like Pilsner and Kolsch and they are always crystal clear. The small amount of yeast sediment in the bottles typically adheres to the bottom of the bottle and does not get disturbed when pouring. Cold conditioning helps tremendously with clarity. I care about the clarity of my beer. Some beers, particularly those heavily loaded with hops such as an IPA can take quite a while to clear and some never do clear completely to the point of brilliant clarity. Obviously, rough handling of bottle conditioned beer or even transporting a keg can re-suspend what may have previously settled out of the beer. I often rack kegged beer to a second keg to enable me to transport them without churning everything back up. Finings also help a lot. I often use Polyclar or gelatin finings which can dramatically shorten the time it takes for the beer to drop clear. IMO, clear beers taste better, although that may be only an illusion. Mine certainly seem to taste different after cold conditioning.

Catt22 said:

Cold conditioning helps tremendously with clarity. I care about the clarity of my beer.

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Quoted for truth. Cold conditioning & a little patience helped me a ton.

after bottling, let them carb for a week or longer. when getting ready to drink them, put them in the frig for a few days and let the stuff settle (it will settle in the cold). when going to drink it, pour it carefully. problem solved. i do this, and i get crystal-clear beer.

Sounds good boys. Just wondering since my next brew to bottle is my mexican/german style ale. My previous two brews were an English Brown and a Cherry Wheat so I havent been able to see through anything lately lol