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Tips for pushing beer through filter

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  • Tips for pushing beer through filter

    We recently purchased a plate and frame filter (30 plates) Does anyone have a method they like to get the rest of the remaining beer from the filter to the brite? We've done both deairated water and co2 to push with varying luck. Any solid gold methods to maximize efficiency?

  • #2
    Originally posted by Ashawinsky View Post
    We recently purchased a plate and frame filter (30 plates) Does anyone have a method they like to get the rest of the remaining beer from the filter to the brite? We've done both deairated water and co2 to push with varying luck. Any solid gold methods to maximize efficiency?
    Both those methods have worked well for me at multiple facilities. The key for me was to go slow.

    What issues are you experiencing?

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    • #3
      You're going to lose some beer as a "cost of doing business" with your filter, no matter how well dialed in your technique is; the sooner you stop thinking about whatever pours out when you open 'er up as pints you could've served somebody, the better!

      That being said, I've had good luck with the water push. Use a sightglass, or at least a hose you can see through - maybe it's not true for all filters, but the one I use, the stuff I'm pushing into the hose can get pretty watery while what's coming off the sample tap will still be pretty undiluted.

      The gas push is a little more fiddly, in my experience - but, then, we only tried it once, got a ton of particulate, didn't really know if it was something harmless like gas dissolved in the process or something bad like blowing schmutz through the pads because we'd used too much pressure, but decided if the water push ain't broken, don't fix it! However, we were flying blind on the process, I'm sure it works well for folks who know what they're doing, if you can find one of those folks to show you the way, I wouldn't be afraid of it.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by UnFermentable View Post
        Both those methods have worked well for me at multiple facilities. The key for me was to go slow.

        What issues are you experiencing?
        Ill try going slow with the water push on the next run, I just felt like once the water push began the product was almost instantly diluted to "unacceptable" levels. I appreciate the tip.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by feinbera View Post
          You're going to lose some beer as a "cost of doing business" with your filter, no matter how well dialed in your technique is; the sooner you stop thinking about whatever pours out when you open 'er up as pints you could've served somebody, the better!

          That being said, I've had good luck with the water push. Use a sightglass, or at least a hose you can see through - maybe it's not true for all filters, but the one I use, the stuff I'm pushing into the hose can get pretty watery while what's coming off the sample tap will still be pretty undiluted.

          The gas push is a little more fiddly, in my experience - but, then, we only tried it once, got a ton of particulate, didn't really know if it was something harmless like gas dissolved in the process or something bad like blowing schmutz through the pads because we'd used too much pressure, but decided if the water push ain't broken, don't fix it! However, we were flying blind on the process, I'm sure it works well for folks who know what they're doing, if you can find one of those folks to show you the way, I wouldn't be afraid of it.
          Thats good to know about the sample ports, ill test from multiple locations next time.
          Cheers.

          Comment


          • #6
            When you talk about a plate and frame filter, are you talking about plate/sheet/plate, or are you using filter powder which actually uses frames so you have plate/ sheet/ frame/sheet plate etc?.

            If using plate and frames and powder, then water is by far and away the best option to prevent loss of the powder coat. Less critical with sheet/plate/sheet setup, but-

            Water is better than gas as the gas tends to blow through at the tops of the plates / sheets first and can force insoluble material including yeast and bacteria further into the sheets (or even through the sheets) than water will, so blinding the sheets quicker if you are re-sterilising and re-using the sheets rather than using fresh sheets every time.

            If using water, the flow rate should be the maximum design flow rate to reduce the interface. Running the push through slower than design flow will cause extended interfaces.

            Typical spec for sheet filters is 3.25 hl/m2 /hour
            dick

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            • #7
              Hello,

              Hoping I'm not hijacking a thread but I was about to post a similar question. I am however using a lenticular filter. I am using my pump to push my cider thru the filter. Once the pump is empty i am unable to continue to push the cider thru the filter leaving me with a loss of quite a few gallons. I tried pushing it with co2 which partially works to get it out of the hoses but once the co2 hits the filter it just bubbles and makes foam. I don’t know if you have a solution or an idea to help me get some of this product back and push all the cider in the housing thru the filter. I thought about water but figured it would just dilute my cider when it enters the filter. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks


              Drew

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              • #8
                If you don't want to use water of any sort, then simply drain the filter housing and supply line back into another vessels and blend away / top up with fresh cider. I suggest you don't blow the filter backwards as you will then blow a large amount of crap out of the filter into your recovered cider, making filtration more difficult next time. So you will have to accept slightly higher losses.

                But why not try water (de-aerated of course) and see what dilution you do actually get, and see if this is acceptable? Taste off the diluting cider and measure the volume you collect and then if the dilution is acceptable, you can simply use volume next time instead of tasting off every time.
                dick

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Blindwood View Post
                  Hello,

                  Hoping I'm not hijacking a thread but I was about to post a similar question. I am however using a lenticular filter. I am using my pump to push my cider thru the filter. Once the pump is empty i am unable to continue to push the cider thru the filter leaving me with a loss of quite a few gallons. I tried pushing it with co2 which partially works to get it out of the hoses but once the co2 hits the filter it just bubbles and makes foam. I don’t know if you have a solution or an idea to help me get some of this product back and push all the cider in the housing thru the filter. I thought about water but figured it would just dilute my cider when it enters the filter. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks


                  Drew
                  If you have top port on your filter housing, push CO2 thru there.


                  Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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