Greetings all!
I have decided to filter my homebrew to make it as clear as possible. I'm using a 5 and then a 1 micron filter (neither are actual) in a two step filter. My questions are: should I chill the kegs before filtering? Is there a way to fully clear the filters of beer when finished so as not to waste a couple pints?

Cheers,
GreenKace

You should cold filter. I doubt the two stage is necessary. Pick the 5 or 1 micron (both should filter out yeast) and give it a one pass.

If I am not mistaken, Tasty "King of All Filter Media" McDole uses a 7-micron pad.

And you should triple hop. Just sayin'.

Seriously, every time I have tried to filter my beer it ends up sucking, and not as clear as I think it should be, given the effort.


Mylo

What sort ofnfilter are you using? A plate filter with pads, or a cartridge filter, i can help with cartridge filtering. Thus all my comments are about that.

If you want beer that is approaching commercial beer in brightness - you want to use that 1 micron filter. 5 micron makes your beer pretty clear - but the difference in clarity is noticable between that and a 1 micron filter.

Two step is probably not necessary unless you are impatient and dont give your beer a little time to settle and clear.

I disagree with the idea of you needing to filter cold - you are unlikely to be able to filter out chill haze anyway (you may improve it some) and that is the only real reason to filter cold. But - if you do chill it down, perhaps treat it with something to kill off chill haze, and let it setttle for a few days cold, then you won't need the 5 mjcron pre-filter.

I filter straight out of my primary, via gravity, through a 1 micron absolute cartridge - generally after crash chilling and treating with PVPP - but it depends on the beer.

It all depends on what you want - pretty clear beer, or sparkly bright beer. I want as close to diamond bright as i can get, without stripping out too much flavour - for me that adds up to a 1 micron absolute filter. Around 0.3micron will make it absoutely diamond bright - but i find that at that level of filterring it really does knock out a bunch of colour and flavour.

Filter cold - you dont have to, but it wont hurt and it will kind of force you to wait a few days & save you some money on buying pre-filters

Oh - and with cartridges, if you turn em upside down once the sending keg is pushing nothing but gas, they should empty almost completely out - i probably lose only about a cup or so of beer to the filter housing if i push it through with CO2.

TB

And if anyone here can find a way to frost brew without your yeast stalling, please let me know. Cuz I just can't get that straight from the rockies flavor into my beer.