Filtration

[Sebastian Haff]

Hello,

I recently racked my mead for the last time before bottling. On previous rackings I had gotten rid of all of my gross lees, and on this last go I only had very fine, silty, lees layer. The mead has been aging for around 6 months now, and so I couldn't bring myself to dump the last half gallon of silty mead down the drain, so I kept it.

I have the silty mead in a separate bottle from my pure mead, and I DO NOT plan to mix the two later (don't worry).

I'm thinking about running the silty mead through a brita filter. The filter, I believe, would deal with the silt, but would it also eliminate a lot of my flavor and alcohol content?

I don't have high hopes for this extra mead, I'm just tooling around with it and having fun. Please let fill me in if you know anything. Thanks!

[jpog]

How big of a batch was it, half a gallon is alot for a small batch?

[akueck]

The brita will definitely not remove alcohol. It can strip flavor though. And honestly I'm not sure how much of the fine silt it will take out, it's not really designed to do that (is it?).

I say try a cup or two and see what happens.

[jpog]

A coffee filter may work.

[fatbloke]

Well, if its a "heavy" sediment, you can forget the brita, and unless you can get laboratory sized filter papers, its gonna be an uphill struggle.

When I've racked my batches, a JAO for example (because you lose a higher % given bread yeast flocculates badly and the fruit debris doesn't help), I rack the clear part, then once I get close to the lees and fruit, I rack that into a 2 litre pop/soda bottle, which goes into the fridge for a couple of days, then once its settled out, I cut the top off the bottle, cover the top of the bottle with cling wrap, just to settle what's come into the liquid when cutting the bottle, a day or so, then you can rack the last bit of liquid, and then a coffee filter should sort the last of any sediment and give it a final polish.......

[AlphaGenetics]

I could be talking out my ass here, but I think Brita filters are just a special carbon resin that bind up certain ions found in water that would otherwise give it that "tap water" taste. They aren't microbial filters, and shouldn't (completely) remove things like yeast.

I have access to some lab-grade filters specifically for filtering out cells, but they take a vacuum to pull liquid through. I've been really tempted to try them out, but with the vacuum pressure it takes to work, I'd probably aerate the crap out the batch. That said, coffee filter coupled with what fatbloke suggested sounds like a good way to reduce silty-ness

[fatbloke]

Originally Posted by AlphaGenetics

I could be talking out my ass here, but I think Brita filters are just a special carbon resin that bind up certain ions found in water that would otherwise give it that "tap water" taste. They aren't microbial filters, and shouldn't (completely) remove things like yeast.

I have access to some lab-grade filters specifically for filtering out cells, but they take a vacuum to pull liquid through. I've been really tempted to try them out, but with the vacuum pressure it takes to work, I'd probably aerate the crap out the batch. That said, coffee filter coupled with what fatbloke suggested sounds like a good way to reduce silty-ness

I mentioned lab sized filter papers because anything smaller just clog too quickly.

Yet your idea also has merit. I'd have though that as long as there's some control over the level of vacuum, then use a half or gallon jar, a funnel to hold the filter paper onto a piece of pipe and a 2 holed bung. The funnel pipe in one hole, the vacuum supply to the other.

If there's some liquid in the bottom of the jar, then connect it all up, put some of the silty mead into the funnel/filter and start it with gravity, then once the down pipe is full and its running, gently apply the vacuum. The paper would filter, as would the sediment as it builds up. Wetting the filter paper first would help reduce any air ingress.

Gentle vacuum would.be the key......

[Chevette Girl]

I'm pretty sure Britta filters are chunks of activated charcoal that absorb icky flavours and a resin like you'd have in a water softener that reduces hardness by replacing the calcium ions with something else (usually sodium or potassium), and I don't think they're meant for filtering out sediment. I'd go with Fatbloke's idea, I've had it work really well on the stirred up lees from batches that weren't quite clear.