If you had the choice...?

[SE11]

Very interesting. Would it be worthwhile running 5 litre batches through a plate filter or are they best used exclusively on larger batches?

I'm not the most technically able person so wondering what does needs a bit of TLC add up to? Have you got a couple of snaps? Should we take this off-line before someone gets in before me and I end up kicking myself?

Bill

[Cellar_Rat]

You can use less plates - PM me.

[Duffbeer]

Just to throw a cat amongst the pigeons I too have an enolmatic and although it is brilliant for bottling & de gassing, I personally don't rate the tandem filter system. I still use and swear by the Harris filter, slow as hell, but does a splendid job.

[Cellar_Rat]

Filtering - yikes - think of the expense !!

[mcblades]

Thanks for that Karl. I was thinking that the tandem filter would be my next upgrade. The Harris system doesn't add that much to a bottle as the filters are about a quid each (over 30 bottles that ain't much). As long as the wine is reasonably clear then I love my Harris. When you rush and try and filter before it's properly fined then you will kick yourself for wasting a quid (and half a day waiting for it to go through).

[Cellar_Rat]

If you mounted the harris on a simple frame, so it was still flat, you could put a pipe on the bottom- and the other end on the Enolmatic !

[fatbloke]

If you mounted the harris on a simple frame, so it was still flat, you could put a pipe on the bottom- and the other end on the Enolmatic !

Which, in turn, would pull the wine through the filter quicker, and if it's not fined/cleared enough, would probably just clog the filter all the quicker......

Plus, as my one isn't actually a Harris filter, it's the earlier boots version, the outlet pipe/part is square shaped, not round. So that would be out of the question.

The tandem filter housing works fine IMO, but it does have to pull about 2 or 3 pints into the housing first. Plus it's a lot of faffing about for smaller batches (as previously mentioned), because when it's working, it's very quick.

Equally, the mini-jet is good, but not perfect i.e. it seems that you follow the instructions etc, and it doesn't seem to matter how tight I turn the clamp handles/knobs, it still wants to leak some of the liquid out.

I would have thought that it's probably better value for money, and it just happens that I got my enolmatic for an excellent price (£200 the lot, filter housing, cartridge, bottler, etc), before I found the mini-jet.

I still think that you could do the job just as well, when it comes to smaller batches, with something like a harris filter, 2 DJ's, connecting pipes, a 2 holed bung and a mity-vac.

Bob is spot on about the tandem filter cartidges. They aren't cheap, but if you just back flush them with cleaning chems and sulphite or similar they can last a long time. Mini-jet pads are "one time only", but not too dear at all.

Well that's my "take" on the matter.

[mcblades]

I don't think that would work for bottling as it would still take a while to filter. But, as fatbloke says, if you coupled it to a couple of Dj's then you could use the vacuum to fileter into the DJ and bottle later. I wonder about the quality of the filtrate though. I once tried blowing down the air outlet pipe of the harris (first clamping the inlet) and though this filtered quickly it also ruptured the filter paper so defeated the object.

How does the plate filter differ from the harris? At the cider factory they had 30 foot long plate filters with about 100 stacked filter pads between supports (this predated the more modern rocket filters). Is this the kind of setup your filter is? How much wastage is there from a 5 gal batch?

If SE10 is not interested and I can get hold of filters easily then I might be.

[Cellar_Rat]

I don't think there would be a problem with wastage. I have some notes on plate filtering. They suggest you wet it first. The also suggest running in reverse to wash out and reuse (I really liked that bit) that would wash the Enol too.

The 20x20 is a nice size for 5 gallon batches at a sensible flow rate, and the enolmatic would easily be fitted. You can get pads in loads of different grades form gravel to sterile. Either for inline bottling or for filter only. You can use as many or as few plates as you like. I seem to recall you can mix plates too staring with a courser (don't hold me to that).

This is winery quality equiptment that won't disappoint - I just don't see the need to filter reds.

[fatbloke]

-----%<-----
I just don't see the need to filter reds.

Ha! you might not with grape stuff, but you haven't seen how much crap you can get in a "red" mead Brian

[mcblades]

If you pm me some costs (shipping etc) then I'll give it a whirl (assuming SE11 doesn't want it).

cheers
ps what happened to the frozen crushed grapes that you mentioned you were thinking of selling a while back?

[Cellar_Rat]

PM doesn't 'send' when I press the button

email me @ brian_peacock@yahoo.com