Okay HomeBrewTalk, I need your help. But first I'd like to ask people to refrain from telling me not to filter. I would encourage people that DO filter to share their thoughts.
What I want:
Diamond bright beer. Not the kind that you see in photos on the forum where people are bragging that it is "crystal clear" but isn't; the kind where I can see and anticipate an assailant's attack while looking directly through a glass of pilsner
. I want it that way after cold crashing the finished, racked beer for 2-3 days. I also want to be able to take a keg of finished, carbonated beer anywhere and not "kick up" a bunch of sediment at the bottom making my beer look murky. Those are my goals, and that's why I chose to filter.
My process today is this:
So, the idea is to drop the yeast or to clump it with gelatin, cold-filter the beer so that the proteins are clumped as well. First I used a plate filter and got terrible results on the 3-5 micron and 7 micron pads. In fact it may have made my beer CLOUDIER as crazy as that sounds. I attribute that to pushing the yeast with too much pressure and being a total newb at filtering. I did however get fed up with the plate filter and exchanged it for one of those canister ones because of how annoying it was to assemble the unit and constant air leaks everywhere. The canister is much better IMO at holding pressure and keeping air out of the beer, but my results are still dismal with this filter. I used the 1 micron nominal, don't know the manufacturer.
I brewed a very tasty blonde ale fermented with Belgian Strong Ale™ 1388 (very low floc, you know if you've ever brewed with it). It took it's sweet time to ferment (4 weeks) before showing ANY signs of dropping, I then racked it to a keg, threw a packet of knox gelatin (dissolved in hot water) over the top, closed, purged keg, and stuck it in the 32F fridge overnight. Next day, I filtered. This is what I got today:
46.8F
-52.2F
- 58 F
No change so this is clearly not chill haze, and it looks the same as the third pic at room temp. WTF is going on here? Filters don't work like that! I need some HBT insight.
What I want:
Diamond bright beer. Not the kind that you see in photos on the forum where people are bragging that it is "crystal clear" but isn't; the kind where I can see and anticipate an assailant's attack while looking directly through a glass of pilsner
. I want it that way after cold crashing the finished, racked beer for 2-3 days. I also want to be able to take a keg of finished, carbonated beer anywhere and not "kick up" a bunch of sediment at the bottom making my beer look murky. Those are my goals, and that's why I chose to filter.My process today is this:
- I brew 10 Gallon batches
- All grain, mash is recirculated (I brew on a Braumeister system)
- I usually don't do a protein rest, as my electric system takes time to ramp up to different temps and I worry about the variability of enzyme activity on different ramp times, etc. I want to be consistent, but understand the benefits of a protein rest.
- I control PH by pre-treating RO water, and adding salts (usually 9 grams of calcium chloride to 5 grams of gypsum for malty beers and close to vice-versa for hoppy beers. I split this amount into 2 additions, one for mash, one for kettle, aiming to have at least 50 PPM of calcium ions in the mash.
- I don't sparge, it's kind of like brew in the bag
- I usually mash for 45 min to 1 hour, I don't test for conversion. I taste the mash and I usually hit my numbers dead on.
- I always add whirlfoc and yeast nutrient at 15 minutes left in the boil
- Quickly cool my wort by using an immersion chiller and running electric kettle pumps.
- I always add gelatin to the keg directly after racking off the better-bottle and just before I throw the keg in my cold refrigerator (32F), although sometimes I don't see a point to it frankly.
- I've tried polyclar on occasion just to see if it would make a difference. Mostly I haven't noticed a difference because I don't think it's chill haze (photos to prove it forthcoming).
So, the idea is to drop the yeast or to clump it with gelatin, cold-filter the beer so that the proteins are clumped as well. First I used a plate filter and got terrible results on the 3-5 micron and 7 micron pads. In fact it may have made my beer CLOUDIER as crazy as that sounds. I attribute that to pushing the yeast with too much pressure and being a total newb at filtering. I did however get fed up with the plate filter and exchanged it for one of those canister ones because of how annoying it was to assemble the unit and constant air leaks everywhere. The canister is much better IMO at holding pressure and keeping air out of the beer, but my results are still dismal with this filter. I used the 1 micron nominal, don't know the manufacturer.
I brewed a very tasty blonde ale fermented with Belgian Strong Ale™ 1388 (very low floc, you know if you've ever brewed with it). It took it's sweet time to ferment (4 weeks) before showing ANY signs of dropping, I then racked it to a keg, threw a packet of knox gelatin (dissolved in hot water) over the top, closed, purged keg, and stuck it in the 32F fridge overnight. Next day, I filtered. This is what I got today:
No change so this is clearly not chill haze, and it looks the same as the third pic at room temp. WTF is going on here? Filters don't work like that! I need some HBT insight.
