47 replies to this topic

[chadm75]

I invested in filtering equipment from Northern Brewer about two weeks ago and had a chance to put everything together last night and filter an APA. I purchased a cartridge filter and a 1 micron filter. Now before I go any further, I will say that I've never had any issues with sediment in my beer. I've learned all my "clarity processes" from this board. I have good rolling boils, use whirlfloc, siphon out of the kettle, and chill the beer in the secondary to help the yeast drop out. But I've ALWAYS been annoyed with chill haze and I've never been able to ride myself of it. Granted, after about two weeks a keg clears up and chill haze starts to drop. But I wanted ultra-clear beer right off the bat. Hence my desire to try filtering to see what happens. Below was my process so if there are any comments or suggestions for me, let me know. On Monday night, I racked beer into a keg and chilled overnight to create chill haze. Then last night, I santitized the connections and equipment. I connected the full keg to the gas and then hooked up the "out" line to the "in" on the filter. Then connected the "out" on the filter to the "out" on the empty keg. I wanted to fill the keg through the dip tube so I could fill the keg from the bottom. Then I turned on the gas and away it went. All went smooth (I think) except for some loose fittings on the filter which I simply tightened up to fix that. Right now my keg is carbing and should be ready by tomorrow night. From the looks of it, the chill haze was filtered out which was my goal. But the real test will come with that first pull off the keg.

[Big Nake]

Geez, Chad... I hope I haven't influenced you to the point of filtration. You know that it's only you and me who appreciate clear homebrew (okay, I made that up) but even I haven't gone this far. I did buy a plate filter from Williams but never used it. Then I heard that one of our local brewers thought he had a yeast allergy and I donated all of the equipment to him, including different micron pads. But when you pull that first pint, I expect a pic like this one... TTIUWP!

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

Ken, does gelatin remove chill haze? Is this why the beer should be cool when you add in the gelatin?

[strangebrewer]

I met a local homebrewer who filtered his beer when buying some stuff off him he posted on CL. I tried a couple of his beers all of which were filtered. They were brilliantly clear and tasted great. The one was a pale ale that he said spent 1 week in primary, 1 week in secondary, and then filtered on it's way to a serving keg where it sat in his fridge for a week carbing. I was really impressed for a 3 week old beer!

[RommelMagic]

Not that I've ever filtered, but your process looks good - pretty much the only way to do it IMHO. The only thing I can think of: Did you purge the empty tank of O2?

[chadm75]

Geez, Chad... I hope I haven't influenced you to the point of filtration. You know that it's only you and me who appreciate clear homebrew (okay, I made that up) but even I haven't gone this far.

Ken - I'll be honest, you helped me get to this point! And for that sir, I thank you!

Not that I've ever filtered, but your process looks good - pretty much the only way to do it IMHO. The only thing I can think of: Did you purge the empty tank of O2?

This is the one thing I did not do. I will say that this keg will be drank and emptied on Saturday so I'm not too worried about oxidation. But I will purge the empty keg in the future.

[Big Nake]

Ken, does gelatin remove chill haze? Is this why the beer should be cool when you add in the gelatin?

Zym: I don't know the answer to this, but I do have a hunch: chill haze is caused by the reaction of proteins & tannins (IIRC, someone please correct me if I'm wrong) and I think it's possible that the addition of a gel solution could eliminate or reduce these compounds to the point that they cannot react or they effects are lowered. I say this because very often I will take a secondary (which has sat on my cool cement basement floor) and rack it to a keg, get it to around 35°, force carb it and then eventually get it to the taps. The first pint has yeast in it (to some extent) but then subsequent glasses of beer are as clear as they can be... no chill haze. Remember too that there are other factors... how vigorous your boil is, the chemical makeup of your mash (someone recently said that the right levels of calcium promote clarity), using whirfloc and just generally keeping as much crap out of your wort/beer as possible. All of this will reduce the chance of chill haze and/or cloudiness. Cheers.

[DaBearSox]

Zym: I don't know the answer to this, but I do have a hunch: chill haze is caused by the reaction of proteins & tannins (IIRC, someone please correct me if I'm wrong) and I think it's possible that the addition of a gel solution could eliminate or reduce these compounds to the point that they cannot react or they effects are lowered. I say this because very often I will take a secondary (which has sat on my cool cement basement floor) and rack it to a keg, get it to around 35°, force carb it and then eventually get it to the taps. The first pint has yeast in it (to some extent) but then subsequent glasses of beer are as clear as they can be... no chill haze. Remember too that there are other factors... how vigorous your boil is, the chemical makeup of your mash (someone recently said that the right levels of calcium promote clarity), using whirfloc and just generally keeping as much crap out of your wort/beer as possible. All of this will reduce the chance of chill haze and/or cloudiness. Cheers.

I am pretty sure gelatin does have some effect when you chill the beer down before racking. I was fermenting a common in the basement so I didn't have a chance to chill it down anymore. I racked to the 2ndary without any gelatin...cali common yeast is a great floccer so when I bottled it was crystal clear...put a bottle in last week to try and sure enough...chill haze. Most my others beers get chilled down then racked on gelatin and they are a lot clearer.

[Humperdink]

Ken, does gelatin remove chill haze? Is this why the beer should be cool when you add in the gelatin?

Yes, from what I've always heard and read, gelatin at serving temps to drop out chill haze. Works for me.

[chadm75]

I'll be honest and never have played enough with gel to say if I've had success or not. There is no doubt in my mind it works so I get it, gel and cold crashing will accomplish the same (or close to the same) but I thought I would try filtering and see how it works. One other question...if I rinse and sanitize the the filter cartridge itself, how many times can I reuse it (if I can at all)?

[Big Nake]

You mean the actual "filter pad" (for lack of a better term)? I thought these were one-use things, but there may be different kinds of filters so not sure.Not to veer off the side of the road, but what about this... does anyone ever find themselves out someplace drinking commercial beer (filtered) and wind up with a headache the next day that you know you wouldn't have if you were drinking homebrew? I guess I wonder about that if I filtered my homebrew... I think the residual yeast helps you get around the symptoms of "having one too many". Cheers & congrats Chad... but we need pics!

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

I'll be honest and never have played enough with gel to say if I've had success or not. There is no doubt in my mind it works so I get it, gel and cold crashing will accomplish the same (or close to the same) but I thought I would try filtering and see how it works. One other question...if I rinse and sanitize the the filter cartridge itself, how many times can I reuse it (if I can at all)?

I'll let you know about the gel vs cold crashing comparison. I expect it will do more than cold crashing alone will do.

[Slainte]

Ken, does gelatin remove chill haze? Is this why the beer should be cool when you add in the gelatin?

Yes, and yes. :)Ideally the beer should be cooled below or at your planned serving temperature to eliminate chill haze.

[Big Nake]

Yes, and yes. :)Ideally the beer should be cooled below or at your planned serving temperature to eliminate chill haze.

Ah. Okay, I don't do this. The beer I add the gel solution to is around 60°... I don't chill, then rack to secondary with gel. Still seems to do a nice job. Cheers.

[Adam]

Last year I went morel mushroom hunting many times during the season, which gave me a great abundance of morels. I love to try new ideas making beer, and I had all these morels around so I thought "I should make a morel mushroom stout!", which I did. Now to the point of my story, that deals with clarity. The Morel Stout was delicious, but also super duper clear! No chill haze, NOTHING! Could the long, complex proteins of the morel mushroom been responsible? Brewing my next batch, an light colored IPA, I get to about 15 minutes to the end of the boil. Just about to add the Irish Moss for clarity purposes, when I look up at my Tupperware full of morels and think, hmmm... ;>grabbed 2 small morels and put them in instead of the moss. Amazingly! the IPA turned out super duper clear with very little chill haze that went away in 2 days. Well, I did only used two instead of the larger amount in the Morel Stout (Which was delicious, I must reiterate.) Anyhow, anyone ever heard of this? Did I stumble upon something new? If anyone is interested in the Morel Stout recipe just ask, I will send it to you if your cool :| Maybe I will stick it up online, no reason to keep a good thing to yourself. Most people won't be able to do it anyhow. Morels go $300 a dried pound, that is if you can even find them. This time of year they are even more. Best to just learn some mushroom identification and pick them yourself and dehydrate them. Great thing to do with your family, or girlfriend.

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

Last year I went morel mushroom hunting many times during the season, which gave me a great abundance of morels. I love to try new ideas making beer, and I had all these morels around so I thought "I should make a morel mushroom stout!", which I did. Now to the point of my story, that deals with clarity. The Morel Stout was delicious, but also super duper clear! No chill haze, NOTHING! Could the long, complex proteins of the morel mushroom been responsible? Brewing my next batch, an light colored IPA, I get to about 15 minutes to the end of the boil. Just about to add the Irish Moss for clarity purposes, when I look up at my Tupperware full of morels and think, hmmm... ;>grabbed 2 small morels and put them in instead of the moss. Amazingly! the IPA turned out super duper clear with very little chill haze that went away in 2 days. Well, I did only used two instead of the larger amount in the Morel Stout (Which was delicious, I must reiterate.) Anyhow, anyone ever heard of this? Did I stumble upon something new? If anyone is interested in the Morel Stout recipe just ask, I will send it to you if your cool :| Maybe I will stick it up online, no reason to keep a good thing to yourself. Most people won't be able to do it anyhow. Morels go $300 a dried pound, that is if you can even find them. This time of year they are even more. Best to just learn some mushroom identification and pick them yourself and dehydrate them. Great thing to do with your family, or girlfriend.

great first post. interesting stuff. maybe other kinds of mushrooms would do the trick.

[Adam]

Okay, I posted the Morel Stout Recipe on my store. BTW I run www.LabelPeelers.com, not trying to be a promotional slut or anything, just mentioning it, so you know. If you have any questions or need a specialty item, get in touch, I can help you out.https://labelpeelers...out-p-3348.htmlOr click Here

[Adam]

I never thought of that, Other mushrooms might have the same effect. I would try the more robust strains of mushrooms, the more substantial the flesh, the more protein, at least that makes sense to me

[3rd party JKor]

I have a plate filter. I haven't used it in a while, but when I did it worked well.

[Stout_fan]

... I think the residual yeast helps you get around the symptoms of "having one too many".

Nothing to think about here Ken. It's a known fact the yeast in HB carries B complex vitamins and it does reduce the effects of hangovers.