Help! My Plate Filter sucks!

[bndionne]

Hey, just wondering if someone can help us out here.. I don't actually brew (NEW in house lab technician) BUT I know we use a plate filtration system with apparent sterile filters, but we're having problems because we don't have a line of cold water to blast through it prior to filtration. Instead, we're sending hot water, which is causing the yeast to bake onto the 'sterile plates' and incubate, not helping our filtration at all.

All I know is, my boss wants me to find out as much as possible about plate filtration, problems, and possible ways to fix this mess. I'm in the understanding that maybe we should dump the pump.

[Øl-sheik]

to me it sounds very much, that you are totally overloading your sterile filter. Sterile filtration takes place below 1 micrometer and is used to filter out bacterias and single yeast cells. Yeast cells have a size of around 10 micrometer and if found in higher numbers will block your filtersheets very fast. The hot water you use for flushing (sterilization?) if not prefiltered loads up the sterile filter as well !!

Putting higher pressure on the filter will not solve your problem. You might want to consider to prefilter the medium at around 2 micrometer and of the hot water to increase the capacity of your filter.

[Jim Russell]

No matter what filtration there should be process water for clean up, etc.

As previously stated hot water is good for backwashing but poor due to a tendancy to baking any protein material on the filter or on initial contact.

Sounds like you might have a centrifuge to pad filtration, and there are a few tweeks you can do to optimize this out but a bit more info on your process would be needed.

Jim R

[BrewerTL]

A little off topic, but does anyone know how to get in touch with ABEC Filtration? I've called several numbers, sent emails and filled out a "contact" form on their website. Anyone know what's happening?

[beertje46]

What's up there TL? I'm sure you've tried all these #'s. I would try e-mailing Peter M. Abec using every biz style of address:
pmabec@abecfiltration.com
peter.m.abec@abecfiltration.com
pabec@abecfiltration.com
p.m.abec@abecfiltration.com

You get the picture. If the e-mails don't bounce, I'm sure they won't, find a new filter supplier.

ABEC FILTRATION SYSTEMS INC.
10-1 County Line Road - Somerville, NJ 08876
Ph: 1-866-FILTER-8 or (908) 575-0700 Fx: (908) 575-0770


sales@abecfiltration.com

[BrewerTL]

Thanks, David! How goes it in the Bluegrass state? Had some of your brew last time I was in Nashville visiting the folks. Yummy...

Tried all those contacts and then some. I have Peter's email and have sent him a few, but I get nothing, nada. I've got a filter ordered from him and was kind of wondering when I was going to get it. Anybody out there got any other contact info for Abec Filtration.