Filtration

Cellar Rats (ITB)
1

Perhaps someone out there has some insight into my latest filtration issue. The whites acted fine…

I use a 40x40 plate and frame w/ crossover plate and a total of 30ish pads. The reds went through the first pass 2.9-5.0 micron then 0.9-1.6 micron nominal. The second pass 0.7-1.1 micron then 0.2-0.5 micron nominal. No problems, until the mobile line came with it’s absolutes… They use a depth cuno @ 0.45 nominal then 0.65 and 0.45 absolutes. They started plugging and building pressure half way through the first red wine. So i skipped the 0.45… fingers crossed. They are all sound wines and 2007’s.

Seeking opinions on: If I in theory removed the microbial burden with the 0.2-0.5 nominal why would I plug the 0.45? What is plugging the 0.45?

Kristen Vartan

2

Oy. That sucks.

What variety and how long was it pre-filtered prior to commencing with the absolute? And what temp stored at in the meantime?

It sounds like you passed a 0.65 membrane, just not the 0.45? I would venture to say there’s not too much to worry about, then.

3

Bottling was on Saturday. The first pass for the reds on Tues & Wed the second on Wed & Thursday. Temp around 14c. Varieties Cab Sauv, Cab Franc, Merlot… This was my first go using Becopads. Normally use Sietz.

Kristen Vartan

4

Kristen,

We had a similar issue last year but with the newer non-DE BecoDisc filters. They very quickly plugged the membrane filter of the same porosity the day after going through the BecoDiscs. This happened on two different wines… Not sure of why it happened but the non-DE filters seem to have a wider range of porosity than the older ones.