Problems filtering IPAs/dry hopped beers with a plate and frame

[roughdraft1]

To Anyone Who Can Help:

I used a 40x40 plate and frame to filter all our beers. Most beers are dry hopped and some aren't. The non dry-hopped beers run through the filter just fine however the dry hopped beers suck! I recently purchased a stainless steel blind plate so that I can experiment with the number of plates used to filter different beers. We have 30 bbl fermenters and the plate and frame has 80 plates but I never run it with all of them. I am also consistently adding about 1L of Biofine into the fermenters after I have chilled the tank down to 34F and dumped off as much hops as possible. Then I dump off more hops the morning that I am going to filter the beer. The biofine seems to help get more hops and yeast to drop out prior to filtering but I am wondering if anyone else is filtering a similar batch size with a plate and frame and has any other techniques I can try to help ease the burden of filtering these dry hopped beers. Any information would be great and if you need more information from me please ask.

Thank you in advance.

[Matt Dog]

We do 40 BBl batches of dry-hopped DIPA through almost the exact sized P&F. HS4000 sheets. Before Biofine it was terrible, with 50 mls biofine per Bbl its night and day. We also start filtering from a port located at the top of the cone and then later move down to the racking arm which helps. The key is mixing the Biofine very well which we accomplish by creating a loop with a portable VFD pump drawing from the higher port and pushing back through the racking arm which is set at an angle to create a good whirlpool effect. Then inject the biofine and continue to run the pump at a low speed for 30 minutes or so. Works like a charm. 48hrs on the Biofine, dumping trub each day.Beer is nearly bright before the filter.

[roughdraft1]

Thank you very much for your response. I have been adding biofine but only giving the tank a CO2 burst through the cone to mix it in. I have been running a recirc loop for my dry hops and have considered doing it when adding the biofine, which I will now after your reply.

Thanks again!

[porter]

pre-strainer

We use a sock strainer/filter with a 100 micron bag for all of our hop forward beers inline from FV to BT. We add biofine at about 100ml per bbl into the bright.
The strainer keeps all hop material out of the bright tank.
For our dry hopped pilsner, we put the strainer inline before a plate and frame to keep hop material from going through the filter. Works great and although the strainer cost about $2200, it also functions as a hop back using whole hops.

Cheers!

[a10t2]

We use a sock strainer/filter with a 100 micron bag for all of our hop forward beers inline from FV to BT.

Is it something like this? http://www.gwkent.com/super-strainer.html

That's a solution I've been considering for dry hopped beers, in conjunction with BioFine. I don't want to filter them if I can help it.

[letsbrewit]

We use a sock strainer/filter with a 100 micron bag for all of our hop forward beers inline from FV to BT. We add biofine at about 100ml per bbl into the bright.
The strainer keeps all hop material out of the bright tank.
For our dry hopped pilsner, we put the strainer inline before a plate and frame to keep hop material from going through the filter. Works great and although the strainer cost about $2200, it also functions as a hop back using whole hops.

Cheers!

my friend, after the 100 micron filter (140 mesh x inch, aprox i guess) do you use 30,25,20 until 5 or 1 microns? i mean do you filter using several microns stages?


regards!