Clearer beer

[Squidmanoo7]

I been wanting to filter my beer out make it a little clearer I was wanting some input on a water filter from lowes used to filter beer

 

[stpug]

You can devise a plan to encourage clearer beer by first determining what the cause of the haze/cloudiness is, and then implementing a process that best deals with that situation. I have not found a filter to be necessary for most situations. Finings and time work really well for most situations, but you may want to pick a specific solution depending on the cause of the haze. For instance, lack of enough calcium can hamper reasonable sedimentation in which case the solution may be to simply include some calcium chloride or calcium sulfate in your brew water when mashing/boiling.

 

[Squidmanoo7]

Thanks

 

[passedpawn]

Filters work great, but note that you will need to use force (i.e., CO2) to push the beer through the filter - gravity won't do the trick. Also, don't bother trying to filter carbonated beer (very messy!).

I don't know if water filters will work. They might, but plate filters designed for beer and wine are available and might be the same cost. Be aware of the size of the filter pores. Yeast cells are roughly 5 microns (thousandths of an inch) in diameter. So 5 micron is about where you want to be. Bacterial can be much smaller. Not sure of the size of haze-causing protiens, but commercial breweries do remove that with filtration.

Even if you filter, you should cold-crash and then add gelatin in order to remove as much as possible prior to filtering. If the beer is still very cloudy with stuff in suspension, the filter is likely to clog pretty quickly, resulting in mess and frustration.

Note that you won't be able to naturally carbonate bottles after filtering unless you add more yeast. This is what Sierra Nevada does with their Pale Ale (filter, then add yeast for carbonating in can/bottle).

 

[DaWhip]

I ordered one of these about 30 minutes ago. Best price I have seen for a similar setup anywhere since it comes with all the attachments.

https://www.amazon.com/HomeBrewStuff-Beer-Filtration-Ball-Fittings/dp/B00420OIT8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1485371289&sr=8-2&keywords=homebrew+filter

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Do you add Irish moss or a whirl flock tab? That generally clears it for me, sometimes additional time if I forget the Irish moss.

 

[Squidmanoo7]

Yea I do whirlfloc just have a lot of yeast haze in non wheat beer

 

[stpug]

Yea I do whirlfloc just have a lot of yeast haze in non wheat beer

Based on the little bit of reading on filters I've done:

Filters are primarily used to "polish" up the clarity; you're generally feeding fairly clear beer to the filter to get brilliant beer out the other side. Too much yeast in solution and you can clog the filter, which can lead to other issues/problems/hassle. Additionally, there is potential for some minor flavor/aroma loss due to the filtering process. Everything I've seen says it's fairly minimal - on par with gelatin fining, from what I've gathered. Last, filters have a short lifetime - so when they're full you'll need to buy another filter.

If you think there may be potential that your process is complicating matters, or your mineral/chemical/pH make up is making things worse then run it by the fine folks here - I'm sure they'd be happy to give some advice. Yeast haze may be the easiest issue to resolve; switch strains and/or give it extra time to clear in keg.

Finally, I would certainly put a little time/effort into researching possible finings that are available in the homebrew market. Most are pretty easy to use and only cost you a small amount of beer and the money for the fining agent.

Boil fining: irish most, whirlfloc, supermosshd
Ferment fining: clarity ferm
Post-ferment fining: gelatin, isinglass, kieselsol, chitosan, super-kleer, biofine clear, biofine powder, sparkolloid