Glossary
Centrifugation
Spinning beer at high speed to separate yeast and solids by density, as an alternative to filtration.
Also called centrifuge.
The full record
Centrifugation has its own catalogue entry with the detail this page summarises — causes, thresholds, related styles and evidence.
Centrifugation — Separate yeast and solids from beer by density at high rotational speed, as a faster and gentler alternative to tight filtration.
Gentler on flavour than tight filtration and much faster than waiting for beer to drop bright, which is why it has become standard in larger breweries. Its main risk is oxygen pickup and shear if the machine is poorly set up.
Related
- Filtration — The alternative it often replaces.
More vocabulary
Arrested fermentation · Barrel ageing · Batch sparging · Biotransformation · Blending · Bottle conditioning · Bottom fermentation · Burtonisation · Cask conditioning · Cold break
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.