Home Distiller

Okay, maybe I am wrong. I have a cold. I had the flu. Big, bad nose, etc.

Anyhow ... I filtered some whiskey I liked (taking it off the wood), and I decided to filter it thru WHITE coffee filters. Not the brown (non - bleeched) version, but the white one.

Now, when I start filtering, I don't stop. It is like thru two filters and than some more.

Gave me an accid smelling/tasting whiskey.

Was it the white coffee filters? Or am I just gettin Paranoia?

Odin.

I've noticed the brown ones leach brown into the distillate you are filtering. Maybe only at high proof...

but, I've never had problems with the white ones.

iv never used the brown ones, but iv never had any problems with the white ones. one thing i have noticed tho is if you sqeeze the last of the stuff out of the filter it can give a little off taste, so whatever doesnt easily go thru i just toss. maybe its some kinda oil from the wood?

I filtered my last batch thru some white coffee filters and didn't notice anything

I don't filter my whiskys, for me it it unecessary since those little bits of wood don't bother me. I do filter cordials which can be a real pain.
the thing is coffee filters work best when the liquid is heated, not good with booze, so I have found wine filters work much better.

Big R

rtalbigr wrote:I don't filter my whiskys, for me it it unecessary since those little bits of wood don't bother me. I do filter cordials which can be a real pain.
the thing is coffee filters work best when the liquid is heated, not good with booze, so I have found wine filters work much better.

Big R

Making the raspberry liqueur was what got me into making my vacuum filter system, plus I want to filter cold coffee for making kahlua. You are right that the liquid works better through coffee filters that are heated. The following is a video of my set-up.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... filtration

I buy a box of 1000 white coffee filters every couple years- even use them for coffee. Never noticed any taste from them. I'd guess if the manufacturer messed up with the bleach some could carry over, but it seems like left over bleach would weaken or eat up the filters.

When I use the white coffee filters I'll usually put them inside a funnel then run some vinegar or citric acid solution through them first, followed by copious amounts of water.

I taste the water coming through the filter until it comes out tasting like regular water.

Don't know how much it helps for washing coffee filters, but when I worked in a winery we'd wash the pad filters (cellulose product) with citric acid solution and water before we used them. In the case of the pad filters, failure to rinse would give the initial filtrate a wet paper bag smell / taste. The rinse minimized this, so I adapted it to whenever I use coffee filters as filtration media.