Filtering Beer - Extract

[dan_bowman]

Looking for opinions. I'm trying to find out the best way to filter our beers mostly for appearance. We brew mostly hoppy pale ales or IPAs and drop pellets directly into the fermenter (no hop bags or hop balls).

Do you think it is ok to filter beer going from secondary to my bottling bucket to remove hop residue? By filter I mean a combination of a few ideas. 1. Nylon straining bag over racking tube (set into the wort when syphoning from secondary) 2. Nylon bag over syphon tube into bottling bucket 3. Sending the beer through a double mesh strainer going into the bottling bucket

I just bought the double mesh strainer and am going to use it going from kettle to primary. But unsure about secondary to bottling bucket. Will I remove the yeast this? If I don't have the yeast then no carbonation (using priming sugar in bottles).

What are your thoughts?

 

[Sideways]

I wouldn't suggest filtering prior to bottling. You would likely oxidise the beer pretty heavily. If anything, look into using some finings in the fermentor after fermentation is complete.

 

[dan_bowman]

I wouldn't suggest filtering prior to bottling. You would likely oxidise the beer pretty heavily. If anything, look into using some finings in the fermentor after fermentation is complete.

I have been using Wirfloc tables during the boil and then Clarity Ferm before yeast is pitched. Do you know of any products I can use after fermentation is complete?

Been looking into cold crashing too. I've never done that before but I have a freezer that I could use for that purpose.

 

[Sideways]

Knox unflavored gelatin works for me but it really helps if the beer is cold when you add it. I've read it works at room temp but that it takes longer

 

[dan_bowman]

Knox unflavored gelatin works for me but it really helps if the beer is cold when you add it. I've read it works at room temp but that it takes longer

I plan to use that one my brew that is fermenting now. I will move the fermenter to a room temperature room and add gelatin at least a day (maybe two) before transfering to bottling bucket.

 

[ChelisHubby]

I plan to use that one my brew that is fermenting now. I will move the fermenter to a room temperature room and add gelatin at least a day (maybe two) before transfering to bottling bucket.

Dan two days at room temp will not clear very much with Gelatin, Sorry but at room temp a week or more.

 

[dan_bowman]

Dan two days at room temp will not clear very much with Gelatin, Sorry but at room temp a week or more.

You think it is worth using gelatin before moving the fermenter? Trying to get everything to settle before I transfer. Previously I have been transfering only an hour after moving and have been getting a lot of sediment, assumed because the wort didn't have time to settle.

 

[ChelisHubby]

Dan why not just siphon from the fermenter to the bottle, be careful to keep the hose end out of the
trub. this will disturb the yeast and trub the least . I would use the Gelatin if I had 3 or more days and could cool it to 40 or so. I don't under stand the purpose of the bottling bucket unless you are secondaring with it. I put a small fridge tap button on my siphon hose and fill my bottles with that. at the end of my siphoning I will have a bottle that gets into the trub and I label it grub and use it for tasting after a few weeks.

 

[dan_bowman]

Dan why not just siphon from the fermenter to the bottle, be careful to keep the hose end out of the
trub. this will disturb the yeast and trub the least . I would use the Gelatin if I had 3 or more days and could cool it to 40 or so. I don't under stand the purpose of the bottling bucket unless you are secondaring with it. I put a small fridge tap button on my siphon hose and fill my bottles with that. at the end of my siphoning I will have a bottle that gets into the trub and I label it grub and use it for tasting after a few weeks.

I suppose that is possible but I would need to add my priming sugar to the fermenter and stir. Yeast is disturbed. The bottling bucket makes it easy with the spigot. And transfering from secondary to bottling bucket gives you another chance to remove the beer from the trub.

 

[ChelisHubby]

Ok if that works for you.

 

[john901]

I just got one of these. I was going to put it on when transferring to the bottling bucket or when bottling. How would filtering cause oxidation? Unless you mean pouring into a filter.
I do not see how adding a filter would cause oxidation. The only thing i see with a filter like this would possibly be contamination. I imagine i will clean and sanitize it well each time.
Im thinking it'll strain out all but little bits of yeast.
Anyone use one of these before?


http://www.homebrewing.org/14-b-Sanitary-in-line-Filter_p_3594.html

 

[jahdub]

Where do you currently keep your fermenter? To clarify your beer, you should be moving it to a colder place (ie. cold crashing) not a warmer place.

I've never used gelatin, but a couple days at 40F gets 3-4 ounces of dry hops completely out of suspension.

 

[chickypad]

I just got one of these. I was going to put it on when transferring to the bottling bucket or when bottling. How would filtering cause oxidation? Unless you mean pouring into a filter.
I do not see how adding a filter would cause oxidation. The only thing i see with a filter like this would possibly be contamination. I imagine i will clean and sanitize it well each time.
Im thinking it'll strain out all but little bits of yeast.
Anyone use one of these before?


http://www.homebrewing.org/14-b-Sanitary-in-line-Filter_p_3594.html

You can't filter the yeast out of your beer then bottle carb. Besides that looks like an air filter, I don't see you having success pushing your beer through that with gravity. True filtering systems are done with CO2 and kegging, like this system. If you're talking about straining out dry hops then just put the nylon bag over the tip of your racking cane as you mentioned. Submerged in the beer that shouldn't oxidize it, but pouring it through a strainer on the way to the bottling bucket will. I don't personally find the need to strain my dry hops, they settle out after conditioning cold.

 

[Yooper]

Agreed. That seems to be a filter for air for oxygenating your wort. I can't imagine that you could gravity filter with that. And even if it could, it will clog almost immediately.

Filtering requires an actual filtering set up. 5 µm means that it would remove many of the things that cause haze but there would still be yeast to bottle carb. There are some wine filters that use a pump to do this, but most Brewers use CO2 and kegging equipment to push the beer.

You can only filter a fairly clear beer anyway because debris would clog the pads even if you use coarse pads in the first filtering round.

 

[passedpawn]

It's tough to get a fairly clear batch through a large plate filter. That filter above is going to clog in 3 seconds.

If you don't have a kegging setup, rely on time, cold, and finings to clear your beer.

There, I think I repeated what everyone else said.

 

[dan_bowman]

Where do you currently keep your fermenter? To clarify your beer, you should be moving it to a colder place (ie. cold crashing) not a warmer place.

I've never used gelatin, but a couple days at 40F gets 3-4 ounces of dry hops completely out of suspension.

It sits in a basement closet at 65 degrees until the day before I transfer. I move it a day before to let everything settle from being moved.

 

[dan_bowman]

I'm thinking next time I got to bottle I will put a hop bag at the end of the hose secured by a stainless steel clamp to catch any particles in suspension

 

[jahdub]

I tried a hop bag after my first IPA bottling session was a disaster and didn't have much better results. 3rd IPA was left in my kitchen fridge overnight (all I could spare, since it was my only fridge) and the difference was amazing. I highly recommend cold crashing all hoppy beers. Using a ferm freezer makes it easy, I just turn it down to 40 a few days before I wanna bottle.