home made filters

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home made filters

Postby drunkpaul » Saturday Nov 20, 2010 10:03 pm

anyone got any tips on making a filter. i'll get a z filter one day but a home made filter will save me a few bucks over xmas.
any tips or photos would be greatly appriciated.
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Re: home made filters

Postby hirns » Sunday Nov 21, 2010 7:16 am

Is this for pre or post still? Easiest method I know of is to buy a packet of paper coffee filters from Woollies. Place the filter in a sieve or colander , not a funnel and filter. I'm assuming that you are still going to be using some charcoal prior to remove narsties.

Cheers


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Re: home made filters

Postby drunkpaul » Sunday Nov 21, 2010 9:43 am

post still hirns. i got some high activity spirit carbon that i thought i could run through something to use as a filter.
a bloke at work said he had some pvc he'd made into a filter with a tap fitting on the end, that he filled with charchol.
would the carbon work the same as charchol?
i've read that people wouldn't use plastic around high strength alcohol.
z filters are made from plastic, are they safe to use?
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Re: home made filters

Postby hirns » Sunday Nov 21, 2010 10:42 am

Soory, misread your orinial post slightly.

Use the propper carbon, you don't want too much brain damage. It's been a while since I've done this as I use a z filter myself now. There are quite a few grades of carbon nowadays. I used to use one that you poured into the spirit and then left it to do its job for a week before filtering through the coffee paper. So you really don't need a fancy filter. The z filter is a quicker way of doing this. I still through the carbon into the spirit which sit in a 19l spring water bottle and usually leave it as such. I then rack off what I need from time to time and run this through the z filter for some extra polishing. I always cut the spirit to 40% before treating it with carbon and this also reduces issues with it reacting with anything.

If you want a cheap filter buy 19mm poly filter used for micro irrigation systems. You can cut circle filters from the coffee filter paper, fill the rest of the housing up with carbon and let the spirit drip through very slowly(as in overnight, tap only just on).

http://www.stillspirits.com/ is a good source of information if you have not already been there.
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Re: home made filters

Postby drunkpaul » Tuesday Nov 23, 2010 7:10 am

thanks hirns. its great to hear from someone who knows what thier doing.
at least i have a few ideas now. i think i'll have to bite the bullet and get a z filter when i can afford it.
thanks for the link aswell.
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Re: home made filters

Postby drsmurto » Tuesday Nov 23, 2010 9:30 am

If it was me I would get some activated charcoal/carbon from ebay - Link

Add a few tbsp to your wash and let sit for a few hours.

Filter through a paper coffee filter (folded like this - Link ) in a funnel.

Easy, cheap, effective.

I may not have any experience making spirits but 15 years in a synthetic chemistry laboratory should cover that. 8)
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Re: home made filters

Postby hirns » Tuesday Nov 23, 2010 5:00 pm

Yeah, the activated charcoal is the one you want. I only brew spirits about once in three years to five years and start from scratch each time(need to write this stuff down, but things change quickly, so I like to re-check). I do about 4/5 batches at once to get 20L of 80/90% or 40l of 40%. I don't drink a lot of spirits these days(the wife likes the scotch) hence the long time between batches. I still like to leave it sitting on the carbon for as long as possible to do its job.

Cheers

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Re: home made filters

Postby drsmurto » Wednesday Nov 24, 2010 9:39 am

Activated carbon should work very quickly, a matter of minutes.

Hence why it is used in flow through water systems.
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Re: home made filters

Postby drunkpaul » Wednesday Nov 24, 2010 8:32 pm

thanks guys. tried folding the filter paper like in the CCA link drsmurto. ended up with a swan. haha. too easy and makes sence.
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Re: home made filters

Postby 6250 » Thursday Feb 10, 2011 12:54 pm

another alternative ive been using is a product by Spirits Unlimited called Turbo Pure! you just add 10ml/L and leave 24hr and it takes away that methoy tang u may get. it must neutralise the smells/tastes. im a lazy brewer so i couldnt be bothered messing around with carbon and setting up etc. seems to do a fantastic job to my spirit!
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Re: home made filters

Postby drunkpaul » Thursday Mar 03, 2011 9:22 pm

i eventually brought a z filter set up that came with 2 buckets. they must be good buckets, they cost the same as the filter.
i used it a few times but thought id packed it with too much carbon because it took so long to filter.
i then bought the pope garden filters and filled them with the carbon. i rigged up two in a line and while they work fine,also found them to be slow.
after filtering 3 times each batch, i finally figured out im just impatient.
cant wait to get my own place and set up a permanant system. with a z filter and two pope filters rigged up,ill have the cleanest moonshine around.
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