Home made wine filter?

[krakowmike]

I like the pressure gauge idea. I like to know exactly whats happening (ie: sous vide, pid espresso maker, you get the point I suppose having a 10 micron filter (as a pre-filter) in series with a 1 micron filter might be a good idea for people who want to filter alot. Since filters are so cheap, (1-2GBP each), I can afford to filter and throw away.

[krakowmike]

Just had a eureka moment, those 10 inch filter housing accommodate carbon blocks. I could use the same system to pre-treat water before kit making. I think it was discussed here already that it really doesn't matter if you pre-treat or not, but I remember Dave mentioning in his talk that pre-treating is vital for beer making.

[Delmonteman]

....but I remember Dave mentioning in his talk that pre-treating is vital for beer making.

Not necessarily vital (I don't bother treating and I make, to me, nice beer) though it can be beneficial depending on your local water supply and the type of beer you want to make... I make milds and stouts mostly with little or no hop character so don't bother with water treatment.

[Cellar_Rat]

Not necessarily vital

Agreed. I think it depends on whether you have good water or not. IMO hardness is more important. It doesn't seem to make a difference to my O.S.Hen.

[SiSandrine]

Interested in this. I have just bought all the ingredients for the Cascade recipe in the beer tutorials section. We have hard water where I am in Hampshire. Does this matter or should I boil it the day before or something?

[krakowmike]

Ditto I'm gearing up for cascade as well!

[Delmonteman]

Personally, whilst water treatment can make a big difference to an ale, I would get into the process of making the beer before worrying too much about water treatment. That will then give you a baseline to work and improve from.

You could also completely cut out the middle man and use dried or liquid malt extract instead of mashing grains thereby eliminating the need for water treatment, but relying on the boil to remove temporary hardness and adding one campden tablet per 10 gallon batch to the boil to drive off chlorine/amines.

Bear in mind however that it is 'alkalinity' rather than 'hardness' that you need to be concerned with if you want to go that route and here is an excellent guide.

http://www.jimsbeerkit.com/home_brew_faq-water-treatment.htm

Though admittedly it all depends on your experience and circumstances etc. It's a bit like the grape wine making thing though - the first time you do it don't worry about oak, mlf, cold soaks etc., just make good quality wine.

[Cellar_Rat]

Personally, whilst water treatment can make a big difference to an ale, I would get into the process of making the beer before worrying too much about water treatment. That will then give you a baseline to work and improve from.

It's a bit like the grape wine making thing though - the first time you do it don't worry about oak, mlf, cold soaks etc., just make good quality wine.

1000000000000000000000000% agree.

The other thing I would suggest - particularly for cascade ale is do not over extract the hops - I believe this is the cause of off flavours and cloudiness.
There is a HUGE amount of hops in this recipe do not think you are missing anything.
A gentle boil is what is required. Not a hard boil. not a volcanic boil but the gentlest simmer.
IMO an electric boil is better than gas because it is gentler and gives a resting period in between bursts.
I have tried all sorts of things with the same recipe and I'm going back to basics with the next brew.

If you are doing and all grain brew have you read the Bible by Graham Wheeler. Just brilliant. I can recommend page 174 fantastic.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brew-Your-British-Real-Camra/dp/1852492589/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349945973&sr=8-1

There is a chap round here that knows a bit about the Cascade ale recipe I would be interested to hear his opinions.

[krakowmike]

3/8" tubing came, a little loose on the pump but nothing some tape can't fix. Just waiting for the 3/8" to 1/2" adapter, hopefully it will come tomorrow- than its filter time!

[SiSandrine]

Brian / Daniel, Thanks for the tips re the water quality. Hoping to just crack on this weekend then.

[Cellar_Rat]

Good weekend for it - your beer should easily be ready for Christmas.

[DaveH]

1000000000000000000000000% agree.

The other thing I would suggest - particularly for cascade ale is do not over extract the hops - I believe this is the cause of off flavours and cloudiness.
There is a HUGE amount of hops in this recipe do not think you are missing anything.
A gentle boil is what is required. Not a hard boil. not a volcanic boil but the gentlest simmer.
IMO an electric boil is better than gas because it is gentler and gives a resting period in between bursts.
I have tried all sorts of things with the same recipe and I'm going back to basics with the next brew.

If you are doing and all grain brew have you read the Bible by Graham Wheeler. Just brilliant. I can recommend page 174 fantastic.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brew-Your-British-Real-Camra/dp/1852492589/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349945973&sr=8-1

There is a chap round here that knows a bit about the Cascade ale recipe I would be interested to hear his opinions.

Someone call ;o).....................

Sorry i've not noticed this sooner - work a tad ballistic again at moment.

Agree to a certain extent about the boil, however a key component also seems to be a good steep at 80 deg for 30 mins at least (Post-boil) . Key thing here - get a really good hop bed to use as a filter - along with protofoc/Whirlfloc at 15 mins to go before the end of the boil. Are you doing BIAB Brian? If so, are you putting the hops in a bag during the boil....also how are you emptying the boiler? Maybe cloudyness is protein/hot break carry over from the boil?????

[DaveH]

Personally, whilst water treatment can make a big difference to an ale, I would get into the process of making the beer before worrying too much about water treatment. That will then give you a baseline to work and improve from.

You could also completely cut out the middle man and use dried or liquid malt extract instead of mashing grains thereby eliminating the need for water treatment, but relying on the boil to remove temporary hardness and adding one campden tablet per 10 gallon batch to the boil to drive off chlorine/amines.

Bear in mind however that it is 'alkalinity' rather than 'hardness' that you need to be concerned with if you want to go that route and here is an excellent guide.

http://www.jimsbeerkit.com/home_brew_faq-water-treatment.htm

Though admittedly it all depends on your experience and circumstances etc. It's a bit like the grape wine making thing though - the first time you do it don't worry about oak, mlf, cold soaks etc., just make good quality wine.

- as i said in my talk. If you're using tap water - always treat with Campden. You shouldnt get any' TCP' off-flavours this way. This is a good place to start.

[krakowmike]

I fired up the pump today- doesn't pump alot but it is high torque/ pressure. I have no doubt this pump won't be able to push through a filter. Noticed that the tubing is very stubborn. Tomorrow is filter attempt number 1. Am planning to filter all my aging whites-

[krakowmike]

Filtered about 140L of wine today. It works- sparkle clear! I pushed the wine through the filter instead of drawing. I'm sure this pump could do both, but am not sure that it is designed to draw a vacuum for long periods of time. Each kit took a couple of minutes to filter once everything was setup. I'll post a cost break down of the project later on.

Issues-

1. Wine foams at the end of the filter cycle, make sure you have enough head space.
2. Make sure all your seals are leak proof.
3. Reinforced tubing is stubborn- wonder if I could have gotten away with normal tubing.
4. Filter lasts forever, but threw it out at the end of the session, at 2GBP each, I think I can afford to throw them out after each session. Freezing, drying, keeping it in K-meta until the next filter session sounds too complicated.
5. Having the wifey help is a must

Other than that, I'm quite pleased with the filter. The wines were pretty clean to start with but now they are sparkling which wasn't the case before.