Beer

Filtration In The Process of Beer Brewing

Beer is a kind of alcoholic beverage made of wheat malt and barley malt as the main raw materials. After adding hops, beer is finally obtained after liquid pasting, smashing, and then liquid fermentation. The general process of the beer brewing includes malting, milling, mashing, lautering, boiling, fermenting, conditioning, filtering and packaging.

Filtration is one of the most important processes in the process of beer production. It concerns the appearance and flavor of beer as well as its biological stability and abiotic stability, etc. In addition, it prevents further changes in appearance and quality at least during its shelf life, thus ensuring the perfect appearance quality, taste and nutritional value of the beer. With rich industry experience and our professional technical team, Hanke can provide you with customized beer filtration solutions including fermented filtration and beer final filtration solutions.

For details, please refer to:

Beer Filtration Solutions

4 cups of beer and a bowl of snacks are displayed.

Fermented Filtration
Sterile Filtration

Fermented Filtration

Background
The cooled wort is mixed with yeast and sent to fermentation tanks or open fermentation vats, where alcohol and CO₂ are produced from fermentation components such as glucose and fructose through anaerobic fermentation. Fresh beer is pumped to sealed fermentation tanks and kept until final maturity to obtain beer.
Problem
Beer after fermentation contains a large number of solids and suspended substances such as malt residues, yeast cells, fats and proteins. These substances usually form sediments at the bottom of the fermentation tank, called lees. If left untreated, this can cause the beer to deteriorate and affect the quality of the final product.
Solution
To get high quality beer, filtration is required after fermentation. Lees are generally treated in the following two steps. First, candle filters are adopted to separate lees from fermentation broth. Diatomaceous earth may be added as a filter aid to enhance the filtration effect. Second, cartridge filters are employed to capture small particles left in the fermentation broth to obtain clean, visually appealing beer.

Candle filter for fermented filtration

Sterile Filtration

Background
To prevent beer from spoiling, unnecessary microorganisms such as typical yeast, acetic acid bacteria and lactic acid bacteria must be removed from the beer before packaging. Otherwise, these microorganisms perform anaerobic respiration in the closed beer bottles and decompose the organic matters in the beer, causing the beer to spoil, shorten its shelf life and reduce its nutritional value.
Problem
For longer shelf life, pasteurization or sterile filtration can be used to remove unnecessary microorganisms from beer before canning. Sterile filtration means that the yeast and beer spoilage microorganisms are reduced to extremely low levels through filtration.
Solution
Cartridge filters are generally selected for sterile filtration as their filter housings can minimize the microbial content.

Cartridge filters for sterile filtration