For a given type of crossflow microfiltration membrane, increasing the pore size leads to improved filtration rates and declining clarity. With Ceramem ceramic 0.5 mum filters, very bright filtrate and near-sterility (99.99% removal of Acetobacter BSO11) are achieved, with no loss of beer components. Non-sterilising filtration can be achieved using membranes of pore size between 0.5 and 1 mum, with slightly poorer filtrate clarity. Conditioning tank bottoms can be filtered using the 1.3 mum membrane. An economic assessment indicates that the replacement of powder filtration with crossflow systems using ceramic membranes is attractive.