Filtering
Moderator: slothrob
Filtering
I'm going to filter some brew before taking it to an event. Is it best to force carbonate after filtering? Or is it ok to filter carbonated beer? I figure the filter would create nucleation sites for CO2 and tend to cause it to come out of the beer. But how much of a problem would it be?
What about
I have never filtered, so I can't help much except:
Wont filtering take out some of the wanted complexities of taste and mouthfeel of your brew?
If time allows, I would let the cold do your filtering for you, and avoid the plate filters. Do you have that much of a problem with chill haze? Try to add a little amylaze enzyme to your next batch and see if the haze is less.
Wont filtering take out some of the wanted complexities of taste and mouthfeel of your brew?
If time allows, I would let the cold do your filtering for you, and avoid the plate filters. Do you have that much of a problem with chill haze? Try to add a little amylaze enzyme to your next batch and see if the haze is less.
Cold Filtering
Cold aging w/ gelatin is what I use when the kegs aren't going to move at all at the house. I'm only filtering for the "on the road" kegs since I'm taking this beer to a picnic. Last year I didn't filter and we had "hefe-lawnmower beer" 
This year I'd like it a little clearer.
If you filter too fine, yes, you'll strip out some of the good stuff. From the data I've seen and the texts I've read, stripping begins at 1 micron (to a small extent) and gets worse the tighter you get. Filtering at 3 microns will keep out alot of gunk and dead/mature yeast. However, it lets through enough young yeast to stabilize the beer's flavor (which is also invisible to the eye I might add), and not strip the good stuff (color, bitterness, flavor compounds, etc.). For my purposes, I believe 3 micron is a very good compromise.
Since this beer is an easy-drinking-for-the-masses beer (but not swill) if I screw up the filtering on my first time out it won't matter too much cause they're used to drinking Coors Light (LOL). Of course, I'll report back later with my findings.
This year I'd like it a little clearer.If you filter too fine, yes, you'll strip out some of the good stuff. From the data I've seen and the texts I've read, stripping begins at 1 micron (to a small extent) and gets worse the tighter you get. Filtering at 3 microns will keep out alot of gunk and dead/mature yeast. However, it lets through enough young yeast to stabilize the beer's flavor (which is also invisible to the eye I might add), and not strip the good stuff (color, bitterness, flavor compounds, etc.). For my purposes, I believe 3 micron is a very good compromise.
Since this beer is an easy-drinking-for-the-masses beer (but not swill) if I screw up the filtering on my first time out it won't matter too much cause they're used to drinking Coors Light (LOL). Of course, I'll report back later with my findings.
If the filter does too much
Billy B
You can also do the gelatin in the secondary, and then put the clear beer into the kegs.
Let us know how the filter does. I always wondered, but wasn't willing to invest for a filter or a C-P Bottle filler.
You can also do the gelatin in the secondary, and then put the clear beer into the kegs.
Let us know how the filter does. I always wondered, but wasn't willing to invest for a filter or a C-P Bottle filler.