Home Distiller

I use a reflux still & i want to polish my sprits off & i have heard that a z filter did a good job, Any comments ? what do most of yall use ?

thanks
Allen

Activated stone carbon, it will scrub and polish a neutral spirit and leave it tasting like absolutely nothing.

I use maple charcoal in it also to filter whiskey (sometimes) if it has an edge to it that I want to get rid of.

I don't have a Z filter, mine is homemade but pretty much the same thing.

Thanks for the reply Uncle Remus, if you dont mind, could you tell me how you made your filter & how it works ?

Thanks so much
Allen

I was gonna post some pics of it next time I have it set up, but anyway...

I used a piece of 2" abs about a meter long. On one end I put a cap. I drilled and tapped this cap to 1/4" npt and then threaded in a needle valve. The other end I put a 2" female fitting, this end attaches to the drain old ss lab sink.

So what I do is attach the sink to a shelf in my basement with a couple wood screws. Then I take the pipe, put either a good wad of cotton or a coffee filter on the bottom of the pipe immediately above the valve, then I fill the column with charcoal or carbon, and then screw it onto the sink drain. If using carbon I purge it with water (I think there is a procedure on the gert strand website on how to do this) Then I put my spirit in the sink open the valve and let the alcohol chase the water out. Once alcohol is coming out the needle valve, start collecting it and turn the valve down till you got only a couple drips per second coming out. I usually filter my spirits diluted to about 60% av.

Make any sense? I'll try to post a couple pics soon.

yup, makes sense to me ... i might see if i can find some 2-3" copper laying around the Mait shop & see what i can make , the wine shop i buy from wants 79.99 for a z filter

I'd be carefull using activated carbon with copper. I've never done it but there was a discussion here once and some folks said a reaction takes place with the carbon.

opps , thanks for the heads up.. ok i wont even try that route ,,,do ya think ya picking up any off flavors useing abs plastic? ..i have acess to up to 5 inch abs plastic too !!

My vodka never pics up anything, it might if you filtered it at full strength (90%+). Alcohol filters more effectively when dilluted. I filter anywhere from 45-60% av.
Those z filters at brewhaus.ca look like they are made out of white abs plastic. Try to be carefull with the abs cement not to gob too much on your joints.

Hi Guys: I have and use a Z filter with great success. Mine was $39.00, a price I thought was a bit high for what you get. It works well and is compact and breaks down for storage quite nicely. Just for laughs, I ran some through a Britta Filter this weekend and my neutral spirits taste the same. Search the forum for related threads. When using plastic it is important to dilute to at least 50% or you could pick up some plastic nasties along the way...BJJB

Hi Guys, Can you please tell a fellow distiller from New Zealand, what maple charcoal is, and where can you get it from. This is the same charcoal that Jack Daniels is passed through.

Regards

Dave from Kiwiland

If you distill correctly you won't need maple charcoal, Jack Daniels uses it cause they run a continuous still and keep alot of trash in their run (my opinion). Maple charcoal is simply maple wood burned down. Jack Daniels uses it to mellow out and smooth the harsh stuff they make in bulk.

madbutch wrote:Hi Guys, Can you please tell a fellow distiller from New Zealand, what maple charcoal is, and where can you get it from. This is the same charcoal that Jack Daniels is passed through.

Regards

Dave from Kiwiland

Read this post Dave. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1265

allen42 wrote:I use a reflux still & i want to polish my sprits off & i have heard that a z filter did a good job, Any comments ? what do most of yall use ?

thanks
Allen

have heard some bad stuff from the local brew shop about z-filters about how the alcohol runs to the outside more constant than the middle of the filter, and the best way was to put in some glass ware with carbon and shake it twice a day for a week or 2 then filter through some cotton or the likes of

I've used a Z filter for quite a while. It does a good job IMHO. But they are hard to get sealed as there are several threaded nuts that etoh can sneak out of! I'm having to sideline mine as it got heat distorted somewhere along the line and I am having just too much trouble sealing it.

Tossed up whether to buy another one. I don't think $NZ39.95 is too bad considering buying bits and pieces for a home-built will likely cost at least that.

Don't know whether that helps!

I too started out using a Z Filter, but ran into the same problems a few of you are having is in the filter doesn't seal properly, even when you put a new rubber washer on. The problem seem to be is hard plastic thread on a rubber washer.
I simply made my own out of a bit of clear 15mm piping, the length was the amount of Universal Carbon that filled up the Z Filter, tipped into the tube, and a visit to the Plumbing section of the Hardware store for hose fittings, a tap and a couple of bits of metal gauze for the filter paper to sit on. I place my bucket of alcohol in the rafters of my garage and place the tubing in a s shape to slow the process down. Have a couple of filters on the go at any one time. Its great to live in a Country where the law allows you to distill your own alcohol for your own personal consumption.

One last question in regard to Jack Daniels using Maple Charcoal in the filtering stage, could we use a small amount of Maple Syrup to get the same effect, and if so how much would you recommend to use?
We are fortunate enough to pick up from our local Brew Shops, Jack Daniels, Jim Beam and Wild Turkey Barrel Chips. Just soak 40% alcohol for up to 21 days and further flavour it, if you want.

Regards

Dave from Kiwiland!!

In NZ we use Reflux Stills so we don't do a Corn Mash recipe, we rely on essences and wood chips for flavour. We do sugar washes, so as said above, we rely on essence's and other fellow distillers recipes. I have tried a recipe from this site and it is great, I am not hooked on JD's, but am after the info behind the making of it and all its flavours, so I can improve my own flavours.
Does any other fellow distiller have a good Bourbon recipe using Essences only?

Regards

Dave from Kiwilland!!

allen42 wrote:I use a reflux still & i want to polish my sprits off & i have heard that a z filter did a good job, Any comments ? what do most of yall use ?

thanks
Allen

Ofcourse I'm from the old time ways, I use a white felt hat to filter with, tried milk filters one time and they didn't work for me.

Hi all

Just a quick question, has anyone used a essencia filter
Web site
http://www.essencia.co.nz/carbonfilter.htm

If you have , what did you think of it

Adam

Is that made out of plastic?

If you like that youll love this...

http://cgi.ebay.com/MOONSHINE-STILL-TUR ... dZViewItem

A full line of crap for roughly $670 US.

most advanced technology in modern distilling

lol
The list of whats wrong with this stuff is longer than the list of whats good.

O.K. the girl made me look .

I use a "vertiflow" design. The feed is from the bottom so the etoh filters up through the carbon. I have been filtering at 60% ABV and have had no problems at all. I like the slow bottom up approach as I think there is less opportunity for channelling.

The filter body is made from an 18 inch length of ABS from an irrigation shop with barb connectors on each end. On the bottom end I have SS mesh to hold the carbon in place and at the top end I have a layer of coffee filter paper to catch any bits of carbon dust that didn't come out with the water flush.

I have a needle valve on the bottom inlet side to control the flow, it allows me to regulate to a drop a second or slower.

I have to admit though that with a few treaks I have done on my SS reflux still of late with copper mesh and tighter cuts I'm beginning to think I don't need to carbon polish.

Cheers
Mal T

Loved the Moonshine Still advt!! (Didn't look at the girl, of course!).

Loved some of the howlers in the text.

"The Turbo Thumper doubles the the percentage of the desolate

The Turbo Fomenter

features a duel heat

The Turbo Stomper Master Still is the most advanced technology
in modern distilling. It features a 2" diameter fractionating
24" long,

and the ability to add natural flavors such as lemon, orange,
cherry, Jumper and any thing you want to use when distilling."

Luurrvve that jumper flavour! Especially the wet wool one!

The double strength desolate sounds good too!

Madbutch, if you want whiskey flavor, you do have the equiptment to make it.

make a grain based mash (adding sugar is ok to "feed" the yeast),Uncle Jessee's simple sour mash shouldbe easy.

wait till it is done fermanting

take the packing(scrubbers or raching rings) out of your still.

FILTER the solids out of your mash(if you have an internal heat source)

run your mash/wash if you can, eliminate the reflux for this recipee

collect 1/3 original volume of mash as distilate.(dont throw any thing away),also keep the spent mash/wash for your next run(see UJ's simple no cook sour mash recipee)

run the distilate again, and throw out first 150-200ml per 5galons of origional wash.
collect the product in a seriese of jars, and blend them by taste and %alcohol.

The JD method of maple charcoal drip filter does smooth up the whiskey, but at the expense of pulling out the grain flavor.

Age on charred or uncharred oak chips.



I hope this helps provide alternatives for you,

Am just running though my first filter now and I was wondering 2 things.

Is around 1 drip per 5 seconds about right for the z filter and should I be worried about evaporation at all from the already filter liquid at the bottom?

3: How much cabon should be used per litre? The zfilter came with around 200 grams. Would this do 5 litres of diluted spirit or do I need to change it more then that?

Thankyou

with the dripping side of things you can slow your filtering down by closing the tap off slightly but i have mine open fully and the whole filtering takes about 6hrs to filter 6lts.

and with the carbon i use most of it and fill the filter to about 4cms from the top of both ends so that you can screw the l;ids on with out clogging up the seals too much.

Thanks lawnman,

Last night I stopped the process and emptied out some of the carbon, this spead up the process and am now getting 1 drip a second.

Next time I will add a little less carbon and hopefully this will give me a better speed. As I am doing 10 litres, I will change the carbon after the first 5 litres unless this is unnecessary? Would love to be able to use the 1 lot of carbon for 10 litres, cannot find the answer anywhere. I am using around 180 - 200 grams at the moment.


Cheers!

I know this is a old thred but im new i tryed to use a zfilter
but had no luck ( 4 times) lost a lot of spirit
have a small in line filter at the moment but am
going to try to make
http://cgi.ebay.com/MOONSHINE-STILL-TUR ... dZViewItem" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

just got the matireals will let yous know how it gos

I made one very similar to that, it goes through it way faster than a Zfilter so I pass it through a few more times - I made mine from flexible plastic tube so that it can be bent into a Z shape anyways. My Zfilter that I got was just way too leaky...

Make your own, and that looks like a cool stand.

What's the problem with using copper? I read somewhere else that someone got blue distillate - but what was the reason - Nitric acid pollution? Ammonia - Cupric tetra ammine sulphate? Urban myth?
Has anyone here had problems with copper? Has anyone here used copper?

I had to come back here and post some resutls...

Resting your Ethanol on carbon in a glass carboy for 2 weeks. is Much much better then Running through a z-filter.

after 2 weeks with 2 shakes a day... 3.5 liters([2 bags] i think) of activated stone carbon Polished up 4.5 gallons of my ethanol..
No smell, Great taste...


Just wanted to say thanks to EVERYONE who said they did it that way.....
Worked like a dream.