Filtering beer

[fbsf]

I've been reading about how the new wave of brewers (BrewDog etc) lightly filter their beer before bottling/kegging instead of conditioning for lengthy amounts of time.

Now I understand that for homebrewers who bottle this is pretty much impossible as you need the yeast in suspension for the carbonation to take effect.

But say you wanted a really hoppy brew (i.e. one that needed to be drunk young to keep as much aroma as possible) and you were cornying the brew, how would one go about filtering? I can see 10" water filters available on ebay, and can see that there are 5-uM cartridges (the same size filters that BD use). Would this be a possible way to get a beer that is drinkable sooner?

Or - as normal - am I misunderstanding it?

 

[calumscott]

I think one of the arguments that BD make is that the level to which they filter leaves viable yeast cells above the CAMRA "real ale" threshold in their beer.

By that token you should still be able to prime and carb as normal just with a tiny yeast deposit that you probably wouldn't even notice...

...maybe...

 

[RobWalker]

I think one of the arguments that BD make is that the level to which they filter leaves viable yeast cells above the CAMRA "real ale" threshold in their beer.

By that token you should still be able to prime and carb as normal just with a tiny yeast deposit that you probably wouldn't even notice...

...maybe...

is this how sierra nevada etc get such a ridiculously small amount of sediment in their bottles too?

 

[fbsf]

Could be Rob, could be...

That's the rub Calum. I'm not sure I'd want to spend however much it would be to get a filter system setup (I'd probably go corny-corny with the filter in between and use CO2 to transfer it) if no-one has tried it before...

 

[calumscott]

From the brewdog blog (from the time they were having a right old ding-dong with CAMRA)...

"During the course of the discussion we were able to satisfy CAMRA and Ralph Warrington, Chair of the wonderfully named ‘Technical Advisory Group’ that our draft beer does indeed contain 0.1 million living yeast cells per ml. Our kegged and bottled beers are only lightly filtered (around 5-7 micron), unpasteurized and the bulk of the carbonationisation comes from CO2 created during the initial fermentation which occurs under pressure."

 

[fbsf]

But do you think this is do-able on a homebrew scale? I've read about the corny-corny idea using CO2 as the pressure, but don't think it would have the umph to get a whole 19L through a filter...

 

[calumscott]

I think it could be done. On the "I'm going to do it for the challenge" premise.

I'd worry at 0.1M cells per ml tho - is that going to be enough to get the carbonation? But then if you were doing corny -> corny you would carb in the second corny...

...then splash out on a blichmann beer gun for bottling... :lol:

 

[Aleman]

Been There Done that Got the T Shirt.

One thing that is important is to ensure that you get the filters you pay for!! I have 10 filters rated at 1 micron . . . . and that is b*llocks they are more like 10micron . . . My socks would hold back more than the filters :twisted: :twisted:

It is fairly easy to pick up a 10" housing up on ebay then a couple of jumpers and you are away. . . I have been able to filter 90L of beer direct from the FV on one cartridge under gravity . . . but see my comments on the effectiveness of my filters

I am going to investigate getting hold of a 1 micron absolute filter, and seeing just how effective that is . . . knowing my luck it'll block after 2 litres :evil:

 

[fbsf]

Cheers for the comments aleman. I think it's something I will look into, but may take my time to save buying something that doesn't do what I want it to...