Filtering

[bcmaui]

Just picked up a plate filter. (The plastic one that takes two pads). Looks like this is a low pressure xfer (4 psi) and will take 45 minutes or so to move 5 gallons using the 7 micron pads.

Do you flush the pads with sterile water, starsan or CO2 prior to pushing the beer through to prevent exposure to oxygen, or just filter away?

This might be where a brite tank would come in handy. Let the beer chill and settle out before pushing it through the filter?

Any experience filtering a fully carbonated beer, or better to push near flat beer (enough to seal the keg) and carbonate later?

[TastyMcD]

I know this filter pretty well. I've done uncountable (for legal reasons) batches with it.

Just picked up a plate filter. (The plastic one that takes two pads). Looks like this is a low pressure xfer (4 psi) and will take 45 minutes or so to move 5 gallons using the 7 micron pads.

You can run it up to about 8 psi, sometimes 10, without leaking unless the filter is clogged and then you might as well just replace the pads and keep filtering. The first five usually takes about 20 minutes, the second usually about 30. (see my comment below about chilling the beer for a week)

Do you flush the pads with sterile water, starsan or CO2 prior to pushing the beer through to prevent exposure to oxygen, or just filter away?

I run CO2 through the filter before filtering. No sanitizer or water but I make sure the filter and lines are very clean. Doc swears he gets a paper flavor on light beers so I believe he does run some water through.

This might be where a brite tank would come in handy. Let the beer chill and settle out before pushing it through the filter?

I generally store a beer cold for a week before filtering (two or three days is fine for a beer that is fairly clear to begin with). This allows me to filter two 5 gallon kegs with one pair of filters. Sometimes I'll need to get a beer ready quickly and I'll only chill it overnight. In that case, one set of pads will only do 5 gallons.

Any experience filtering a fully carbonated beer, or better to push near flat beer (enough to seal the keg) and carbonate later?

That can be done with marginal success. Because the beer is at 12-16 psi and the filter is not made for that pressure, the beer pretty much goes through as foam and you end up with a flat beat-up beer.

There are ins and outs to this filter. I think I have document somewhere that describes some of them. PM me.

Oh and if someone says filtering strips color, aroma, and flavor....tell them that's a recipe issue and that there is nothing good in beer that's over 7 microns.

Tasty

[bcmaui]

Thanks Tasty.

I purchased this based on comments you made on the show. Shipping is steep here, so I purchased 30 filters (15 batches) - good to know I can push 10 gallons through them at once if I am patient and let things settle out.

I'll make a brite tank as I notice the first pint is very cloudy when I draw from the kegs now and I'd like to leave this in the keg next time so not to gunk up the filter right away. From the metal show I take it I need to let the stainlesss re-passivate for a week or so before I get it wet, so I'm cutting a couple tubes tonight so I can have 2 brite tanks in the future.

I recall you saying "If it's not clear, it's not Beer", so I wanted to give it a try.

I like the taste of my rookie batches and they get better each time - my 5th batch was a repeat of your American Amber that was my first batch, and it came out much better with extra yeast - but some of it is still a tad cloudy - i'm just throwing in hops (usually pellets) without that sack for better contact and the false bottom captures a lot when I drain the kettle, but I'm sure this is the source of some of my cloudiness as well as some that is moved over from the racking cane from the carboy to the keg, although I'm trying to get better at that.

I have used a sack for dry hopping, but some debris may come through there as well when I do that.

Everything I have is fully carbonated, so I'll PM you after I brew and move the IPA that I have on deck through the filter and let you know what trips me up - the answers above give me something to work with on my first filter session.

Thanks again!

Bill

[DannyW]

Interesting, Tasty, about not sanitizing the pads. I keep vacillating on how to (or not to) treat the pads for filtering.

Pads I buy from B3 come sealed in plastic 2 to a package. I figured I'd take a shot that they were manufactured and packaged cleanly (kind of how I think of zip-lock bags) and safety sealed for my protection. Then I got some from Northern Brewer and they were just loose in a big bag. That got me thinking that they probably are probably more exposed to who-knows-what between manufacturing and use than I thought, so I should probably sanitize them. I guess you have found that to not be a problem, though, and just use them dry?

Do you toss the first bit of beer that comes out of the filters, or just hook it up to the receiving keg at the start?

Oh, and whoever asked about filtering carbonated beer -- my suggestion is to fugeddaboutit. In theory it should work: Carb to 2.5 voumes (about 7psi at 30F I think), chill your lines and filter down really cold, then filter with 10psi on the sending keg and 8psi on the receiving keg. the 2psi difference should move the beer, and the pressure should keep the gas in solution, and the filter housing should be just able to hold the pressure without leaking. In the move from theory to practice, however, I found nothing but fail. The CO2 is still ripped from solution (too many nucleation sites in the filter I guess) so you end up with a keg full of foam.

Now I plan from racking time whether I will be filtering a beer or not, and just leave it uncarbonated in the keg while it chills for a week. If I change my mind and decide to filter a carbonated keg, I spend a week decarbing it, then filter, then recarb. I think I've only done that once, though.

[TastyMcD]

That's correct, I don't sanitize the filter pads. I'm relying on the alcohol in the beer and the integrity of the supply chain.

I haven't considered running off some of the first beer out of the filter but I might try that. It's not that I'm having a particular problem but that seems easy to do and it can't hurt.

Tasty

[DannyW]

I've been dipping the pads in iodophore before assembling the filter in part to push out the air. They fizz like crazy from all the air in the pads getting pushed out when submerged! Then I push the iodophore from the pads with CO2, then filter, but it seems to take a while for the beer to push out the iodophore to the point that the color of the beer out is similar to the color of the beer in.

If you are not having oxidation problems with your filtered beers, then I think I have just started a new and simplified filtering procedure. Thanks Mike!

[Sent From My iPhone]

I sort of do what you do, Danny, but I dip my pads in StarSan before pushing CO2 through for a minute or two. Then I collect the first half pint or so in a pint glass before hooking it up to the new keg. The half pint sample doesn't really taste like cardboard, maybe a little tangy from the StarSan, though!