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  • Lager filtration difficulties

    I am having a hard time achieving an acceptable level of clarity when filtering my Marzen. I'm using a DE Filter, and even after increasing the precoat and dose quantities, the beer is still very hazy. I understand that lager yeast does not flocculate as well as ale yeast, but is this common? Any advice is greatly appreciated.
    Thanks,
    Sam

  • #2
    Your haze could be caused by many different things.

    Take some of your filtered beer and spin it in a centrifuge tube. Then look at the sediment under a microscope. You will most likely get an idea of what is causing your haze instead of guessing blindly.

    Then depending on the origin, you could then take the right course of action.

    In general, Lager yeasts flocculate better than Ale Yeasts, although that depends on what strain you use and the alkalinity of your brewing water.

    Increasing your precoat and body feed probably wont help your clarity. What kind of DE and brand of filter are you using?
    Last edited by zbrew2k; 06-28-2005, 11:39 AM.

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    • #3
      I agree that there could be many potential sources for your haze problem. Assuming you have covered the easy things like checking the integrity of your filter (no broken pads, screens, gaskets…etc.), I would then ask you about your tank chilling procedure. A marzen is a very malty beer and one would definately expect it to be difficult to chill proof. I make the assumption you have lagered this beer for some time at cold temperatures but you definately need to be sure this beer has seen at least 72 hours at near freezing to be prepared for stabilization.

      A tank thermometer may indicate the beer is at a proper temperature, but that may not always be the case. I would suggest an inline thermometer to observe the beer temperature as it enters the filter. There can be warm areas in a fermentor that a sidewall thermometer will not indicate. Beer must maintain chillproofing temperature throughout filtration. I would also suggest a silica-hydrogel or PVPP as a filter aid for a large beer like this.

      It is easy enough to determine if you have a chill haze problem by allowing a glass of hazy beer to gradually warm up. If the haze is re-soluble, look at the things above. If it remains insoluble, then we have more things to discuss.

      Good Luck,

      Bob August
      Majestic Packaging Solutions

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      • #4
        seems like an odd problem. have you put the filter on recirc for a while until clarity is achieved? or is it just always hazy? i suppose you could put the filtered beer under a microscope and see if it is yeast or not (ie. maybe it is earth).

        alex

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        • #5
          The filter is a Padovan, I think it is a 2 meter. The housing holds about 1 bbl of beer. Even after a lengthy recirc, clarity isn't acceptable. A second filtration seems to always do the trick, but I would really like to find a way to only have to do it once. The yeast strain is White Labs German Lager (WLP830), the DE I am using is Celite. Do different grades of DE form a tighter/finer web? Thanks to everyone who replied.

          Sam

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          • #6
            hi,

            have you removed all of the plates and inspected/replaced the seals on the centre column? (think someone already mentioned this).

            yes, different DEs will form a different bed. if you are using celite hyflo only, switch to standard for final precoat/body feed.

            cheers,

            alex

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