Filtering Beer

[moorsd]

Was just passing the time looking on US Home brew sites (and wishing UK ones were that extensive!!) and saw a section on filtering kits <_<

I've made wine in the past and filtered that with good results, however due to beer being more cloudy or whatever?? I was under the impression it couldn't be filtered......until:

http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=16769

Looks like it could save a s**t load of time waiting for stubborn beers to clear and should get rid of chill hazes etc, I would get it but replacement cartridges would be a pain to get

Anyone filter their beer or know of any suppliers of these in the uk??

[bod]

theres a few sceptics on here regarding filtering of beer, but these same sort of units can be picked up from http://www.screwfix.com quite cheaply!

[Andy]

me too - never had a brew which didn't clear (touch wood) so why filter ?

[Jim]

Received wisdom says is that filtering removes more than just the yeast from beer.

It could be true as well; after all if you want to try filtered beer find your nearest pub that sells keg beers.

The http://www.durham-brewery.co.uk/html-fi ... tling.html has this tongue in cheek article about the merits of filtering beer before bottling (albeit pasturisation is also involved).

Quote: "This treatment is quick, reliable, gives a reasonable shelf-life, makes money, but in my opinion knocks the guts out of the brew."

[moorsd]

Oops looks like I may have invoked an unpopular subject :huh:

I can see everyone's points now they have been made, guess I didn't really think too deeply into it when I first saw it....should have expected it from a US site really, after all they do tend to over complicate things which has no benefit to the beer (and in this case, and probably many others may make it worse!)

Think I'll save my pennies and get some more finings instead

[bod]

i'm not convinced either to be honest, but if my beer is cloudy, be it chill haze or other wise, as long as it tastes good, i'm happy!

[Frothy]

Obv' commercial beer companies filter because they are looking for faultless consistency and continuous process. Just depends if your in a hurry or not I guess. I personally don't intend spending £1.50 for a packet of finings every time I brew. I do intend investing in a kit such as that below although I'll be filtering a lot more than Beer with it


http://www.chezwallis.com/pensans/keggi ... to010.html

The BuonVino filters are some nifty powered filters that you can get in the UK and they accept paper elements. but the elements are expensive <_<

Matt
p.s. filtering with 1micron pores is a bit extreme - I hear 9micron is quite acceptable and Pensans brewery (above) uses 5micron sucessfully

[Andy]

My box of gelatine sachets from Asda was less than a quid and does 5 brews, I'll be sticking with that I think B)

And don't forget - that pensans bloke came up with this:-

[bitter_dave]

QUOTE (Daft as a Brush @ Jun 5 2006, 08:58 PM)
Hop&Grape Issinglass-£3.50 for 1L sufficient for 100 gals, or £1.09 for 250 ml sufficient for 25 gals.
Keeps in fridge for at least 6 months. (must be kept in fridge btw)
How much brewing would you have to do over six months to use up 1 litre of isinglass?

[bitter_dave]

QUOTE (bitter_dave @ Jun 5 2006, 09:13 PM) QUOTE (Daft as a Brush @ Jun 5 2006, 08:58 PM)
Hop&Grape Issinglass-£3.50 for 1L sufficient for 100 gals, or £1.09 for 250 ml sufficient for 25 gals.
Keeps in fridge for at least 6 months. (must be kept in fridge btw)
How much brewing would you have to do over six months to use up 1 litre of isinglass?
...err 100 galons perhaps? should read posts more carefully

[Frothy]

Isinglass- A semi-transparent, whitish and very pure form of gelatine, prepared from the air-bladders of certain fish, originally sturgeons, now largely cod, ling and carp.

Hmmm this is a new one on me - sachet for a single batch cost me 1.50 at the homebrew shop ;( thanks - learn something new everyday on this forum. I'll still have to buy the filter kit for the vast quantities of lemonade I'll be producing this summer

Matt

[Andy]

Frothers - lemondade, sounds good - how about posting a recipe in the "other brews" section ?

[bod]

i used to use beerclear for finnings as it was suitable for vegetarians, i have a few friends who are vegan and drink my beer, but while they didnt know i used finnings, i didnt fancy screwing with their beliefs. to be honest though i havent used anything for over a year(25 odd batches), and i'm happy with the results i get.

[johnmac]

You could say that beer fined with animal products is vegetarian safe because all of the animal stuff is left in the bottom of the fermenting bin with the yeast and doesn't make it into the finnished pint.

[eskimobob]

When in my second year at Uni, I shared a house with 3 others. My yorkshire housemate (Dan) made a large apple pie one day (first time effort) and used about a pound of lard for the pastry. Tasted reasonable although a bit lardy!

When one of my other vegetarian housemates (Vikky) returned home from the pub late one night pissed, she spotted the freshly made pie and grabbed a huge handful which she forced into her mouth.

Needless to say, we sat there supping homebrew and grinning until after she had swallowed it when we thought to mention the lard. She was in the loo for quite a while trying to get it back up

Still makes me grin today when I think about it but then we'd had some run-ins with her so we thought it served her right