DE Filtration beer recovery

[Woolsocks]

Hi all -

I'm relatively new to DE filtration, but have mostly gotten it down. There's one aspect of our process that's bothering me, though:

Our Brite Tanks are 1 story *above* the fermentation vessels, from which we filter. I was trained to, at the end of filtration, push the beer left in the filter up to the brite tank with CO2 pressure. This works, but after a short amount of time, my outflow from the filter is mostly CO2 with just a little beer mixed in. This makes sense: it's easier for the CO2 to go through the filter aid than for it to push the beer through. Therefore, I get huge bubbles of CO2 going through the brite tank while I'm recovering the beer from the filter. This causes massive foaming and, eventually, spillage out the top of the brite tank. If I close off the brite tank before this happens, I end up dumping quite a bit of beer which is left in the filter.

How do others handle this recovery? I'm hoping there's some easy way to solve this.

I wonder whether anyone flushes the remaining beer out with water?

Thanks.

[beertje46]

Hi all -

I wonder whether anyone flushes the remaining beer out with water?

Thanks.

Yes. Water chasing is common.

[liammckenna]

Yeah, chasing with water works.

If you're worried about dilution, pull of samples continuously as you chase.

When it starts to taste more watery than beery, you're done.

Pax.

Liam

[lhall]

Does your filter have a bottom leaf that you can isolate, just for bell recovery? If it does, then close off the valve for the other leaves when you are pushing the bell beer out with CO2. When bubbles appear in the sight glass of the filter, you're done and the bell should be almost empty.

[Woolsocks]

Does your filter have a bottom leaf that you can isolate, just for bell recovery? If it does, then close off the valve for the other leaves when you are pushing the bell beer out with CO2. When bubbles appear in the sight glass of the filter, you're done and the bell should be almost empty.

No, but I can see where that would be handy.

[nohandslance]

If it is not a conflict with your kettle, I would boil some H20/DeAreate then use that to chase the product. We add some Phosphoric acid to the H20 to bring the pH closer to that of beer then use in the chase, does not disturb the cake and get brite beer+H20 into tank..a few Tees and valves and a sight glass and you can switch over to Chase H20 when the Fermenter is empty with very little pressure drop in the bell housing so as not to disturb the cakes.
Note. The Boiled H20 is cooled via the heat exchanger so the temp is at 10 C.

[Woolsocks]

If it is not a conflict with your kettle, I would boil some H20/DeAreate then use that to chase the product. We add some Phosphoric acid to the H20 to bring the pH closer to that of beer then use in the chase, does not disturb the cake and get brite beer+H20 into tank..a few Tees and valves and a sight glass and you can switch over to Chase H20 when the Fermenter is empty with very little pressure drop in the bell housing so as not to disturb the cakes.
Note. The Boiled H20 is cooled via the heat exchanger so the temp is at 10 C.

I think I'll give that a try. I heat a bunch of water in the kettle anyway for sterilizing the filter and hoses.

[RobZamites]

Another vote for H2O chasing through the filter. I'd do the "tee and valve" circus too, and as soon as the color lightened. I'd switch the flow. gained *at least* .25 bbl doing this.

[Woolsocks]

Another vote for H2O chasing through the filter. I'd do the "tee and valve" circus too, and as soon as the color lightened. I'd switch the flow. gained *at least* .25 bbl doing this.

The tee-and-valve circus is going to be pretty impractical here. Any reason I shouldn't just switch to simple recirc loop on the filter when the tank empties, switch to the water, and then go back to the filtration loop for chasing?

[RobZamites]

Well, I suppose you could do that too....once you see water in the filter sight glass, you'll have to figure out how much beer is left in your xfer line to the serving tank though, unless you don't mind wasting that small amount.