Filtering

[SMIB]

Up until my last batch of brew, I have not filtered. My wife is of the belief that because I do not filter my beer, I have chased her out of the bedroom some nights with noxious fumes....

SO - I did some rudimentary filtering of this last batch, but just read over on the WIKI that "filtering can make bottle conditioning impossible by removing the yeast which are necessary for bottle conditioning".

Now, when I transferred from my secondary fermenter to the bottling bucket, I made sure I sucked up a little of the yeast from the bottom of the carboy.

I guess I'm concerned that this batch won't condition properly and I'll wind up with cold flat beer - which would suck because I'm really excited about this batch (porter with blackstrap molasses and some fresh ground coffee - tastes real good!)

So....if I'm going to continue to bottle condition (plan on starting to keg this summer), how can I ensure success while not waking the wife up with "the vapors"?

Thanks!

SMIB

 

[I_B_Mongo]

You should have plenty of yeast in suspension to properly carbonate your bottles. To truly filter you'd need a plate filter setup. Two sides of the coin on that topic...some say filtering strips flavors and mouthfeel, others say they don't notice a difference.
Regardless, your bottles should be fine.
Good luck, and Happy Brewing!

 

[Homercidal]

I think that over time your body flora will adjust to the yeast in your homebrew and reduce the emissions you are seeing now. Also, while I'm not opposed to filtering, there are tricks to the brewing process that can SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the amount of yeast suspended in your bottles.

Log Primary (3 weeks or more depending on the style)
Cold Crashing
Irish moss last 10-15 minutes of boil
Gelatin

 

[Zen_Brew]

You have to use a pretty fine filter to remove the yeast. I believe you do not start removing significant amounts of yeast until you get to 3 micron and smaller filters. If you just did a rudimentary filtering as you say I doubt you removed much yeast. I wouldn't worry too much about it as you are not going to get that level of filtering without a dedicated filtering system at 3 microns or less.

 

[ThatGuyRyan]

When I use my plate filter I only use the 1st and 2nd stage not the 3rd which is the sterile pad. With just the 1st or 2nd you can bottle carb and condition just fine and it helps speed up the conditioning process. As for the wife and the fumes I hear you! When I first started the guys and I could kill with the rhino farts! Filtering will eliminate this but as others stated so will giving you beer enough time to finish and a nice cold crash before bottling or kegging. Your body will get use to the yeast after a while also. But the most important thing is to just give the beer the time it needs. By the way I can’t say that I would recommend filtering, it works and it does help the beer but the time and mess is just not worth it to me. I really only use it for beers that I want crystal clear but don’t have the time to wait for the beer to clear itself.

 

[SMIB]

Well in that case, I'm looking forward to poppin' the Porter! Thanks folks, appreciate the info!