Filtering Liqueurs

[twardena]

Is there any way to filter liqueurs without buying an expensive filtration machine? We have been doing some test batches and have used cheese cloth, coffee filters and even wet paper towels and none of those seem to work. We visited another distillery and they just attached a water filter to their pumps when bottling. I don't think that this will work for liqueurs though. Also we are just testing on small 1/2 gallon batches trying to figure out our formula. Any advice on how to do this for 50 - 100 gallon batches.

[Kristian]

http://www.glaciertanks.com/TriClamp_Strainers-TriClamp_Strainer_1_1_2.html

[Valerii_Fedorov]

Mini capsules of the kind:

[Valerii_Fedorov]

Mini capsules of the kind:

[Natrat]

Twardena,

I little more info would help. Does your product have increased viscosity? Are you just trying to polish your product, or is there significant particulate matter in the blend? Is there any dairy, emulsification, or suspension in your liqueur?

A sintered metal filter may be what you are after, and while "water filters" do seem common, most people are just using the housing with a specialty filter inside.

For a larger batch, you may want to consider a small plate and frame filter. Depending on how aggressive you want your filtration to be, there are various filters with small filter areas that may be suitable. I know of one small distiller that is polishing his distillate out of the barrel though a VinoJet hobby wine filter.

Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss this in detail :-)

[nabtastic]

twardena, try a coarse filtration unit (trub filters). you see them in wine/homebrewing often enough. def agree with NATRAT that more info is needed for a better answer though.

NAB

[ADKdistiller]

Look up Pentek big blue bag filter housings. These run about 150-250 bucks depending on what size you get. These bags can handle capturing a large amount of solids. If you have a large amount of broken up fruit etc. you may want to consider filtering with a more coarse filter bag initially (200 microns or larger) and then filter the material again with a finer mesh filter (you can buy them down to 1 micron or less). The filters are relatively inexpensive. Depending on your batch size and how much solids are contained you may need to change the bag out once or twice during the coarse filtration.

[fldme]

Bentonite and rack.

[FrEwing]

Twardena, the water filters work just fine. Your choice of filter micron size is dependent on the size of the solids etc in the solution. You can purchase standard filters used in the brewery operation or very expensive specialty filters depending on how polished you want your product to be or what you find is the micron size that does the job. We've filtered at .5 microns with good success