Filter batch before kegging

Newbie here, I want to filter out yeast. I am planning on kegging then pushing thru a .5 micron filter. I only have one keg so I plan on going back into bucket then back to keg. Advice? It is an Irish Red brew.


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You need not filter if you can cold crash the primary for 5-7 days at 35-40*F. I sometimes get asked what I did to filter the beer even though I don't.

How do plan to filter and not oxidize the beer?

 

Advice: Don't filter homebrew. It's not worth it. There are much better ways to get clear beer and the yeast doesn't hurt a thing.

If you are set on it, I will sell you my filter setup. Used only once!

 

Bigfloyd I plan to filter using a house filter. Can you tell me what you mean by cold crash?


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LovesIPA I know the yeast does not hurt anything. I just want to work on eliminating it from my beer. It is not a clarity thing just a personal preference thing.


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Having been in engineering for 40 years I do know what .5 of a micron is, I have a pocket full of them !

What do you think is left after .5 micron filteration ?

.5 micron is 0.0000196"
That's not the way to get clear beer.

 

Again I am not after clarity merly the removal of yeast. Maybe .5 micron is not it maybe 1 micron or 10 micron I am asking feedback.


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Cold crashing is when you move the primary fermenter to a colder environment to promote settling of yeast and other suspended particles. I typically do mine at 35-36°, 5 to 7 days. It really helps to clear the beer and firm up the yeast cake.

Please describe what you mean by a "house filter".

 

If yeast is your concern you won't need to filter. Sediment settles during secondary and during cold crashing/carbing. This mainly causes the yeast to "floc out" and fall to the bottom of the keg. If you go this direction you'll notice the first few times you pour a whole mess of grey/brown goo will come out. That's yeast and other sediment that has fallen out. Basically, going through the natural process of making homebrew will cause a lot of stuff to settle out. I'd imagine that most of your yeast would settle out by the time your keg is chilled.

The rest of your clarity issues would most likely be related to proteins. If you really want clear beer you can check out gelatin as a fining. For me I let it roll the way it is. Homebrew is actually pretty healthy unfiltered. Why change that?

 

If you want to use a whole house filter to filter beer, it's pretty easy. Just push from 1 keg, through the filter, and into another keg. You want to go fairly slow, so make sure to keep the pressure as low as you can and still get reasonable flow.

However, you probably won't have much luck with a 0.5 micro as it will tend to clog quite quickly. You'll want to filter with a rougher filter (5 micron or so) to get all the larger debris out, swap out to a finer filter (1 micron), and pass the beer through again. There is some debate about how fine of a filter starts stripping out various flavors from beer, so you may want to experiment and see if you taste a difference between 5 and 1 or 0.5.

 

Billl - as I am just starting one part of my concern is I will only have one keg so can I push back into a sanitized bucket or carboy? Or should it be a keg to limit O2 exposure?


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It is just a filter from the local hardware store and you can get different micron filters. Not charcoal but of a cloth or paper like material.


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"Billl - as I am just starting one part of my concern is I will only have one keg so can I push back into a sanitized bucket or carboy? Or should it be a keg to limit O2 exposure?"

A keg would certainly be better. If not, you could push to an open vessel. You need to treat it like siphoning though and minimize any air contact. It will be much harder to control the flow though so you might run into O2 issues. The back pressure from the closed keg keeps the beer from foaming and picking up O2 in the transfer.

Honestly though, since there is about zero benefit and at least some risk, you would be better off just letting the yeast drop on its own.

 

Hi BigFloyd, when you say moving the primary to a colder environment, for a cold crash, you mean AFTER the fermentation is done, wright?... Let's say 7 days in the primary for fermentation at 68-70 *F , AND THEN, (after fermentation is done) move it to a colder place at 35*F for another 5-7 days.
If that i understood correctly.
After that, what do you do: Secondary fermentation or bottling/kegging?

Thank You in advance for your response.

 

Ittido, I wish that when I had had some ideas that just were not good ideas, someone would have just said " no dont do that ", when they didnt , I look back and see what a waste of effort and time I had put into a bad idea. I would suggest that getting used to naturaly cleared beer is a good idea, so , no dont bother filtering homebrew. There are so many other aspects to the hobby that need time, money and constructive thought.
Enjoy the hobby, its a good one.

 

This may be a little bit of a hijack, but seem relevant. I'm thinking about filtering an IPA, because I tend to get little bits of hops in the beer when racking it after dry hopping, but I'm concerned that I may strip the essential oils from the beer. Thoughts?

 

Yes that's correct. I usually cold crash after about 10-14 days, but the actual cold crash is only for 2 days or so although I guess it wouldn't hurt to do it longer; I just think there's a law of diminishing return aspect there.

After crashing, I rack right into a keg.

That's a valid concern. There isn't a good reason to filter homebrew. Cold crashing will really help bring those hops to the bottom of the fermenter and your beer will be clearer. I was pretty surprised at how well the technique worked. Even dry-hopped IPAs come out with very little trub and hop debris.

 

I normally ferment about two weeks (FG plus 4 days) then move the primary bucket from my fermenter fridge to the lagering/cold crash freezer right next to it. After that, the lovely clear beer goes straight to the keg or bottling bucket.

 

Shotataduck, you are making a solution for a problem that don't exist.
The bits in your IPA are of your making!
Address the part of your process that is failing, then you won't need to think about filtering , you will be able to pour a beer , hold it to a light , then say that looks terrific, I made it, now I am gonna drink it. What an achievement.

 

Okay so I am leaning towards cold crashing. Currently my Irish Red has been in the secondary carboy for three days. New plan is to leave it until day seven then put into 35 degree give or take for seven days, then keg.....thoughts? Remember my goal is not clarity but yeast removal. I know it does not hurt you, I just want to minimize the amount in my beer.


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Why is it important to you to remove the yeast from beer?

 

Sounds like a plan. The first time you do this, you'll be amazed at the way it drops the yeast out and firms up the cake. It also helps to take care while siphoning to avoid putting the bottom of the siphon into the yeast cake. You'll have enough yeast left to bottle carb if you want, but the amount in the bottom of each bottle will be less.

Prime and bottle the beer cold. I like to use a sanitized spoon to very, very gently stir the primed beer to evenly distribute the sugar. If using a priming calc, enter the highest temp that the beer saw during the ferment process, not the cold crash temp.

 

The importance arises based on the ability of some to tolerate yeast. So then the challenge to remove as much as possible and still maintain a optimum level of flavor and body. Challenge accepted.


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Filtering also has the advantage that it can remove very small impurities from the beer - even those that would not fall out of suspension even during cold crashing or the natural aging process. Filters can remove particles as small as 1 micron or even smaller. This can result in a cleaner flavor and much better clarity than is possible with natural aging. Around 1 micron is the sweet spot for filter size - smaller than 0.5 microns and you risk filtering out some flavor, while larger ones (5 micron and up) may leave yeast in the beer. To filter out bacteria which some commercial brewers do for shelf stability, you need to go to 0.3 microns or below. But I don't recommend going below 0.5 microns Another factor when choosing filter size is how fast your filter may clog. Many commercial brewers actually use a two stage filter. They start with a 5 micron filter to eliminate the large particles and then use a smaller 0.5 micron filter inline as a second stage to filter small particles. If you have a large budget you can do the same, but for a single filter 1 micron is fine. Despite the fact that filtering can be used to accelerate the aging of your beer, you don't want to filter your home brewed beer too early. Some important chemical changes take place during the later phases of fermentation and early aging. If you halt these too early by filtering you will end up with poor flavor balance. Commercial brewers use a additives and techniques that allow them to filter earlier.
Allow the beer to fully complete fermentation and then sit in the secondary for at least 2-3 weeks before filtering, then move it to your keg. The filtering process is very simple if you use two kegs. Place your inline filter in between the full and empty kegs and use low CO2 pressure to transfer the beer from one keg to the other through the filter.

 

After all of that I'm still not a big fan of filtering out yeast, because of bottle condition procedures

 

Thanks to all for the constructive input. Cold crashed and kegged, worked great I will probably only cold crash and not filter.


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