Can I over-filter my beer?

Question

I'm going to dry hop my very first IPA (without a bag) and I've read that when bottling I will need to put some kind of filtering cloth on the end of the racking cane to prevent hops sediment from getting into my bottles. So I ended up buying a hop-bag in the local brew store and plan to tie it over the racking cane instead of actually dry-hopping in it. They claim that it's made of 'synthetic material' but I'm a bit concerned since it looks really thick. Could I possibly over-filter my beer with it? I mean in the way that I can lose some yeast needed for carbonation or even some flavors.

Sorry if it sounds silly, I'm a newbie and a bit paranoid.

Here's how the bag looks like, it feels like polyester or something.

Answer 1

If you are worried about the yeast getting through that bag, you have nothing to worry about. When we talk about sterile filtration, the generally accepted size of the filter is .45u (micron). 1000 microns = 1 millimeter. While the mesh on that bag is less than a millimeter, it's not even close to .45u. I don't think that most breweries even sterile filter beer. They probably filter at 5u just to clean up the appearance. Beer unlike wine, is pretty stable after fermentation so wine is more often sterile filtered. So go ahead and use it, but you probably just need something like the Bouncer for getting the big stuff out of your beer.

Answer 2

No. Unless it's a cloudy style that relies on particulates.

But putting that bag over your racking cane will probably just clog up and be a frustrating mess.

I would use finings and cold crash. Then use the racking cane as intended no to disturb the trub.