Has fining taken the place of filtering?

[JONNYROTTEN]

My beers seem to peak and bring out the sweet smoothness ( any style) after 3 weeks after things drop out. I blame that on the stuff floating around in my beer giving me "different" or "off" flavors.

I'm Really looking forward to trying out filtering. I'm almost completely confident it will give me the same result in 10 minutes.

 

[user 218154]

Heading to HD to pick up a water filter and mess around with getting this going. The non reusable filters kinda blows. Looking online it looks like about 4 or 5 bucks a filter. Between the 1 and 5 micron filter it will tack on near $10 per batch...not a ton but not cheap either.

Anyone know where to get cheap filters?

An interesting thread, I will add the possibility of using a ceramic filter impregnated with sliver. They are common on home water filter systems and can filter low enough to remove giardia and other bacteria. The silver prevents anything growing in it, might be perfect and they are reusable as you scrub the outer layers off with a bit of sandpaper they provide. Just a suggestion. Possibly it's too fine, but fits the bill. This is the type I use for our drinking water to our fridge, haven't tried it for filtering beer, sorry.

http://rainfresh.ca/product/ceramic-water-filter-cartridges

 

[MSK_Chess]

I sometimes filter depending on what type of beer. I rarely if ever filter dark beers. Also i do not like anything other than beer in my kegs. Brewers who put gelatin in kegs I think are insane, but each to their own. As someone who uses Polyclar 730 and gelatin I like to filter these out wit a 5 micron and a 1 micron filter. Also certain yeast strains are quite powdery like Kolsch and even after fining I sometimes filter.

 

[maxxxx]

You never hear much about filtering around here. I was thinking of doing a gravity fed filtered beer with an under counter home water filter. After some research many people across the web mention that a cold crash and fining does the same job or better without the extra work....Trying to get some info on filtering.
Will it clear the beer(yeast bite) immediately after reaching FG and give me a clear beer by day 5 kinda thing?
I've heard lots of times "the pros turnaround quick beer because they filter" among other things

I keg and force carbonate, and I never filter or fine, just cold crash for at least 48 hrs. Not too worried about haze in my IPAs or pales.
Lagers go crystal clear whilst they lager.
I would suggest not filtering.

 

[BrunDog]

Ya I am kind of the mindset and experience that fining (personal experience) and filtering (can only suppose - no experience) removes some desireable flavors. WRT to fining, I have stopped doing it and relied on time and temperature as many noted above. I feel that fining, with gelatin anyway, strips the beer of some of the flavors compared to non-fined versions. I know Brulosophy said otherwise, but I have a hard time accepting many of their results and feel their testers are palate-less drunks (kidding).

 

[Woodberg]

Hey guys, throwing my two cents in the ring here. All grain brewer for the last 10 years, and I have microfiltered every batch, through a double filter: first chamber is 5 micron, second is 1 micron. Fun fact: brewers' yeast cells are roughly 3 micron in size.

Why do I filter?
Many years ago I was introducing brewing to a friend; on brew day we were brewing, and naturally sipping on some beers I had made recently (these were unfiltered). Had a blast, made a great beer that day. The next day, he calls me, is having a pretty unpleasant GI reaction, and is itchy all over his body. He is able to get in to a dermatologist the following day, and the issue is quickly identified as a yeast allergy.

I like this process, but I'm assuming your are then serving from a keg. I like to bottle my beer but would think this would hinder natural carbonation in the bottle. I've never had too much luck with bottling from a keg. Any tips?

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Heres what I cam up with for filtering. (test run)
I hooked my autosiphon to the little brown pump. It then goes to the filter with a 1 Micron filter. Then on to the keg. Pumping the auto siphon primes the pump which I thought was a stroke of genius. Plus using the auto siphon is nice to work with in the bucket instead of holding a hose in the bucket.

I'm reading how filtering adds oxidation which I'm having a hard time understanding because its the exact same thing as using an auto siphon with a filter in the middle.
If its works out as a filter my plan is to get one of those little dust blower air tool attachment things and blow co2 up the autosiphon tip with the end hose in the keg. That will purge the entire system including the keg.

Wondering about the flow if its to much? The flow in the pic is with everything flowing down. If you think its to much I'll put my bucket on the floor and filter at counter height. That's should slow the flow down a bit.

Seems to work real good on a trial run.

What do you think of my plan?

 

[Northern_Brewer]

it is unlikely that a commercially available 1 micron polypropylene filter will capture flavonoids, and it certainly won't capture sufficient flavonoids to account for a 25% drop in detectable IBUs.

Microfiltration will remove almost all yeast. So if your palate expects some residual yeast character, then I wouldn't be surprised if the absence is detectable. I don't brew beers which require suspended yeast as part of their style, so I wouldn't notice the difference.

Microfiltration is unlikely to remove residual sugars (e.g., maltose) due to their relatively low molecular weights. I don't know the types or sizes of the complex carbohydrates which give beer its body, so I cannot comment about whether any of those components are removed.

You're assuming the flavour compounds are free-floating - it's different if they're adsorbed or otherwise attached to the "big lumps" either yeast cells or hop debris.

I've only had side-by-side tasting of filtered versus unfiltered whisky, and it certainly makes a big difference there, like Bud-versus-Budvar difference.

 

[MSK_Chess]

Filtering for me was initially disappointing. You seriously need some good absolute filters to filter for clarity. The woven 5 micron and 1 micron filters did filter yeast but not haze forming proteins and polyphenols even when cold filtering. For filtering for clarity I suspect you need an absolute filter of about .45 microns.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Filtering for me was initially disappointing. You seriously need some good absolute filters to filter for clarity. The woven 5 micron and 1 micron filters did filter yeast but not haze forming proteins and polyphenols even when cold filtering. For filtering for clarity I suspect you need an absolute filter of about .45 microns.

Good to know. My main concern is yeast not clarity so maybe I'll be OK

 

[rashadx100]

I do 30 gallon batches and ferment in sanke kegs. I force the finished beer out with co2 after I've cold crashed for 3 days or so. The first pint goes down the drain, the rest goes through a 5 micron filter into corny kegs. Pushing it out with co2 prevents oxidation and controls the flow rate. Then I use gelatin. My beer after one week is brilliantly clear. I'd say filtering isnt necessary if you use gelatin but it speeds up the process.

I haven't noticed a change in flavor either by filtering or gelatin.

Cheers