Do you filter your beer?

just curious what your thoughts are on filtering the beer either while transfering to the secondary or to the bottles? I was thinking to run it through one of them brass colored coffee filters.

KMKsuburbannoise said:

just curious what your thoughts are on filtering the beer either while transfering to the secondary or to the bottles? I was thinking to run it through one of them brass colored coffee filters.

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Probably not a good idea. You want to avoid oxidation as much possible after fermentation. Cold crashing is a better idea if you're trying to clear the beer.

I was just wondering because the Dunkel i just made had what I presume to be hops particles on the bottom. They don't really bother me, but I was just thinking of a way to get them out. I never thought about the oxidation part.

For this batch, I would either cold crash in secondary or just deal with the hop particles. Did you strain the wort as is it was going into the primary? That is the ideal point to strain as you'll filter the hop particles and some trub AND introduce more oxygen into the beer (and before fermentation, when this is a good thing!).

If you want to filter and have a kegging setup, there are some pretty affordable plate filter setups that will do the trick. The key is pushing the beer with CO2 in a oxygen purged environment... that way you won't have any issues.

You Really need to look into fining. Filtering is a slow and pain full process for the home brewer, and it will strip some flavor out of the beer.

KMKsuburbannoise said:

I was just wondering because the Dunkel i just made had what I presume to be hops particles on the bottom. They don't really bother me, but I was just thinking of a way to get them out. I never thought about the oxidation part.

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If you leave it long enough all hop particles will settle out. then rack from above the trub.

I filter my beer through my kidneys.

frazier said:

I filter my beer through my kidneys.

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Boosh! I'm here all week!

Use a hop bag. Screen into primary. Cold crash secondary. A product called super moss also helps with clarity.

I too have been throwing around the idea of filtering. I have a batch in the primary and an extra whole house filter just lying around and figured that I could just use it to get a better beer but it seems like in everything I read there is an almost 50/50 split on it.

Some say it strips flavor
Some say it's pointless
Some say it's good only when kegging

Is there any thing I have missed?

If you opt for a long primary you will eliminate the need to filter.

This is my yeastcake for my Sri Lankin Stout that sat in primary for 5 weeks. Notice how tight the yeast cake is? None of that got racked over to my bottling bucket. And the beer is extremely clear.



That little bit of beer to the right is all of the 5 gallons that DIDN'T get vaccumed off the surface of the tight trub. When I put 5 gallons in my fermenter, I tend to get 5 gallons into bottles. The cake itself is like cement, it's about an inch thick and very, very dense, you can't just tilt your bucket and have it fall out. I had to use water pressure to get it to come out.



Ths is the last little bit of the same beer in the bottling bucket, this is the only sediment that made it though and that was done on purpose, when I rack I always make sure to rub the autosiphon across the bottom of the primary to make sure there's plenty of yeast in suspension to carb the beer, but my bottles are all crystal clear and have little sediment in them.

Half the time I forget to use moss, and you can't tell the difference in clarity.

Another thing is to leave your beer in the fridge for at least a week. The longer you chill the beer in the fridge, the tighter the yeast cake. I had a beer in the back of my fridge for 3 months, that I could completely upend and no yeast came out. Longer in the cold the tighter the yeast cake becomes. Even just chilling for a week (besides getting rid of chill haze) will go to great lengths to allow you to leave the yeast behind, but with only a minimum amount of beer.

But like someone else has said, the only filtering I've ever done has been through my kidneys.

I just filtered my first beer ever on my home system. I love the results. The only flavor it stripped was that of yeast. Just my two cents. Oh, and that was carbonated beer as well.

what about cutting a piece of nylon from a strainer bag and tighening you botteling bucket spigot with it ? or tying a pice of nylon at the bottom of the racking cane?Or did someone already suggest this?

i don't wanna strip the yeast flavor. that's what makes it authentic

frazier said:

I filter my beer through my kidneys.

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*like*

Oh wait this isnt facebook

But anyway, what are you looking for with filtering? is it just clarity? I get crystal clear beers but do several things here is my typical beer.

I add 1 to 1.25 tsp of gypsum to my pre boil wort. I think the harder water helps stuff drop out later.
I add 1 tsp irish moss with 15 minutes left in boil
I use a huge straining bag that i line the fermenter with, 5 gal paint strainers work well too. It gets the hops out and a lot of the trub.

• Primary: 2 weeks or when ever i get around to it (some stay in a primary for 1+ month)
• Secondary: 2 weeks or when ever i get around to it (some stay in a secondary for 1+ month)
• Cold Crash the secondary for at leaset 3 days
• Transfer to keg or sometimes i make down a batch of knox gelatin and rack the cold beer over the gelatin into a tertiary container.

You dont need to use a secondary or tertiary, but i like to get my beer off the yeast after 2 weeks. I have not had issues leaving it longer, but its what works for me. I dont think the gelatin thing is necessary and i only do it about %50 of the time. it depends on how quick i need to get a beer into the keg. The only real thing i get out of the gelatin is that it eliminates a few ounces of sediment that wind up in the corny. I havent noticed anything that it does for clarity.

I use good ol' Whirfloc tabs and never have had clarity issues. In fact, besides a slight bit of chill haze, the beer is clear and I never have to mess with filtering. I dont cold crash the secondaries either. I do force carb though and that ends up cold crashing the beer before serving anyhow. Just this weekend, I had a friend who doesnt brew helping me comment on the clarity. Made me proud.

KMKsuburbannoise said:

just curious what your thoughts are on filtering the beer either while transfering to the secondary or to the bottles? I was thinking to run it through one of them brass colored coffee filters.

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I don't, never really felt the need for filtering my beer as it usually clears pretty well all on it's own. Regards, GF.

Fining with whirlflock or Iris Moss, and even geletin is about as far as I go. Others mentioned cold crashing and long primary times. I agree with them all.

Since I went to kegging, my filtration consist of removing sediment after pulling off the first pint of a keg. After that it's clear.

KMKsuburbannoise said:

I was just wondering because the Dunkel i just made had what I presume to be hops particles on the bottom. They don't really bother me, but I was just thinking of a way to get them out. I never thought about the oxidation part.

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I'd be worried about too much clarity, it is a Dunkel after all.

I use whirlflock and cold crash, but don't filter.
Here's a picture of a tripel I made. I was going to say it's pretty clear, but after looking at this picture, maybe I should consider filtering!? It really looks much clearer in person, I swear!

taking pictures to judge clarity of beer never worked for me either.

I've been thinking about it. There are a few yeast strains that just don't like to clear no matter what you do. (Wyeast 2565, I'm looking at you.) I'm also getting tired of crap settling in the keg. Yeah, it's clear after drawing your first pint... until you have to move the keg for some reason. I've been using gelatin and that's giving me reasonable results for clarity but not portability. I think for certain beers I might try filtration so see how it goes. If I do go the filtration route, I'll using a whole house filter or plate filter.