Filters

[SBB]

Personally I dont give a rats whether people want to filter or not, its their choice in the end.
However.......if you are going to filter, please refrain from using unsafe methods, I couldn't agree more with what Mac said above about using PVC and other plastics, is just madness.

[Kimbo]

I've got one of the Spirit Filter Nano models from my miguided tubro yeast adventures. I actually found that I got the best results by leaving half a cup full of activated carbon in a demijohn of neutral for a few months, then running it through the filter. I still do this sometimse, but only because I still have a massive bag of carbon just sitting around, and lots of neutral that's not really needed for anything in particular. Like everyone else I'm more than happy with the unfiltered output from WBAB wash when proper cuts are made and use this for most of my neutral based experiments.

If you need to filter, these are probably one of the better ones as they appear to be Staino rather than some of the plastic ones I've seen :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Konzo]

Okay, i think this post has gone off track. I would like people to post some pictures of their filters, whatever size, material or purpose. Opinions aside, I would appreciate any genuine pics or ideas that people have.

No! it has not gone off track at all, you've been given advise from experienced distillers, and also been pulled up on the unsafe use of PVC and dubious materials..... I'd say we're perfectly on track, even if you don't get the outcome you desire ;-)

As someone mentioned earlier you probably won't get much in the way of pics, as most of the experienced guys here simply don't use them because they distill neutral, not fix it up later.

Cheers.

Lol yeah but I wasn't after advice, even though everyone's advice is appreciated :-) i have discussed this topic with a few people hence why I stopped using my PVC filter :-) I just wanted pics of what people are using :-) it's a curiosity thing :happy-partydance:

[MacStill]

ever searched google images ?

10 second search

[Canadoz]

Sorry for opening up a can of worms guys. Mods feel free to edit my earlier post re: plastic if you feel inclined.

I shouldn't have mentioned it at all, especially since it's not even remotely common practice for me and site policy regarding that topic is well established. Erring on the side of caution is always worth the trouble.

Apologies to anyone if offended at all. re: "crapping on"

Like most of you I use TPW neutral unfiltered for infusions and liquers 99% of the time, as the slight flavor of the TPW neutral is lost completely underneath the flavors added.

Given the early comments in this thread along the lines of "Not necessary" I did very much want to chime in that carefully cut, refluxed azeotrope TPW is still not really completely neutral. being that the best we can manage is 95.63% by weight.

Leaving 3.7% made up of water and "other."

Human senses are pretty incredible and most of us can taste that "other" if we were to drink it straight for any reason.

Apparently those of you with bubble cap stills are running your whiskeys etc. out at 92-93% and still maintaining the desired flavor from your wash, so I find it strange that neutral made from tomato and sugar "soup" distilled to only 2-3% higher purity would strike you as "as good as it gets" Neutral-wise.

As Andy mentioned, the more you filter it over carbon the more of that "other" gets removed and I'm sure given his remarks regarding double distillation and filtering, that catcher is in pursuit of as truly tasteless a neutral as is possible. Perhaps as a personal challenge of what he can achieve in that vein within his distilling hobby.

Aside from that and at any rate this thread has got me thinking along two lines.

1. A family friend runs a chemical company and I'd be very interested to arrange chemical analysis on a few samples (neutral, neutral with different materials used for washers soaked in it, neutral run through my ill-advised filter, etc.) If I can manage to do so at some point I will, for the sake of the knowledge base available to us all.

2. Having at my disposal as a Tiler, a variety of diamond cutting and polishing tools, it would be a very simple matter for me to fashion a similar filter module to the plastic one I previously made out of an inverted glass bottle, eliminating the plastic issue. I believe I will before the next time I feel like filtering Neutral for any reason.

In the interest of contributing to the intended subject of catcher's thread, I would use an inverted glass bottle with the bottom cut or bored out, use a fitted piece of stainless mesh as a retainer for the neck/funnel end, and line it with filter paper or cotton wool with the carbon on top, perhaps retained with more mesh to avoid the lot from floating free when the ethanol is added.

[crow]

No can of worms mate we don't condone ppl using plastics in contact with ethanol full stop end of story . No ifs or buts or fucking maybes or I'll be quick abit it , if you keep it up I'll lock the thread and give the proponents a 24 hr break ok. I don't know what the fuck yaz think you filtering that might be worse than your adding but there are a large list of inert products you can talk about so let's not hear one more word about known reactive ones :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Lowndsey]

Goes to show how dangerous HBS advice can be....for your health and your wallet. Like a lot of newbies I was suckered into paying 50 bucks from the HBS for the Still Spirits plastic filter a few years back. You need it they said...it will take all the gross smelling and tasting shit out of your turbo vodka and turn it into top shelf award winning pure russian vodka they said. They didn't say that chucking a solvent into it could be a tad dangerous to your health. Tip your spirit into a plastic container and let it run down a plastic tube into a bigger cylindrical plastic tube with carbon in it and let it sit there for half an hour while it filters they said. How is advice like that not illegal? Do a lot of them even know it is dangerous or do they turn the blind eye to get money? Which one is worse?

[Andy]

How is advice like that not illegal? Do a lot of them even know it is dangerous or do they turn the blind eye to get money?

its not illegal because at 95% ethanol HDPE shows no degradation to alcohol. laboratory grade ethanol is supplied in plastic bottles, and stored for years. no chemical compatibility chart will show ethanol is degrading to alcohol.

we/i do not use plastic for 100% cautionary reason and aesthetics.

[SBB]

For what its worth (and I may cop some flack from this) I do believe that filtering can and will improve neutrals that are less than perfect to begin with. Ive come to that conclusion from filtering TPWs made with my T500 in my early days of distilling. With a good still that will pull Azeotrope and good cuts it shouldn't be necessary. Unfortunately not everyone owns a still that can do that....and not everyone has a perfect grip on the art of making cuts.
I guess that is what we strive for in this hobby, to make the best we can with what we have.

[MacStill]

its not illegal because at 95% ethanol HDPE shows no degradation to alcohol. laboratory grade ethanol is supplied in plastic bottles, and stored for years. no chemical compatibility chart will show ethanol is degrading to alcohol.

we/i do not use plastic for 100% cautionary reason and aesthetics.

Simply put!

I do not give a fuck, plastic is out no matter how you try to defend it here...

I've reopened this thread, however I suggest everyone treads carefully from here in regards to using plastics, I thought we had given fair warning to all in regards to our stance & after reading Andy's post again I feel I may have overreacted... apologies to you Andy, I've left my original comments here.

[TassieStiller]

If you must try something to make your product more pure, have you thought about a packed section. Put a section in before your reflux condenser and fill it with scoria or similar. That will help out, otherwise, others have used products that can be obtained from FSD (imagine a 4" to 2" reducer connected to a 500mm 2" TC pipe into a 180 deg bend up into another 500mm TC pipe, a 2nd 180 deg bend and last 500mm TC pipe into a 2" to 3/4 reducer and tap off the end of it. Pack that with activated carbon and a few coffee filters in a funnel and you will have carbon filtered product out the end (flow down to droplets).

I do have some stuff to try it, but have been making UJSM lately and not neutral.

[crow]

There is nothing wrong with filtering, most don't because they don't feel its worth the time and expense involved when there neutral is already pretty damn good. However filtering will improve the purity of the spirit of that there is no doubt providing you use safe materials ;-)
We are not Luddites nor against members using a diverse range of methods but if ppl are going to post about or recommend them here they will be methods shown to be safe . I hope all members can see the need for this forum to be a place of safe accurate information . There may well be synthetic products that are inert in hot ethanol but until it can be backed up with conclusive evidence it stays in the list of dangerous or unstable compounds , I'm sure most members can understand why ;-)

[kiwikeg]

I have owned a few hbs filters. They are pretty useless once you are making a good neutral.
I only filter my vodka ie tasteless odourless neutral that I will be drinking as vodka.

To filter my vodka or polish it might be a better term I add Contact Reactive Carbon into the demijon of neutral, give it a week or so to do its thing then I line a laboratory borosilicate glass funnel with laboratory grade filter paper and carefully strain off the vodka, and this I have found resulta in a perfect vodka.
I too strip with a potstill and rerun in a reflux with only heart cuts used for vodkas.

No plastic ever! :violence-rambo: