Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hey all,
I tinker around a lot with liqueurs which I make via maceration/steeping in 90%+ neutral, then straining, sieving, running through a coffee filter, then diluting and aging etc.
I've hit a bit of a snag with my latest batch and need some suggestions. I'm at the coffee filter stage, but, it just isn't really passing. It's had blueberries and strawberries, which were mashed up, so I'm guessing it's the really fine bits of crap/pulp.
Any ideas on how to fine filter it? Down the line I'm contemplating getting a wine filter, but right now I'm a bit stumped. The thought of gelatine clarification has crossed my mind, but don't know if it'd work at this ABV.

Thanks in advance

Hi MD, what you are doing with your macerations are called tintures where botanicals are steeped in 90% then filtered off to add to neutral for flavouring. Now with mushed up fruit one way would be to use a vacuum filter which would suck out all the moisture thru the filter.

One could easily make out of copper, just a 4" funnel made from a frustum then on the spout a pipe put in at 90 degrees for the vacuum connection. Have a talk with your dad about the concept and I'm sure he will will be the right page and make you one easily. There is thread on this forum that shows an easy way to make a frustum and I'll see if I can find it for you. Hell for the fun of it I may just have to go make one myself as that is one thing I haven't made yet :angry-banghead:

Cheers Bryan

:Edit Found it

viewtopic.php?f=41&t=6444

have a good read of that to see just easy it is to make a frustum

Cheers for that Ruddy. I suspected I might need to lean towards vacuum filtration of some sort :-|
The Mrs said "just buy one", but, will check out/do some hunting on what you've touched on. It'll help down the track anyway as some things need another pass through a filter after they age a bit. My last batch of bitters is one of those.

Büchner funnel. Again be careful where you buy from :whistle:

Looking at building one from stainless bits myself.. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Pop your coffee filter in a conical sieve. I find the filter paper tends to seal against normal funnels when it gets moist and the flow rate drops massively. If you don't have a conical sieve, slip the handles of some teaspoons between the filter and the funnel to get some of the paper off the funnel surface.

I used surgical masks before COVID

Professor Green wrote:Pop your coffee filter in a conical sieve. I find the filter paper tends to seal against normal funnels when it gets moist and the flow rate drops massively. If you don't have a conical sieve, slip the handles of some teaspoons between the filter and the funnel to get some of the paper off the funnel surface.

:text-+1:

I made a simple jig so when i put a coffee filter it doesn't stick to my 4" copper funnel i made and it works a treat

The jig is simply some 1.6mm 316 SS filler wire, tig welded up so it provides the filter some clearance from the funnel.

Cheers Bryan

Would a coffee plunger work for you?

Carol wrote:Would a coffee plunger work for you?

I have been wondering about this for particle filtration also they are pretty cheap and available in all stainless :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Ikea for the win
https://www.ikea.com/au/en/p/oeverst-3- ... -10360233/

Mines been great - its not massive but it covers most jobs well :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Carol wrote:Would a coffee plunger work for you?

Sadly, no. I've got something similar to the Ikea one linked in here, but no joy.
I'm going to either need to pump it through a filter, or as mentioned as well, macguyver up a Büchner style setup I think.
I've thought of buying a mechanical wine filter/pump setup combo, which would be great for everything else I'd use it for, but in this instance, I don't think the innards would be fond of 90+%ABV running through it :think:

Professor Green wrote:Pop your coffee filter in a conical sieve. I find the filter paper tends to seal against normal funnels when it gets moist and the flow rate drops massively. If you don't have a conical sieve, slip the handles of some teaspoons between the filter and the funnel to get some of the paper off the funnel surface.

I might give that a crack now actually. The creature I use is ribbed, which I guess is meant to do what you described, but they aren't very big.

RC Al wrote:Ikea for the win
https://www.ikea.com/au/en/p/oeverst-3- ... -10360233/

Mines been great - its not massive but it covers most jobs well :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I use one of the Ikea ones too. Highly recommended :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Another idea to try is putting it through a fine mesh before the coffee filter paper, catch the bigger bits and get rid of them first.
Or give it a bit of a Billy tea centrifuge and pour the clear stuff then chase the muddy stuff.
Maybe not your whole batch in 1 go, depends on batch size.

But like others have said getting an air gap between the filter paper and the funnel will increase the filtration speed.

How about using a filtering material like sand.

Also been thinking about that wynum for murkey corn mashs before stilling.. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Sorry foe the delay, been a wee bit busy.

So, I've tried the air gap on the coffee filter paper in the creature I've got. No dice. Didn't make any difference as the creature I use is ribbed for that reason I'm guessing.
I do run my stuff through a fine ish mesh sieve before I run it through the coffee filter paper, but, this stuff (at the moment running honey oat vodka through coffee filter paper. I let the berry stuff settle out and will try again when this finishes) is just too fine, almost like a silt, which just slows everything right down.
May need to explore either a büchner setup or a similar type of vacuum filtration which is also decently high ABV tolerant :sad:

Here's a thought for you mate in the past for first filtering I have used fly screen mesh above the funnel, as the mesh fills it tends to sink in the funnel where one can use a stir rod to get all the moisture thru the mesh. When the mesh get clogged up just scrape off the solids back into the container and give it squirt with a hose to clean the mesh.

Ages ago I scored a sheet of 30 micron SS mesh so I made a filter to sit inside of that 4" copper funnel I made, now when filtering the apple juice the filter does want to clog up with the foam but simply stirring it gets all the fluid thru and a quick wash in a bucket of fresh warm water soon cleans the SS filter for re-use.

If all your doing is separating fluids from solids then a mesh filter is all thats needed but if you want to be anal :laughing-rolling: once the mesh has been used just use the coffee filter.

Cheers Bryan