Oops... forgot to filter

[Duncan345]

I just brewed my first batch last night. Everything went pretty well up until I was transferring to my primary carboy. I was using a funnel with a mesh screen, which clogged up after about 1/2 gallon of wort passed through it. So I thought to myself, "This isn't working very well... I am probably supposed to wait to filter this until I transfer to secondary."

So I pour the rest through the funnel without the screen, cap it, and put it in the closet. Afterwards I came to the forums and searched... turns out I was supposed to filter it after all. What should I do? Should I leave it with the inch-thick layer of hop pellet particles in the bottom, or should I risk contamination by pouring it back through a filter?

FYI, it is a 5 gallon batch of a nut brown ale... most likely a Newcastle clone. I used a White Labs liquid yeast.

 

[FlyingHorse]

Laeve it. Everything will settle out in primary, and your can leave it behind whenyou go to secondary or bottling.

 

[c.n.budz]

Don't worry about it, many people don't filter. Just be careful when racking to secondary, leave it in there for a couple weeks and you'll never know the difference.

 

[Duncan345]

Excellent, that is a relief. So I guess when siphoning to the secondary I should just be very careful not to get the sediment from the bottom.

I have a history about being OCD with my hobbies... after this 1 batch I am already thinking about cutting the top off of an old keg I have in my storage closet and ordering a Hop Stopper.

The good news is that I am already seeing some slow bubbles in the airlock and it has only been in there for 14 hours.

 

[Weizenheimer]

Tie a fine (sanitized) nylon hopping bag around your racking crane when you syphon to the secondary. It works like a charm!

 

[DeathBrewer]

what is this filtering nonsense you speak of???

 

[SteveM]

I tried filtering just once, thought it was a messy and wasteful effort, and have not done it since. It's not really necessary.

 

[sjwelna]

Glad it's not a big deal, I just brewed my first batch today and didn't filter it at all going into the primary! I'll just be careful when racking to the secondary to avoid pulling in any sediment.

-Steve

 

[mdowns63]

Here's a follow-up question just out of curiosity...if you use a hop bag to filter it before you go to secondary would that keep out the yeast that you need to carbonate if you are going to bottle? I haven't tried this and I probably won't, but I just want to make sure I am understanding the process.

 

[Dr_Deathweed]

unless you are pumping through a microfilter, yeast will still be there to carbonate. The hops bag just pulls out big particles.

 

[tuckferrorists]

Well after fermentation is done, you want to be as gentle with it as possible, trying not to oxygenate the beer. You should rack it rather than pouring through a filter. One thing to do on your next batch is to filter when you're pouring from your brew kettle, after chilling, into your primary bucket or carboy, then pitch your yeast. This way, you are filtering out the sediment AND oxygenating the wort which is great for the yeast to get off to a quick fermentation.

 

[Weizenheimer]

Here's a follow-up question just out of curiosity...if you use a hop bag to filter it before you go to secondary would that keep out the yeast that you need to carbonate if you are going to bottle? I haven't tried this and I probably won't, but I just want to make sure I am understanding the process.

I've never really thought about that. I force carb in my keg system so it doesn't effect me. I have a batch in the secondary right now the I filtered out of the primary with the hop bag on the racking crane and it seems to still have yeast.

 

[Bobby_M]

I believe you'd need a 1 micron filter to get yeast out. A nylon bag's mesh is like 100 micron so no worries.

 

[kejsport]

I had finished a fermenting and it very small residue from the hops I used in the boiling phase and went through the screen on the funnel. When I went to bottle it I tasted the unconditioned beer and it tasted like a gritty watered down piece of sh*t. I panicked... Then after I conditioned it and let it sit at 68 degrees for a month. It was actually very good. I just had to be careful when I poured it to pour slowly into the glass and not stir up the sediment, but it tasted very good.

 

[bud96ss]

Can you use a coffee filter?

 

[Dr_Deathweed]

I see a coffee filter getting clogged when putting your wort in your fermenter. If you are talking about using a filter after fermentation, i would say its not a good idea due to increasing your risk of infection, clogging, aerating your beer, etc...

 

[DeathBrewer]

no coffee filters. doesn't work and who needz it?