Filter Help

[Gytaryst]

I'm thinking about filtering my beer from the boil kettle to the fermenter using this kind of filter with a pump.

My thinking is that any oxygen this style filter might add won't matter at this stage since I have to add oxygen before pitching the yeast anyway. My question is:

I'd be filtering out a lot of the stuff that made from the mash tun into the BK, and then the stuff from the BK additions. If I filter it using say a 5 or even 1 micron filter, will I be taking out anything that might affect the quality of the beer in the end? I don't want to end up with Bud Light.

 

[bucketnative]

I think clogging will be a major hassle here. 5 micron is really fine when you're talking about boil kettle particulate. I just dump from the kettle through a sanitized stainless steel mesh sieve to strain out as much hop particulate as possible. It also helps to oxygenate as well.

 

[RM-MN]

I don't even try to filter. I just dump everything into the fermenter, let the yeast have its way with the sugars and then let gravity do its thing for long enough to let the stirred up trub settle. A bit of care in racking will leave most of that behind, a few minutes in the bottling bucket lets much of the transferred trub settle out there and very little ends up in my bottles.

 

[McKnuckle]

I thought there'd be more responses to this right away, so I held off...

Regardless of whether one attempts to filter or not from kettle to fermenter, you will FAIL gloriously with a membrane that fine. I have 75 and 200 micron filters and only the latter is even workable. You still have to manually centrifuge with a spoon in order to keep the solids from clogging things up. And this is the type that sits on top of an open bucket; it's much wider than the one you linked to.

I gave up using these gizmos a long time ago. I keep hops out of the kettle with bags or canisters, so those solids are a non-issue. And I simply ignore the break material, which is frankly impossible to filter without heroic measures.

 

[Dcpcooks]

I'd say it's a big pain in the butt for little if any benefit. I'm not a fan of either extreme i.e. Dump it all in or filter it all out, when it comes to wort production.

 

[Calder]

As noted by others, you are trying to do the impossible with that fine filter.

If you want to keep the larger 'gunk' out of the fermenter, use a straining bag. You can get 5 gallon (cleanable) paint straining bags from the hardware store.

If you use buckets, you can tie it around the top, and pull the bag out once everything is transferred. If you use a fermenter with a small opening, you can get a large funnel and line that with the bag.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Filtering is a disaster; anything considered a filter will clog instantly. I'm not sure the others are fully conveying exactly what an outrageous impossibility this is.
Just leave behind whatever solids you can in the kettle by racking.

 

[Gytaryst]

Oddly enough - I don't mind cloudy beer.

There are no "craft beer" people in my circle of friends or family. Out of everyone I know personally, only a handful actually drink "beer", and they are the typical Bud Light crowd. Bud Light IS beer - Beer IS Bud Light. I have to admit, it gets old brewing batch after batch of beer that only I will drink. It seems like this hobby would be a lot more fun and interesting with other people.

When I posted this I was contemplating brewing more lagers and trying to find ways to get them as clear as possible and bottle them from a keg with forced carbonation, blah, blah, blah, hoping I could convert one or two people into becoming home brewers with me.

To be honest I think I've just lost interest. I've got several thousand dollars invested in equipment, half my garage dedicated to brewing, and half the pantry packed with buckets of grain and cases on top of cases of beer that only I will drink. As much as I love beer - and as much as I've enjoyed learning how to brew it - enough is enough.

 

[McKnuckle]

Ouch. Say it ain't so!

My wife helps drink the beer I make, but not to a significant degree. I drink the vast majority of it, and that's only a pint or two daily. So it takes a while. Nevertheless, it's a fun and rewarding hobby. I brew 2.5-3 gallons at a time and keep about 4 kegs of that on tap.

One gets clear beer with good brewing practices and plenty of patience. If you want to rush things, it requires more heroic measures to produce clarity. If you just wait, it nearly always happens naturally. One of the benefits of lagering is, of course, visual and flavor clarity that develop over time.

Take a break... I just recently came back on HBT and had a brew day after about 6 months with no brewing, enjoying plenty of red wine and the (too much) beer I had on tap. Maybe you'll be refreshed with a little time away from it.

 

[RPh_Guy]

As McKnucke stated, clear beer happens naturally -- no need to filter.

You could think about brewing 1-gallon batches so you don't have as much to drink. I only get 9 or 10 12-ounce bottles per batch so I don't have to drink it for a month straight.

If your friends/family are willing to try new beers, you might be able to convert them. Just need to find their style. Maybe invite them out to a local brewery or somewhere with a good variety of craft selection. Sours, fruit beers, ciders, witbiers, hefes, anything else not too hoppy and a little bit sweet is usually good for newbies.

Also agree with McKnuckle, if you're just tired of brewing, take a break or try a new challenge. Make a new style, or some wine or cider or mead.

Cheers

 

[Addiktion]

I skimmed through some of the responses but what I do is put my hops into a mesh bag I had from my extract days and clip it to my BK. Next I run the wort through a pump into a whirlpool port on my BK. This takes a good amount of particulate out. If you don't have a whirlpool port you can use a spoon to make the kettle whirlpool. I dry hop by throwing in the hops directly into the fermenter (pellet) and I cold crash before kegging.

 

[Gytaryst]

Ouch. Say it ain't so!

My wife helps drink the beer I make, but not to a significant degree. I drink the vast majority of it, and that's only a pint or two daily. So it takes a while. Nevertheless, it's a fun and rewarding hobby. I brew 2.5-3 gallons at a time and keep about 4 kegs of that on tap.

One gets clear beer with good brewing practices and plenty of patience. If you want to rush things, it requires more heroic measures to produce clarity. If you just wait, it nearly always happens naturally. One of the benefits of lagering is, of course, visual and flavor clarity that develop over time.

Take a break... I just recently came back on HBT and had a brew day after about 6 months with no brewing, enjoying plenty of red wine and the (too much) beer I had on tap. Maybe you'll be refreshed with a little time away from it.

Great advice. I thought about doing smaller batches a few years ago but decided against it. And to be honest now, I have no idea why I decided against it. I think I was looking at doing 1 gallon batches and decided it was a lot of work and expense for not even a 12 pack.

My wife quit drinking years ago. She alwyas smells my beers and tells me what she thinks, and occasionally, (almost never), she'll take a little baby half of a sip if it smells intriguing.

We adopted our 3 year old grandaughter last year and that put a huge damper on the social "drinking" activity. We don't do much with the friends we had our age now because we have a toddler and they don't. And we have no desire to hang out with parents who have toddlers, (who are in our kids' age group). So we've pretty much become hermits. On the bright side, I can name all the characters and know all the lyrics to pretty much every Disney movie now.

I drink 1 or 2 beers a night, and the majority of those are store bought, so it takes awhile for me to go thru 2 cases of home brew. Doing 5 - 6 gallon batches my pantry is usually jam packed with cases on top of cases. And if it's a batch I don't particularly like it could sit in there indefinitely. I have a case and a half in there I brewed probably a year ago. I don't really like it, but I'm cheap so I can't bring myself to pour it out eiether.

At any rate I'm definitely taking a break just because i can't work up the ambition to brew anything. After reading your response I'm definitely going to seriously consider scaling back the size of my batches.

 

[Gytaryst]

I skimmed through some of the responses but what I do is put my hops into a mesh bag I had from my extract days and clip it to my BK. Next I run the wort through a pump into a whirlpool port on my BK. This takes a good amount of particulate out. If you don't have a whirlpool port you can use a spoon to make the kettle whirlpool. I dry hop by throwing in the hops directly into the fermenter (pellet) and I cold crash before kegging.

I don't have a pump. I have a center pick-up tube in my kettle, no screen or false bottom. I throw all my additions in bags and I use an immersion chiller. Whirlpooling is not really an option.

The idea of filtering came about because I was thinking I'm tired of brewing beer that I'm the only one whoever drinks. It would be nice to be able to share it just to get feedback. As a musician I would compare it to playing my guitar on stage and having people applaud vs sitting in my house playing it alone. Both have their pros and cons. Sometimes it's nice to just get off by myself and play - and other times it's great to have hundreds of people hopping up and down hootin' and hollerin' while I jam. With brewing, I just get to experience the playing alone part. It's fine - but it gets old.

I was looking into filtering hoping I could brew some crystal clear, colorless, flavorless, sediment free lager that my friends and family would be willing to drink.

But now that I think about it - it would be like abandoning rock-n-roll and doing rap just so I could get on stage. I'm not going to abandon brewing real beer and resort to brewing watered down flavorless beer flavored Koolaid just to get people who don't know any better to drink it.

 

[McKnuckle]

Gytaryst,

That's great. I started brewing 5 gallon batches because the hobby is so biased toward that volume, and what did I know? When I realized that I wanted to brew less beer, I made a few half-baked stabs at bottling and Tap-a-Draft packaging. But I had a keezer and I missed all of the convenience and quality that comes kegging.

Eventually, I gave in and bought 2.5 gallon corny kegs, even though they are about the same price as the ones twice their size. It was one of those "just do it" moments, and now that the money is long gone, I am really glad I did it!

I boil in an 8 gallon kettle, and mash in a 5 gallon cooler. So I can either batch sparge without a bag, or do full volume BIAB. I use an induction cooktop inside, so no more propane - or freezing my a$$ off in the winter. I have stopped using my larger volume gear. But I actually employ my 5 gallon corny kegs as fermenters now.

Anyway, one's personal situation is important, and we all have different needs, waxing and waning as they do with the circle of life. Good luck to you! (And you'll need beer to handle all those Disney movies! I've been there too...)

Cheers

 

[Addiktion]

Can you swap dip tubes? A side pick up tube could go a long way. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1504997562.899159.jpg

It took me awhile to switch from center to side but it makes a big difference

 

[Gytaryst]

Can you swap dip tubes? A side pick up tube could go a long way. View attachment 413446

It took me awhile to switch from center to side but it makes a big difference

This is my dip tube. I can just turn the tube around and do some slight trimming to make it a side pick-up. It's probably a 2 minute project - just haven't gotten around to it yet. For the past month or so I've taken a break from brewing and been focused on getting the area I use organized; new cabinets, counters, hooks, storage, and all that. I was planning on brewing an Oktoberfest but it's a little late for that now. So then I was looking at Holiday ales but can't find anything that intrigues me or excites me right now - so I figured it must be time to take a break.

 

[Addiktion]

I had issues with my keg clogging with hop material and particulate from my fermenter, once I switched to side and made a whirlpool is was a world of difference. I love making hoppy IPA's so I was having clogging issues and having to keg it then transfer it to another keg just to get the particulate out. It was a huge pain. I researched all sorts of filtering methods and just decided to go with side tubes and a mesh bag to toss my hops in and clip it to the kettle. As far as he dry hopping went it was my first time doing a cold crash and my keg didn't clog.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I drain my wort through a nylon paint straining bag (from DYI stores) on the way to the primary. The flow through the net also helps aerates it.

 

[metaltim]

The idea of filtering came about because I was thinking I'm tired of brewing beer that I'm the only one whoever drinks. It would be nice to be able to share it just to get feedback...... With brewing, I just get to experience the playing alone part. It's fine - but it gets old.

I was looking into filtering hoping I could brew some crystal clear, colorless, flavorless, sediment free lager that my friends and family would be willing to drink.

Two things:
First, meet your neighbors! When I pull my brew stand out in the driveway, the neighbors come over like flies to the light. I have a handful that drink and enjoy the beer, so my 10 gallon batches don't seem to stick around long. In fact, I went in half on ingredients for a cider, and my neighbor took one keg and tossed it in his garage fridge. I had an extra co2 tank/regulator and just a picnic faucet. Brewing is a great social activity, so if you haven't already get some neighbors over there.

Second, you CAN filter, just don't do it between Bk and fermentor. That simply isn't the proper time to do it. My uncle, who I got my equipment from, filtered every batch of his (style permitting) and has a stack of medals to show for the great beer. He favored german style lagers, and they were always crystal clear. He used a morebeer plate filter, but he dropped and broke it literally the day I went to his house to get all the equipment. So I got a filter like you linked, a canister style. It's easy to do with an extra keg and co2.

People can change their drinking habits. They just have to find the right beer. My uncle, who's almost 70 now, drank bud/bud lite since he was in college. (He was drinking bud before bud lite was even invented!)
He literally drank 1 or 2 every day for like 35 years.. then all of a sudden about 10 years ago, he came across Yeungling and enjoyed it. Then he had a blue moon and enjoyed it. Then the flood gates opened. Now he hasn't had a bud in his fridge for that long and has pale ales, craft lagers, reds, browns and your other typical year round offerings. He didn't go so far as the sour trend or barrel aged trend, he sticks with the basics.. but he drinks craft beer and he likes it.

 

[Gytaryst]

Two things:
First, meet your neighbors! When I pull my brew stand out in the driveway, the neighbors come over like flies to the light. I have a handful that drink and enjoy the beer, so my 10 gallon batches don't seem to stick around long. In fact, I went in half on ingredients for a cider, and my neighbor took one keg and tossed it in his garage fridge. I had an extra co2 tank/regulator and just a picnic faucet. Brewing is a great social activity, so if you haven't already get some neighbors over there.

Second, you CAN filter, just don't do it between Bk and fermentor. That simply isn't the proper time to do it. My uncle, who I got my equipment from, filtered every batch of his (style permitting) and has a stack of medals to show for the great beer. He favored german style lagers, and they were always crystal clear. He used a morebeer plate filter, but he dropped and broke it literally the day I went to his house to get all the equipment. So I got a filter like you linked, a canister style. It's easy to do with an extra keg and co2.

People can change their drinking habits. They just have to find the right beer. My uncle, who's almost 70 now, drank bud/bud lite since he was in college. (He was drinking bud before bud lite was even invented!)
He literally drank 1 or 2 every day for like 35 years.. then all of a sudden about 10 years ago, he came across Yeungling and enjoyed it. Then he had a blue moon and enjoyed it. Then the flood gates opened. Now he hasn't had a bud in his fridge for that long and has pale ales, craft lagers, reds, browns and your other typical year round offerings. He didn't go so far as the sour trend or barrel aged trend, he sticks with the basics.. but he drinks craft beer and he likes it.

I would love for my brewing to be a "social activity." My immediate neighbors are not very neighborly.

EXAMPLE: At Christmas time my wife, her mother, and her sister-in-law get together and make TONS of cookies. It's an all-day tradition, and usually turns into several days when all is said and done. Needless to say we all end up with plates and plates full of cookies that none of us could ever eat, so we give them away. We moved into this house in 2011 and started bringing plates to the neighbors within a house or two around us. We always got the strangest looks with an uncomfortable "thank you" as if we were breaking some kind of unwritten neighborhood code. We did that for the first 4 years we lived here and it never got any better. The same people would open their door and stare at us with the most suspicious unwelcoming unneighborly looks. So, right or wrong, we stopped doing it. They still make cookies, it's still part of the tradition, and we still give them away - just not to any of our neighbors. We've lived here 6 years and the only neighbor I actually talk to is the guy next door. I don't even know his name and at this point I'm embarrassed to ask. The lady across the street will smile and wave if we are outside at the same time. Other than that it's not a very "neighborly" neighborhood. The old Mexican couple to the left of us don't even speak English. She came over to ask about something i put out on the sidewalk and the neighbor across the street had to come over to translate.

I too brew in my garage with the door open. Most people drive by and slow down to stare, but don't even wave. One time the guy across the street came home and hollered, "You making whiskey?" I said, "No, beer." He just nodded and went in the house.

I've actually cut way back on how much I brew and have even considered selling everything and giving it up all together precisely because it SHOULD be a social activity and for me - it's not. Most of my friends and family don't drink. Those that do only drink at home because DUI laws have gotten so ridiculous. And of those few who do drink, some drink only wine, some drink only whiskey, and the few who drink beer, drink only Bud Light, or Miller Lite, or Coors Light, etc.

Like I said, trying to come up with a way to filter was in large part trying to appease the Bud Light drinkers and get them to at least TRY drinking something I brewed. But I've had a slight change of heart since originally posting this. I don't brew that much anymore, (it's just plain no fun doing it alone). When I do brew I'm cutting the batch size way down, (1 to 2.5 gallons). And I don't care if any of my Bud Light drinking friends try it or not. Now that I'm brewing smaller batches, I'd actually rather they didn't.