What is the best way to filter out the charcoal bits and dust from product that has been barrel aged? Small scale, one barrel at a time.
What is the most cost effective?
Reply:
I know some (if not all) bottle filling machines have inline filters just for that purpose.
Reply:
we pass our vodka through a particulate filter like the ones available here: http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-water-filtration-devices/=md40ae
The cartridges let you choose the micron rating you want to filter down to, I think we only filter 5 micron which has been just fine at removing carbon dust from our chill-filtration process. We push the liquid through using a pneumatic diaphragm pump with standard NPT fittings. Really more simple than it sounds.
Best of luck,
-Scott
Reply:
Werner,
Screen gaskets from GW Kent (or another similar supplier) work pretty well. They fit between two tri-clamp fittings, like you might already have anyway between your bottle filler and your bottling tank.
Plus, if you go through six of them, that means that your product is "six times filtered" right?
Scott,
Which Mcmaster filter do you use? I had difficulty identifying which one(s) was compatible with ethanol. Ditto for the cartridge, if you don't mind sharing, that is.
Nick
Reply:
we sourced ours from our local water treatment guy (everyone up here has a water softener). regarding specific materials, I don't recall for this unit that we were too picky on the actual material. I can tell you it's blue, and looking at mcmaster carr, it looks like we have one of the "light blocking blue" filters. The cartridge that goes in it is like a tightly wound spool of twine, again pretty standard from what I recall. My reference to mcmaster carr was more for the style that we use, and now thinking this through, part num 44075K21 is very likely what we are using for this stage of our filtering process, though with a cartridge that filters down to 5 micron. If this unit was a special material for ethanol, i think it (and the cost of such) would be sticking out in my mind a little more....sorry but that's as specific as I can get without diving into our records to find the actual purchase receipt. Like i said, this part of it is really more simple than it sounds. We are filtering vodka, so any transfer of taste would certainly convey. If you are filtering something with character (like a barrel aged spirit), and the intent is to remove particles as you described in the OP, i believe this type of filter should work just fine.
-Scott
Reply:
Thanks everyone!
