Beer filtering

First off, welcome to the BA site and to the Homebrewing forum. Make yourself at home, and stay as long as you'd like.

Second, filtering is a topic that I've not seen discussed in these threads very much because most homebrewers don't have the equipment (and maybe the desire or need) to do it. I can't answer your specific question, and maybe no one else will be able to give advice either.

Do you have equipment made for this task? Apparently you have a strong concern about having a clear beer, but how do you know that your beer won't be clear once it's brewed? You may be trying to make a plan needlessly.

 

Running your beer through a water filter post-fermentation will lead to a lot of oxygen entering your beer and give you all sorts of unpleasant results. Typically, time and gravity are your two best friends for making clear beer. When you bottle, the yeast will eat the sugars you add and eventually fall to the bottom of the bottle. This will happen whether you filter or not. Your best bet is to not filter and refrigerate the bottles standing up once they are carbonated. Pour carefully into a glass and leave the last little bit in the bottle.

 

Making a clear looking beer starts at brewing. Most of us use Irish moss to help things settle to the bottom. Irish moss helps smaller bits clump together and then settle to the bottom of the bottle when refrigerated. If you are bottle priming you'll always have a little bit of stuff at the bottom of the bottle. Don't filter your beer. I've always used Irish moss and I've always had really clear beers.

 

I am not a fan of filtering beer. Irish moss in the boil is a tremendous help. If your bottle conditioning your beer you will always have residue. Be careful while you pour. A nylon paint strainer between your brew pot and fermenter also helps. Good luck!

 

Have you been having problems with clarity? Or is this your first batch? Very few home brewers filter. Like some really small fraction of one percent, I would guess.

 

You don´t need to filter your beer, you can clarify it using finings and cold crashing it. It is extremely risky to filter a homebrewed beer and I think it would be a practice for an experimented brewer . I have never filtered a beer and have very crystal clear as commercial beer results.

 

When you do your boil, add a touch of irish moss. Before you bottle (since you don't keg), do something called cold crashing(if you can). If you are fermenting in a keezer, drop the temperature to 40 F, for 3 days. A lot of things will wall out of solution, and go to the bottom with the trub. This will give you clearer beer. When you siphon the beer out, don't just throw your siphon in the carboy / bucket. Keep the siphon near-ish to the top.

Pics would be nice if you can show us. And when this batch is bottle carbonated, take a pic then to show us how it turned out.

 

Not going to get into the pro's and con's of filtering or the ways to produce clear homebrew without a filter. What I will add to this thread is that (fwiw) I doubt that a 20 micron filter will take much out..... individual yeast cells are typically 2-3 microns. sure they can cling together and become more likely to catch, but I've used a 5.8 micron filter in a professional setting and it mainly gets trub and hops out of the beer.

 

OP, this is good info because you really don't want to filter out the yeast if you are bottle conditioning.

 

It think the consensus is don't bother spending your hard earned moneys on a filter system. For home brewers, it is not worth it.

 

The unavoidable truth is that if you bottle condition, there will be some amount of yeast sediment. And if you lager in the bottle (rather than in a secondary), the yeast sediment will be joined by protein/polyphenol complexes that drop out in the bottle. My only recommendation is to pour carefully and cross your fingers.

 

Did you ever make a sparkling wine? You can't make it sparkle if there are no yeast.

Rack your beer to a bottling bucket. Leave several inches between the bottom of your racking cane and the bottom of your fermenter. As you rack, gradually push your racking cane deeper, until it starts to pick up sediments, and raise it above that point. This will help optimize the beer volume while minimizing yeast sediment pickup. You will still end up with enough live yeast cells to prime.

Add a sugar solution to the bottling bucket and gently stir a couple times and give 10-15 minutes for the sugar to mix thoroughly. Use an online priming calculator to determine how much sugar you will use. Bottle with a bottle wand.

After you bottle, give your beer 2-4 weeks to carbonate. I carbonate at 65 degrees F (or so) when I bottle prime to keep the yeast active. Check a bottle when you think they are completely carbonated. Pour it into a clean glass and evaluate head and taste. [If it tastes like there is still residual priming sugar, give the bottles more time. Also, if you taste fermentation byproducts such as acetaldehyde (green apple) or diacetyl (buttery), give it more time in the bottle at warm temps to keep yeast active, and they may clean up these flavors.]

When you pour, practice leaving the sediment behind by gently decanting so the bottle neck is never tipped below horizontal. You probably will get some sediments because the (1) you are not practiced and (2) because the bottled beer has not sat at cool temperatures, which will help to get yeast to floc out and compact. If you are satisfied that there is nothing left for the yeast to do, reduce the bottle temps to serving temp or lower (I often bring bottles down to 32-35, cooler than serving temp, but better for preserving beer). After a couple weeks, try another one and practice your pour. If you can follow these instructions, you can serve sediment free beer.

 

I've heard of that product but I don't trust twistoffs.


You can get a really clear beer in the glass even with sediment by carefully pouring and making sure the sediment doesn't come with it.

 

Czech Pilaster? Lots of filtering recommended...

 

Try gelatin to clear your beer

 

Agreed. I use gelatin on every batch. It makes for a super bright clear beer, but you do need to take the time (read wait) to make sure its clear BEFORE you bottle. Gelatin runs on mechanical motion so you need to add it when the secondary still has a bit of turnover left. Let it settle .. it always has for me. My current batch has gone form a murky-mud to "star bright" in the last 5 days (after adding gelatin) and is now ready to prime.

If you do decide to filter it finely enough to really clear it.. you will need to add some fresh yeast to convert the prime sugar or hold back a bit of unfiltered to mix in and provide the yeast that way.