Harris Vinbrite Wine Filter

[eblis]

Why is it these take so long to filter the wine?

I put the pad in as instructed and then started the filteration but it took me nearly 50 minutes to filter 5 litres with another 15 to go :shock:

I'm using one of the filter pads supplied with the filter kit and at one stage it did stop filtering.

Anyone have any tips on how to speed things up as I dont the rest of the wine in the bucket to get ruined.

 

[Moley]

It sounds to me like your wine probably isn't clear enough before you're starting with the filter, and you probably haven't de-gassed.

Filtration isn't a substitute for patience, it is a tool for polishing a clear wine and not for clearing a cloudy one.

If you haven't de-gassed prior to fining, the filter chamber is quickly going to fill up with CO2 and you will have to use the vent tube to get rid of it.

If your wine isn't ready to filter, the pad is going to clog up in no time at all.

By comparison, I expect to get at least 5-6 gallons through one filter pad, and the first gallon should go through in no more than 10 minutes.

In my opinion, the Vinbrite is bloody marvellous, when used correctly.

 

[shocker]

As a comparison a site I was looking at gave 5 gallons an hour as a good ate for a final polish through a harris....


http://uk-homebrew.tripod.com/id28.html

 

[eblis]

It sounds to me like your wine probably isn't clear enough before you're starting with the filter, and you probably haven't de-gassed.

Filtration isn't a substitute for patience, it is a tool for polishing a clear wine and not for clearing a cloudy one.

If you haven't de-gassed prior to fining, the filter chamber is quickly going to fill up with CO2 and you will have to use the vent tube to get rid of it.

If your wine isn't ready to filter, the pad is going to clog up in no time at all.

By comparison, I expect to get at least 5-6 gallons through one filter pad, and the first gallon should go through in no more than 10 minutes.

In my opinion, the Vinbrite is bloody marvellous, when used correctly.

did I forget to mention it was a wine kit?

 

[shocker]

Given the terminology I suspect that is what Moley is talking about ....as am I

 

[Cussword]

It sounds to me like your wine probably isn't clear enough before you're starting with the filter, and you probably haven't de-gassed.

Filtration isn't a substitute for patience, it is a tool for polishing a clear wine and not for clearing a cloudy one.

If you haven't de-gassed prior to fining, the filter chamber is quickly going to fill up with CO2 and you will have to use the vent tube to get rid of it.

If your wine isn't ready to filter, the pad is going to clog up in no time at all.

By comparison, I expect to get at least 5-6 gallons through one filter pad, and the first gallon should go through in no more than 10 minutes.

In my opinion, the Vinbrite is bloody marvellous, when used correctly.

did I forget to mention it was a wine kit?

Everything that Moley said stands whether it's a kit or a WOW :thumb:

Also they suggest that you run a gallon of water through the filter before the wine.

 

[adomant]

Sorry to ask the obvious but was the air discharge pipe fitted withe the tap open?

 

[Cussword]

You leave the tap open until the wine starts to come through :thumb:

 

[shocker]

Oh sorry - I put the emphasis on wine kit ..... rather than wine kit....whoops ! Me and my big mouth/typing finger :?

 

[eblis]

Sorry to ask the obvious but was the air discharge pipe fitted withe the tap open?

yes it did have a tap on it but I closed that once the the wine came through.

 

[eblis]

The wine kit was very clear and I had left if an extra 6 days.

I will know better next and follow the advice I have been given.

In the link shokcer has posted he adds 1/4 tsp of campden powder, do you I should do this to the wine kit if I wish to leave it for a long period.

Just on a side note I didnt know you had to soak corks in water before bottling, I wondered why all mine went in a bit funny.

 

[shocker]

You certainly need to sterilise them somehow and boiling them in the kettle seemed to do a good job and make them easier to sue , back when I was winemaking with my dad . Sulphiting , adding a bit of campden tab , is the only legal way to preserve commercial wines ( that I know of anyway ) so a little bit of a tab in a wine that isnt working but merely aging cant do any but good , again as far as I know .

 

[Moley]

In the link shokcer has posted he adds 1/4 tsp of campden powder, do you I should do this to the wine kit if I wish to leave it for a long period.

Ok, good morning, I am back. Sorry to leave you but Green Ninja dropped by, and I had already had a couple of glasses of wine, and then we had a couple of beers while talking about brewing, and then after he had left I went to pull myself another beer because I had got some sediment from the keg and wanted to see if the next pint would run clear, and it was clear but the head retention was lousy .... oh, and it looked just a bit too pink .... that's when I realised I had got the wrong tap but had now pulled myself two thirds of a pint of fizzy pink wine.
Well I couldn't put it back in the keg and it seemed a shame to waste it :drunk:

Now then, as Cussword says, what I posted before applies to any kit wine, juice wine or country wine. I don't get what shocker's on about, it's a wine filter, what else would you use it for?

If you are making a kit wine, there is almost certainly going to be a stabilising sachet. That will already contain Sodium or Potassium Metabisulphite as well as Sorbate stabiliser, so there should be no need to add any more Campden.

Note that Campden Tablets contain a measured dose of SodMet. You can also buy Campden Powder which contains a bit of SodMet and a lot of useless filler. You can also buy SodMet powder. Do Not confuse the two! 1 level teaspoonful of SodMet = 10 CTs or 10 tsps of Campden powder.

In the blog link shocker provided, my first observation wuold be that the guy needs a longer syphon tube, it needs more of a height difference between the wine and the filter. As the wine level drops I raise my top jar on to an upturned bucket to increase the height differential.

While filtering, from time to time you need to tilt the filter body so that the vent outlet is uppermost and give the base of that tube a flick or a pinch between finger and If bubbles rise up the tube you need to open the tap and vent them. If the filter body fills up with gas the flow rate drops right off.

Just on a side note I didnt know you had to soak corks in water before bottling, I wondered why all mine went in a bit funny.

If you buy the Young's corks from Wilkinson's they need soaking, but in my opinion they have a texture similar to Swiss cheese and fall apart quite easily, so I would never use those. If you buy the ‘Favourite’ branded composite corks (or similar) they are waxed and don't need soaking. Take a look at this other topic: >>click<<

 

[eblis]

While filtering, from time to time you need to tilt the filter body so that the vent outlet is uppermost and give the base of that tube a flick or a pinch between finger and If bubbles rise up the tube you need to open the tap and vent them. If the filter body fills up with gas the flow rate drops right off.

Funny you say that bubbles did start to go back up the tube, who would think there was so much to filtering wine.

I thought I could just sit back and let the filter do the business.

Thanks for all your advice on this one :

 

[ricardo]

Why bother faffing about filtering your wine ???
I brew loads of wine kits & never bother filtering any of them either reds or whites.
I just leave them in the 30 litre FV for about 2 weeks to let the sediment firm up,
then bag them in 10 litre bag in a box.
I draw off about a wine glass full at the start cos there is a bit of sediment lodged in the
tap.
HTH

 

[Moley]

Why bother faffing about filtering your wine ???

There should never be any need to filter wines, but if I am giving any bottles away I want them to be crystal clear with absolutely no hint of sediment, it's just a bit of added professionalism (or showing off). There is a big difference between acceptably clear and crystal clear, you obviously aren't bothered about taking things that extra stage but I polish most of my whites and paler pinks.

 

[aneray]

There is a big difference between acceptably clear and crystal clear,

Ricardo

I agree with the above when it comes to using a filter. I haven't quite yet mastered ten minutes a gallon, but the extra time is obviously down to the reasons Moley has already given. Try it some day, you might be pleasantly surprised.

 

[ricardo]

I did filter a few whites in the early days but its so slow.............
I have over 100 litres of wine on the go at any one time.
Filtering at 10 minutes per gallon is just not on for me.
Each to his own..........
:thumb:

 

[tonyhibbett]

I agree, the filter is for polishing and at £1 per pad, hardly worth wasting on an unfined pea souper or a fined red wine, or indeed kits like Youngs 30 bottle Brewbuddy. However, there's no harm in running a hazy wine through, after polishing one or two reasonably clear gallons. It won't clear it, but will condition it, ready for later polishing, and squeeze the max value out of the pad. You can't push it too far though, as I've had a couple of pads rupture after 3 gallons.
A useful tip is to fix a length of straight tubing at the top end. This not only keeps it at the bottom of the top jar, but also enables you to raise it higher, improving the throughflow.