COLD STERILE FILTRATION: A SMALL SCALE FILTRATION TEST AND INVESTIGATION OF MEMBRANE PLUGGING

Abstract
Beer brewed from 24 commercially and bag malted samples by a small scale brewing method was assessed by a micro-filtration efficiency (MFE) test designed to emulate the cold-sterile (membrane or micro-) filtration process. The level of malt derived beer components with the potential to reduce MFE, such as β-glucan, arabinoxylan, protein and polyphenol, were consistent over duplicate beer batches suggesting that beer quality was reproducible using the small scale method. The small scale MFE test was able to differentiate (Pmax) was negatively correlated with beer arabinoxylan content (r=–0.62, PVmax (r=-0.81, P<0.001).