Filtering anyone?

[strat_thru_marshall]

I might catch some heat from this forum, but I recently picked up a plate filter and filtered my first few batches.

Wow, this is easy and the beers look amazing. Here's the rig:

And here's a pilsner that was brewed 6 weeks ago and was still very cloudy in the carboy:

wow. I also filtered a 3 week old blonde ale that was made with cal ale and was still somewhat hazy.....brilliantly clear. amazing. Im in. This rules. easy, quick, no more gelatin in my beer...good stuff.

Anyone else here filter?

 

[John_FL]

How tough is the filter to clean? My only concern would be stuff growing in there.

This is a dumb question unrelated to the filter, but why do you have the keg you are pushing into sitting on top of that pot?

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

How tough is the filter to clean? My only concern would be stuff growing in there.

This is a dumb question unrelated to the filter, but why do you have the keg you are pushing into sitting on top of that pot?

The filter is amazingly easy to clean. it comes apart into 3 pieces, and is very easily rinsed and sanitized. You use one set of filter pads per beer (and you can pretty easily get a 10-15 gallon batch off one set), and just toss them after you filter...no washing the pads.

I had the receiving keg elevated because i was getting some very slight co2 bubbles on the outlet side, and having it elevated kept the foam from collecting in the line. I modified the outlet nozzle of the filter after that first batch, it had a slight burr in the plastic, and now i get no co2 bubbles.

 

[Buna_Bere]

That looks refreshing, how many microns was that filtered through?

Bob

 

[Bob]

There's nothing wrong with filtering. If there was, 95% of the "craft" beers people here have beergasms over wouldn't exist. If brewers who filtered beer lost street cred for so doing, there wouldn't be a craft-beer industry.

If you catch heat for filtering, if someone tells you you're less of a brewer for filtering, that person is a ******. A filter is simply another tool in the good brewer's kit.

Simple as that.

Cheers,

Bob

(who not only uses DE and PF filters professionally but uses a PF filter at home)

 

[lowlife]

Awesomely clear!

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

That looks refreshing, how many microns was that filtered through?

Bob

That was a single pass through a "rough" set of pads, I believe they're rated at 3-7 microns.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

That was a single pass through a "rough" set of pads, I believe they're rated at 3-7 microns.

Do you know if that is nominal or absolute?

Did you filter cold?

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

Do you know if that is nominal or absolute?

Did you filter cold?

Not sure, they are the filter pads labeled "rough" or "course" like you can order through any of the big online retailers.

I filtered at 35F to be sure any chill haze was precipitated, and filtered out.

 

[fastricky]

Oh yeah! I think filtering makes the beer better - clarifies the flavors and hey, I enjoy the look of the beer too.

 

[DannPM]

getting some kegs soon myself, now you've added to my list...gotta get a filtering set!!!

 

[curlyfat]

I have the same filter. Actually I have two of them so I can set them up in line and filter through a "course" and a "medium" filter all at once. I started filtering because I have, er, intestinal issues with unfiltered beer (even commercial, and yes, even after plenty of time). Besides, now my beer looks awesome, and if I want too I can serve crystal clear, delicious beer in three weeks.

Welcome to the dark side!

 

[Bullbythehorns]

I have been thinking about filters, but have wondered what type of yield loss you experience, if any, to filters?

 

[azscoob]

I have been meaning to get a filter setup, I found autoclavable cartridge filters that are affordable and fit in a standard household filter housing, for under 50 dollars I can get nice clear beer and I can clean and reuse the filter to boot.

 

[Doog_Si_Reeb]

I've heard plenty of people say you don't need to filter. I completely agree with that sentiment, you don't need it to make great beers... I got a filter setup from SWMBO for our last anniversary and I love it. I am using a canister filter setup, similar to what goes on a fridge. It works great and made one of my pilsners clearer than almost any commercial beer I've had. I typically use the 1um, single-use filter and do two 5 gallon batches through the filter each time. The only one that caused problems was the Rye IPA that had a bunch of hop particles in it.

I typically don't lose more than a couple ounces of beer when filtering.

The brewstrong episode on filtering has some good info.

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/516

 

[curlyfat]

I have been meaning to get a filter setup, I found autoclavable cartridge filters that are affordable and fit in a standard household filter housing, for under 50 dollars I can get nice clear beer and I can clean and reuse the filter to boot.

Just my experience, but I had terrible luck with the cartridge filters. No matter how small I got, 1 micron, .5 micron, it didn't matter. They were all cloudy afterwords. I got "nominal" rated, "absolute" rated and they all sucked. The first batch with these filter plates resulted in crystal clear beer. And that was through the "course" 2-7 micron plates. I have been super happy with all the beer (6 batches) I've filtered with these. The disposable filter plates are very cheap; about $3 per batch. I've only done ten gallons at a time, but am confident that they could handle more if necessary.

EDIT: As far as yield loss, I don't have an answer. I usually brew 12g for two 5g kegs. I like to make sure I don't ever end up "short". I usually end up with about 1/2g left after filtering and fully filly two corneys, trub loss, yeast dumping, hydro samples, etc.

 

[samc]

I used my cartridge 1 micron filter for the first time a few months ago. Worked great, crystal clear beer. Filtered the beer @ 35F or so. The weird thing for me was that one of the two kegs developed a chill haze after sitting in the garage for 6 weeks. Probably tastes better than the first keg due to longer conditioning time, but still a mystery I have not solved, unless the filter became less effective after the first 5 gallons or more effective. Really didn't track which keg was filtered first.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

I have been thinking about filters, but have wondered what type of yield loss you experience, if any, to filters?

On the plate filter setup, I'll run 10 gallons through a set of filters and the only loss I incur is about 1 qt of beer thats left in the filter housing after the second keg.

You could probably push it all out into the keg since you'd be purging the filter housing with co2, but I try to keep the entire system filled with liquid.