Beer Forum

I just bought a filter assembly from my LHBS. I'm going to go ahead and order more filters from B3 but I don't know whether to get the 1 or the 5 micron. It came with a 1 micron filter and it's from B3. What should I expect from a 1 micron and/or 5 micron?

I bough this one: http://morebeer.com/view_product/16769/ ... tering_Kit

McDole talks about this on the BS filtering episode. He uses a course filter first (~7 micron?) then follows up with a finer filter (~3 micron?) if the beer is still hazy, although this step is rarely necessary. 1 micron seems overkill, but I haven't done it so don't know for sure.

I have used everything from a 1 micron to a 7 micron filter including both the cartridge and plate filter systems.

In my experience with filtering, I do not believe filtering alters the flavor of beer in any adverse way, when using a 1-7 micron range, including both nominal and absolute rated fillers.

I have begun to filter all my beers and have bought the tools (pumps, keg washers,kegs, etc.) to make it easier for me to filter beer with out adding too much extra effort to my process.

I would not use a filter with a micron rating larger than 3 microns nominal. I don't think using a larger micron filter than 3 really does much, although I know that's all that Tasty uses. I would consider a 3 micron filter a rough filter. Morebeer sells both a cartridge and plate filters in this size. You will remove a majority of the yeast (yeast or 1-3 microns in size) and greatly clean up the beer, but you will still have suspended yeast in the beer that will settle to the bottom on your corny over time. You will also not remove chill haze with any filter lager than .45-.5 microns absolute. With that said, this level of filtering is good for all beers styles and will not remove any aroma, color or taste compounds from the beer. The beer will continue to clear in the keg.


3 Micron Nominal (catridge filter from B3)
I use this on all my Ales that are slightly darker that my standard APA (Milds, stouts, Porters, etc). Cleans up the beer nicely and with some conditioning, will turn out crystal clear beer. This level of filter will also allow you to skip the conditioning phase and have your beer ready to server without spitting up chunks of yeast/hops etc. if you want to have you beer ready as soon as its done fermenting. It also makes it easy to transport your beer because as the beer gets bumped around during transportation, most of the yeast that would get kicked up and put back into suspension has been removed.

I would recommend people new to filtering start at this size filter and move on from there.

1 micron Absolute:
I use this filter for all my light color beers (Ales/Lagers). This filter will remove most all yeast, but not chill haze. I have used this on my APA and IPA's and have not found a significant decrease in hop flavor or aroma using this size filter.

0.45 micron Absolute
I use this on my PIls, Helles, etc. where I want crystal clear beer and want to mechanically remove chill haze. I have not used this level filter on my IPA's or APA's, so I cant comment on whether there is an adverse effect on the flavor profiles I expect to have with these beers.

0.2 Micron
Removes all bacteria. Have not used.

George Fix wrote a bit about the effects of filtering in his book Analysis of Brewing Techniques. He recommended using a 3 micron absolute filter for most all beers and is what you would see most brewpubs/small breweries using. He did find some reduction in color and IBU with filters in the .2 and 1 micron absolute range, although these were very small (1 or 2 degrees SRM and 2-3 IbUs)... not really a big concern with an IPA or APA. I will be trying my 0.45 micron filter on my next batch of my Tasty APA. I will split the batch up and also filter using my 3 micron absolute filter to evaluate any differences. When I get around to it , I will post my results.. hopefully by the end of August.

Good Luck..

Dude! That was great information. Thanks for sharing.

Here's my question for now then: My B3 filter came packaged with a 1 micron filter. I want to filter my Tripel this week with it. OR... I could filter my Doppelbock and cut its lagering time down.

Should I use it or should I toss it and just order the more rough filters?

Based on feedback I got from Jamil, I would not filter my lager any sooner than after a 4-week cold conditioning. Although the yeast activity is minimal, I do think there is some continued flavor development with a lager during cold conditioning. If you filter the lager before or skip cold conditioning it may not develop the flavor profile you want. If the lager already tastes the way you want, go ahead and filter the beer.

As far as which one to filter, depends which one you want to drink sooner.

Another option would be to filter both beers in the same session. You could filter the lager first with the filter, then push some water/sanitizer thru the filter (clear out the dopplebock) and then filter the Belgian. You wont pick up any off flavors if you go lager then Belgian. If it were my beer, I would filter the Tripel and let the dopplebock sit. Tripel is better for summer time drinking and you will forget about the dopplebock in the fridge

breyton wrote:Based on feedback I got from Jamil, I would not filter my lager any sooner than after a 4-week cold conditioning. Although the yeast activity is minimal, I do think there is some continued flavor development with a lager during cold conditioning. If you filter the lager before or skip cold conditioning it may not develop the flavor profile you want. If the lager already tastes the way you want, go ahead and filter the beer.

As far as which one to filter, depends which one you want to drink sooner.

Another option would be to filter both beers in the same session. You could filter the lager first with the filter, then push some water/sanitizer thru the filter (clear out the dopplebock) and then filter the Belgian. You wont pick up any off flavors if you go lager then Belgian. If it were my beer, I would filter the Tripel and let the dopplebock sit. Tripel is better for summer time drinking and you will forget about the dopplebock in the fridge

I'll probably go ahead and filter the Tripel.

As for the items int he first part of your post... the lagering BS episode says that lagering only serves to clear the beer up (dropping polyphenols, etc) and that can be accomplished with filtering. I think they actually said filtering removes lagering altogether, assuming you let the yeast finish completely in fermentation.

Any thoughts on that?

Since B3 always ALWAYS fucking out of everything...

Anyone have any good places to buy the cartridge style 5 micron filter element? The 10" one.