Hi all,
I have been making white wine and in general it has been clear enough by itself. I just wondered if there was really any need to filter? Would we be be talking pure cosmetics (which do not interest me so much. Not against the extra stage required and the risk of getting oxygen in there).Is there an improvement in the end product to be found from doing it?
Thanks in advance
white wine filter or not to filter?
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Horden Hillbilly
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Re: white wine filter or not to filter?
If I make a wine which won't be around very long, such as a 6 bottle kit, I don't bother. If I'm maturing a wine for a long time, I do filter. The filter pads do collect fine debris from the wine. You can prevent oxidisation by pushing plastic tubing which reaches the bottom of the receiving container to the wine filter outlet.
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DerbyshireNick
Re: white wine filter or not to filter?
Cheers Horden,
I was wondering if I could attach a pipe as suggested. I might well do that then.
Thanks again, your experience is much appreciated.
Nick
I was wondering if I could attach a pipe as suggested. I might well do that then.
Thanks again, your experience is much appreciated.
Nick
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Horden Hillbilly
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Re: white wine filter or not to filter?
DerbyshireNick wrote:
I was wondering if I could attach a pipe as suggested. I might well do that then.
Nick
4th pic down.
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fatbloke
Re: white wine filter or not to filter?
Hum ? I like the pics HH but it would seem its one of those "YMMV" (your mileage may vary) things.
I get the impression that in your pics, the red wine would have been racked a few times, but in any case reds are not routinely filtered unless there's a problem with them and even then only with the coarsest filter elements as the filter would tend to strip too much particulate/pigment material and that can lessen body and colour depth.
Whites are rather different as they're rountinely filtered in many locations unless there's something in the "spec" that might prevent it (AOC regulation etc). As it does give a final polish to the wine prior to bottling.
I dunno whether my similar filter would take a pipe in the base as its an older boots one rather than a newer Harris branded one. If I need to filter I tend to use either my mini-jet and the appropriate grade of filter pad, but if proper "white wine grade" filtration seems likely/necessary, I use my tandem filter housing and enolmatic, but set up for vacuum racking.
If the tube in the base of the harris seals well then I'd have thought you might be able to jury-rig a vacuum racking set up with a 2 holed bung, glass DJ's, appropriate sized piping and a "mityvac" type hand held vacuum pump (normally used for bleeding car brakes - ebay for about the £20 mark).
Either way, generally filtration should only be used for cosmetic reasons anyway. As it will just clog the hell out of filter pads when its used for more than that.....
I get the impression that in your pics, the red wine would have been racked a few times, but in any case reds are not routinely filtered unless there's a problem with them and even then only with the coarsest filter elements as the filter would tend to strip too much particulate/pigment material and that can lessen body and colour depth.
Whites are rather different as they're rountinely filtered in many locations unless there's something in the "spec" that might prevent it (AOC regulation etc). As it does give a final polish to the wine prior to bottling.
I dunno whether my similar filter would take a pipe in the base as its an older boots one rather than a newer Harris branded one. If I need to filter I tend to use either my mini-jet and the appropriate grade of filter pad, but if proper "white wine grade" filtration seems likely/necessary, I use my tandem filter housing and enolmatic, but set up for vacuum racking.
If the tube in the base of the harris seals well then I'd have thought you might be able to jury-rig a vacuum racking set up with a 2 holed bung, glass DJ's, appropriate sized piping and a "mityvac" type hand held vacuum pump (normally used for bleeding car brakes - ebay for about the £20 mark).
Either way, generally filtration should only be used for cosmetic reasons anyway. As it will just clog the hell out of filter pads when its used for more than that.....