Conditioning Question

[Johnson1522]

So my hefe is 13 days in the bottle. It still has a slight twang to it. Not a vinegar sour but more like a orange peel bitter. I'm sure everyone here will tell me to "there are no shortcuts" or "try again in a week or two." So that's just what I'll do.

Hypothetically, what effects do Brita filters have on beer? Could it be used to get the tartness out? I can't be the first who has thought of that. I'm guessing I'd lose some flavor and probably end up with a flat beer?

I'd hate to waste a potentially good beer just to find out it's gonna fail. It seems that if it worked, more people would be doing it.

 

[freisste]

You want to run beer through a Brita? Or water to use for brewing?

 

[Johnson1522]

I don't actually want to do either. I'm more or less curious what would happen if I ran a young/green beer through a Brita filter.

 

[jvhoef]

My guess is you would end up with something very watery tasting but I doubt it would target just the bad flavors. Maybe ask some of the guys that filter before kegging what they use?

 

[BigFloyd]

13 days??? You know that you're tasting "green" beer my friend, so why try to mess with it? Running it through a water filter now will just ruin it.

It really does take 3-4 weeks at 70*F in the bottles to condition. Longer if your temps are cooler. Filtering it will not help, time will.

 

[Johnson1522]

13 days??? You know that you're tasting "green" beer my friend, so why try to mess with it? Running it through a water filter now will just ruin it.

It really does take 3-4 weeks at 70*F in the bottles to condition. Longer if your temps are cooler. Filtering it will not help, time will.

I appreciate your response but it doesn't address the question I've asked. I've stated twice that this is young/green beer. I've also stated that I'm aware it isn't finished. Furthermore, I've stated that I have no real intention of actually doing it.

My question was a hypothetical question asked in a search for a better understanding of the art. I'd appreciate a simple "I don't know" rather than the instant criticism you've given me. I'm not interested in helping my beer. I want to know what effects a Brita filter will have on beer.

 

[BigFloyd]

OK. Maybe I misunderstood. I thought you were concerned about the tart flavor of your still-green beer (if you'll read my response again, I acknowledged that you were aware of that).

The question posed by you concerned the potential effect of the Brita filter on the flavor of your hefe and "Could it be used to get the tartness out?"

I tried to answer your question plainly by saying - "Running it through a water filter now will just ruin it."

 

[gnomeontherun]

Britas (and many other water filteration systems) are a carbon and based filter. I can tell you what this does to water (which is most of what your beer is ), and that is to remove off flavors from chlorine and it also has an effect similar to water softeners.

Again I can't know for sure without doing it, but I would suspect it would kill the carbonation in the beer, soften the water, strain out some of the suspended yeast (should there be any in the hefeweizen), deposit small bits of carbon into your beer (it does it to my water), and grab some of the floating impurities in the beer (which are probably desired compared to tap water).

Ultimately to find out, you'd have to try it. I'd be curious to know if you poured a small sample into a glass and then another sample through a brita. I'd bank on the beer taking a beating by going through the brita.

 

[freisste]

I would guess it would be flat and you would lose some good with the bad.

And considering a Brita is meant for clean-ish water, you would likely destroy the Brita filter.

 

[Johnson1522]

BigFloyd,

Maybe I'm the one who misunderstood. Your post made it seem as if you were one of "those guys" who simply reads the first line of the first post and then tells the poster how foolish they are. Taking your idea further, why would it ruin it? What specific effect would it have.

 

[Johnson1522]

strain out some of the suspended yeast (should there be any in the hefeweizen)

I actually prefer a cleaner Hefe. I've spent some time in Germany having the real thing and the true flavor isn't my favorite. This brings up an interesting question. Isn't the suspended yeast the probable cause of the bitter flavor? Maybe I'm just completely misunderstanding the process of conditioning. Can anybody predict the effect of filtering before bottling?

I'd bank on the beer taking a beating by going through the brita.

Agreed, I can't see much good coming out of it.

 

[conneryis007]

If you dont like a true german hefe flavor, next time try brewing it with an american ale yeast and it will come out as an american wheat beer...no banana/clove flavor.

A brita does remove some particulates, but it primarily neutralizes flavors (as a flavorless water is what people perceive to be clean water). My only experience putting weird things through a brita is vodka. A brita will turn cheap crappy vodka into very easy drinking, super smooth vodka that you could pawn off as top shelf! Beer on the other hand isnt deemed best when tasteless like vodka. I think that as well as the other things people have mentioned before me, the beer would come out with very little or at least less flavor!

You can think of conditioning as time for suspended particles to drop, yeast by-products to clean themselves up and a "marinating" process where distinctly different flavors come together as one!

 

[BigFloyd]

Taking your idea further, why would it ruin it? What specific effect would it have.

No worries.

The Brita runs the liquid through an sediment filter and then through activated carbon and ion exchange resin. They're designed to remove 1) sediment and 2) chlorine, unhealthy metals (like lead and cadmium) and zinc (which gives a metallic taste).

If the goal is to reduce/eliminate sediment for clearer beer, that's done much better through brewing techniques like adding Whirlfloc (or Irish Moss) @ 10 min, chilling the wort quickly, whirlpooling and allowing settling before draining the kettle, cold crashing, careful racking, etc.

Chlorine and the metals should have gone buy-buys via filtering the brew water (I use an RV hose filter w/ carbon) and boiling way the chlorine. You should also add 1/2 campden tab if your town uses chloramine in addition to chlorine.

Unless an off-flavor is caused by one of the things mentioned, the Brita contributes nothing. Also, if you tried to use it pre-bottling, I would be concerned that it would lead to bacterial contamination. Once the beer is carbonated, pretty much all you can do for it then is drink it.

 

[Johnson1522]

Conneryis007...thanks for the advice. Next time I brew a similar style I may give that a shot.

BigFloyd...what you're saying makes perfect sense. Irish moss may be a nice addition to my next batch. Thanks for the tips and info.

 

[BigFloyd]

Conneryis007...thanks for the advice. Next time I brew a similar style I may give that a shot.

BigFloyd...what you're saying makes perfect sense. Irish moss may be a nice addition to my next batch. Thanks for the tips and info.

If you haven't bought it yet, I've tried both and like Whirlfloc better.

 

[Johnson1522]

I think I'll try both then...in separate batches, of course.