Filtering Cider

[dallas996]

So I have been making fantastic cider for a while, but the process has become a little tedious due to my personal preferences. In short, I have been cold crashing prior to final gravity to get fermentation to stop where I kind of want it, so it leaves more apple flavor and body, I don't have to back sweeten etc. Mostly very successful, but like I said, the process takes some of the fun out of it, but I also sometimes miss the "perfect mark" due to temperature/time variance in the fridge, and my wife gets a little irritated when I use the second fridge for cold crash.

This summer I bought a filtering system with the intent to allow for more accuracy and just now have gotten around to experimenting.

Anyone ever try this?

I plan to let the cider ferment to specified gravity, transfer to a corny keg, charge it up and run it through a .01 micron filter to a second corny. Ideally, I theorize that it will catch all of the yeast, stop fermentation and clarify my cider significantly.

Am I way off base here? Any obvious gotchas I am missing?

 

[shaux]

I would not use that small of a filter. You will strip out desired flavor and body. The polish filter (1-2 micron) should fit what you'd like to do.

 

[LeBreton]

Filtration is typically done in stages. First a coarse pass used to remove most solid particles, then a second polishing pass to deal with microorganisms. You may want to buy two sets of filters. 3-5 microns is a common first size, and 1-0.2 for the second.

0.45 is typically viewed as fine enough to remove any single cell organisms such as yeast etc. Beyond that is typically not necessary, 0.1 is overkill and asking for trouble with clogging. Without coarse filtration prior, 0.1 will clog almost immediately.

 

[dallas996]

Thanks for the guidance folks, good info. I'll go from here; pick up a few other filter "sizes" and see how things shake out.

 

[bembel]

I've been doing the same thing but have refined the process. I ferment in the Carboy. Then transfer to a keg that has a cold draft float system ($30 SS ball that siphons from top not bottom) . I then add gelatin and 50 ppm k-meta to that and crash it near 32f ( kegs are much easier to fit in a fridge than Carboys) then I pressurize it and transfer to a final keg with a .5 micron water filter in a Pentek housing in between.

I have never had anything start fermenting after this and manage to bottle stable 1010-1015 SG ciders from the second keg without any issue.

Frankly, the filter might even be overkill.