Filtering home brew

[Pietrach]

Hi
As a learning exercise I would like to attempt making a bottle conditioned beer the same way as some commercial breweries do. This is to filter the beer before bottling, then add yeast and priming sugar and then bottle. Why you ask? To see the difference in taste, clarity, and amount of sediment between the current practice and this method. To do this I need a means of filtering the beer.
Do you know any home methods for say up to £50 which would allow to filter anywhere around 0.5-1.0 micron?

Thanks
Pawel

[hobbsy]

Could you pop a .5 micron filter into a under the sink style water filter?? The filters are £7on ebay, the housing is another £15.

This kind of thing: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-Inch-0-5-M ... 3a81c58ff6

Could potentially have some problem with oxidisation though....

[Jim]

Filtering beer is possible, but difficult and needs large, good quality filters. I'm sure it's been discussed on here before...

Keeping oxygen out is essential, so you have to use a closed filtering system (similar to a wine filter, though I've tried using one of those in the past and they just can't cope with the amount of yeast in beer and clog up straight away).

[Jocky]

Filtering beer is hugely difficult - as Jim has mentioned you have issues with oxygen exposure, not to mention that beer is a colloid, so any filtering will also take some of your beer's personality with it.

On a commercial scale there is more than one way to skin that particular cat -
Some larger breweries flash pasteurise their beer, killing the yeast, and then let that settle out before bottling.
A few of the bigger micros are now using centrifuges to remove yeast, avoiding filtering or pasteurisation.
And then there are the breweries that are just very good at trub management - extended cold conditioning before bottling, with regular racking off of yeast.

[flything]

If you want reduced sediment and clearer beer, and you don't want the oxygen and contamination risks of filtering, then I think you need to look at using a cornelius keg for the beer, letting it condition for a few weeks, draw off the sediment at the bottom and then use a Blichmann Beergun to fill the bottles. Should still be possible to naturally carbonate, but you'll need additional gas to push the beer out and maintain condition.

[Fil]

If you want reduced sediment and clearer beer, and you don't want the oxygen and contamination risks of filtering, then I think you need to look at using a cornelius keg for the beer, letting it condition for a few weeks, draw off the sediment at the bottom and then use a Blichmann Beergun to fill the bottles. Should still be possible to naturally carbonate, but you'll need additional gas to push the beer out and maintain condition.

+1
also check out the pegas eco bottle filling taps..
http://www.pegas.lt/en/170-pegas.html

a bit over budget tho especialy when a keg system is needed to feed

[Touchstone]

I'm a total bottleler, I ferment 10-14 days , then chill for 1-2 wks at 2c, then carefully into bottleling bucket, fine for 2-3 days still at 2c then bottle & prime . I end up with very little sediment, only from prime sugar , I think there's no need to complicate it any further.