Filter/polish

[James]

How many of you much more experienced wine makers filter your wine before bottling? If you do, when do you do it,what proceedure do you follow, and what equipment do you use?


Generally, what are the pros and cons.


Thanks,


James

 

[chevyguy65]

We have tried 2 kits so far and filtered the first one (WE Liebfraumilch) but not the second(IM Green Apple) to see how it would turn out. The Liebfraumilch was crystal clear and the Green Apple had a little sediment on the bottom if you let it sit in the bottle but at drinking time you couldnt tell one bit. We used a gravity filter and it turned out fine. Didnt take as long to filter as we expected. We havea MM lanbrusco in secondary right now and will filter it before bottling. Mrs Chevy picked out a We Selection White Zin, and will make this kit solo.It will be up to her if she wants to filter it. By no means are we pros, just sharing what we did and we are please with the results!

Heres some pics of the filtering


Before

During

After

Edited by: chevyguy65

 

[grapeman]

That looks grat Chevy! By all means, let Mrs. Chevy do her own kit. She may have even more fun that way.


PS- What type of wine does that DELL kit make?

 

[peterCooper]

Some of the MM kits actually tell you to filter.

 

[Wade E]

I have not filtered yet but just got the gravity filter and will use it
just to polish since I bulk age and that always does the trick.

 

[AAASTINKIE]

I make wine as fast as I can..lol...I always filter using the Mini Jet filter, I always get two batches through the filter pads with no problems.

 

[Wade E]

How long do you bulk age AAA? Or do you!

 

[James]

Wade,


What is the gravity filter? Is it the funnel with the plastic mesh built in?


James

 

[Wade E]

It is a racking tube with paper filters and uses gravity instead of a
motor.The best way to use it in my opinion would be to rack it into a
primary bucket with a spigot and then through the filter and into
bottles or carboy from there.

 

[James]

Thanks. I have not seen that piece yet. I assume George carries it?

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

Yes he does, I believe this is the one Wade is referring to:
http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdDetA.asp?PartNumber=5292


I also questioned in the beginning about filtering, and have found it does work well on the white wines,however the reds seemed to be difficult( for me at least) to filter, soI don't, just age longer in carboy. When I began I would filterhalf a batch, just to compare to the same type unfiltered.

 

[Wade E]

That is the 1. JW, what was your concensus on filtering 1/2 the batch.

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

To me , not much difference in the whites, no loss of flavor or body, etc, and polishes them up nice. The reds, definitely a difference, seemed to strip the body away. Of course thats just me, but due to that, I don't plan on filtering reds. On my scratch fruit wines, depends on how I feel

, or if I need the carboy etc. Since everyone is different , I would suggest trying it, filter part, and dont filter part, go by your own taste and preferences.

 

[Wade E]

Sounds like a plan, thanks.