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Buon Vino Filter & How Plastic Sucks

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Cartierusm

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 31, 2004
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www.smokeproductions.com
Well I bought a Buon Vino Super Jet Filter system. I got it used and the guy said the pump wasn't working correctly. So i fixed it but probably needs a new check valve. Anyway I went ahead and filtered 5 gallons of semi-sweet sparkling mead, orange blossom. It came out looking beautiful, crystal clear and a beautiful amber hue. The next 5 gals was semi-sweet lime mead and it too came out crystal clear, the problem was both batches had excessive oxygenation from the pump not working correctly. It didn't have the suction and pressure to create a consistent stream. This created hollows in the 1/2 I.D. tubing thereby allowing oxygen to mix into the mead. Toward the end of the sweet lime mead run it started to work correctly by filling the entire tubing with fluid. Anyway, seeing as I'm force carbonating the sparkling mead I don't care, but the Sweet lime had tons of air pumped into it. When I filtered it into a new plastic ferementor with spigot, I guess the natural attraction and static electricity made the oxygen bubbles cling to the buckets sides and the spigot leaked. GO GLASS plastic sucks. SO I racked into a 5 gal glass carboy and most of the air escaped. First bottle I tried from plastic I could see all the bubbles rising in the bottle, then from the glass carboy no bubbles coming out of the subsequent bottles. Mead looks absolutely brilliant. For those of you looking in filtering don’t use the sterile filter it took out some of the honey nose definitely and actually made it seem harsher. Anyway, the process I took was rack 2 5 gallon carboys, sparkolloid for 1 day, racked again and then filtered with just the #2 filter which is the fine. On the sparkling mead as a first time I tried the sterile, won’t do that again.
 

Jmattioli

Senior Member
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Anyway, the process I took was rack 2 5 gallon carboys, sparkolloid for 1 day, racked again and then filtered with just the #2 filter which is the fine.
Why would you bother putting in Sparkaloid for 1 day since you are filtering anyway? Sparkaloid is suppose to be left in for at least a week before racking.
What is your main purpose of the filtering system? To get rid of the yeast so you can sweeten without sorbate and sulfite? Or just to clear the mead?
Joe
 

Cartierusm

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 31, 2004
19
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51
www.smokeproductions.com
Well first off the company tells you to clear first, which makes sense. The filter is for polishing and if it were really cloudy then you would waste more pads. Sparkollid is not expensive. So after 24 hours most of particles that make up cloudy mead have fallen to the bottom of the carboy. I'm using it to polish the mead.
 

Cartierusm

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 31, 2004
19
0
0
51
www.smokeproductions.com
Well I've been making mead for 12+ years and I always have some sediment at the 5 year or so mark. I've never really had room to have that sort of equipment until now. I really want a clean mead that has no sediment and for time as well. There is a noticeable difference, the Mead comes out crystal clear, it really looks beautiful. Also when you use fruit you don't need to use pectin enzyme as the filter will take out those proteins. Also a note on my first post, I called Buon Vino, really helpful people, anyway they said there was no way to introduce oxygen into the filtering unless you have a leak, which I don't. They said they use those special pumps for that reason and what was happening was all the CO2 in mead was just coming out. SO there is nothing to worry about.WHEWWWW!!
 
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