Filtering question for Mike McDole

[MattSF]

I've used the same hexagonal filter Mike has and I've had good luck with it. I actually had incredible results the first time I used it; I had tossed some Sparkolloid into a beer and got tired of waiting for it to completely settle out. Meanwhile, I had bought the filter from B3 and it comes with the 'coarse' pads included, and the shop was out of the 'polish' pads. But (and I read this somewhere now I forget) it appears that the Sparkolloid still in suspension helped plug the inherent porosity of the coarse filter to some degree. The process wasn't fast by any means...but the beer came out crystal clear and brown. (well it was a Special Bitter )

[BrewerJ]

Thirsty Boy when you clean your filter how do you go about getting it completely clean and sanitized for next use. It seams to me that it would be difficult to get all of the yeast and proteins completely out of the filter.

[bcmaui]

I'm currently enjoying my first IPA which was also my first filtered beer. Thanks for the tips Tasty!

It went easy, but only took about 20-30 minutes instead of the hour for my 5 gallons.

On the receiving keg I had a valve and pressure guage on the gas out post - maybe I vented it too fast?

What is your process to relieve the gas in the receiving keg when it matches that of the 10psi set at the source keg?

Do you let it build up and purge, or keep it slightly open the entire time?

[bcmaui]

Thirsty Boy,
What model filter is that which you say is washable and reusable? I got that filter kit from morebeer.com but it uses spun polypropylene filters which are non-washable and only good for one 'session'. Granted they are $3 but a washable one sounds nice.

Might want to check out the GE filters at Home Depot or Lowes - unfortunately the website does not show the micron size, but I'm sure it's on the box somewhere.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... 401+502379

[Thirsty Boy]

Thirsty Boy when you clean your filter how do you go about getting it completely clean and sanitized for next use. It seams to me that it would be difficult to get all of the yeast and proteins completely out of the filter.

You spend a bit of time with a hose rinsing off the yeast etc (I usually do it under hot water) to get rid of any yeast you can see, then a good soak in hot percarbonate solution overnight. Rinsed well under the hot tap next day, dried and stored dry.

Sanitation is done as part of the filtering process - I am filtering into a keg. So the keg gets filled with starsan, then the starsan gets pushed by C02 through the filter into another keg. This sterilizes the keg, sterilizes the filter. sterilizes all the lines and tubes and flushes all the air out of the system and replaces it with C02.

At only $3 a pop though - I would probably use the spun filters and save myself half an hour at the sink...

[bcmaui]

At only $3 a pop though - I would probably use the spun filters and save myself half an hour at the sink...

Now we know why there is a drought in AU - too many aussie brewer cleaning their filters.

It's raining on my part of Maui at the moment, so I'm with Thirsty and use water as you brew..

Much of the water that I don't use here falls into the ocean - so support your local water department as they build and maintain reservoirs and other storage locations (here run by mostly by gravity and solar power) - green water management works for me.

P.S. Why are they running hair combs for women as banner ads on the BN?

[zoso124]

Is it possible to filter a beer with the plate filter system if the beer is already carbonated?

[MattSF]

Is it possible to filter a beer with the plate filter system if the beer is already carbonated?

I did it once (perhaps stupidly) and it takes quite a while as almost all the carbonation was stripped during the process and there was a lot of foaming. But, that speed combined with the fact that I had added Sparkolloid a couple days beforehand...the beer was -crystal- clear..and that was with the "coarse" pads. I didn't do enough investigation as to whether the head retention might have been affected what with all the foaming. But you will very likely need to re-carbonate the beer.