DIY - How to assembly your carbon filter and remove fusel oils from Alcohol/Spirit

[@gaiagaiagaiagaiagaia]

hi Kee! Awesome video, and love to see someone against the proprietary garbage that wastes resources like the disposable filter things that process only a few litres of spirit. I would love to see Kegland have a little combo pack on the website that makes ordering all the parts for this assembly as easy as possible. Also maybe some larger hoppers? I sure do not have the grinder required to cut a keg in half, but I know Fabland most certainly would :') Broken kegs that aren't much good for anything else could easily become hoppers

[@MrDavesbox1]

nice video.....we suggest you wash the carbon first, then put in the tube, this will prevent your valve from clogging on the bottom-

[@KegLand]

Thanks for your comment.

[@MrMnko]

Part of the process that isnt clear is what to do with the water after the saturation for 24hrs. Do I just let that water drain out the bottom and then dump the spirit in? What sort of flow rate should I be looking at when its coming off the tap? Just a stead drip? Cheers!

[@littlehills739]

spirit on top so it dosnt flow to the bottom right away either add it in at 45 50abv to account for the water or monitor the first drips till u think you are not get water then collect drips not full open slow is good

[@tedbullpit6164]

One grip per second should be enough they say 20g of carbon for one litre of alcohol at 40% if you're doing good cuts and getting nice hearts you don't have to filter if your pot still in you will minimise your taste if you do filter

[@inthebriarpatch]

Fluorescent light tube protector sold at lowes works.

[@FrankandBaggioTheCavalier]

Hi KegLand, What do you suggest in terms of when finished filtering? Should I remove the carbon and rinse out everything and then put it back in or keep the carbon in and let it dry?

[@KegLand]

You can keep the carbon dry or permanently leave alcohol in the carbon. Either way will work. This much carbon can filter hugh amount of spirit so it's not necessary to rinse out. It's more or less a sacrificial type of filter.

[@tomchristensen2914]

Working with plumbing for quite a while. The rule is 4 times clockwise looking st the hole. 15 wraps is way overkill. You only need 4 wraps.

[@jameshwren]

I wonder if you could use the brewzilla sparging line, and force the spirit through a 2” pipe and filter?

[@KegLand]

This would probably work but I have not tried this.

[@rocketsroc]

Not all activated carbon is suitable for spirit filtering. The best type is the Stone, sometimes called "Coal" type. It is actually made from bituminous coal. It is best because it has very fine pores/crevices which are what is needed to remove the typical bad taste/smell molecules found in spirits. Activated Coconut charcoal is also good but has larger pores. The two types can be blended together for a very good filtering medium. Additionally, the filter column needs to have at least a 1.25" inside diameter and be a minimum of two feet long. Smaller diameter columns will cause the spirits to run down the sides avoiding the filter bed. This is called the "Wall Effect". Before filtering, the charcoal must be rinsed with hot water till all dust is removed. When filtering spirits, first rinse the charcoal in the column with water and allow to drain, but not become dry. Filter through this damp charcoal with your spirits. The alcohol will force the water downward and out of the column first followed by the filtered alcohol. Keep doing finger tastes as the column drains. You will taste water for a while followed by an alcohol taste. When you taste the alcohol, you can begin to capture your spirits without the water. A good source for activated coal charcoal is: carbonbulksales.com

[@KegLand]

I mainly use the activated coconut carbon and find this works well for me.

[@IrikanjiToys]

I purchased one of these as I run a pot still and also want to use botanicals. My question is, filling the whole time with carbon strips heaps of flavour out of.the spirit - is there a way to just give it a "light" filter to get rid of a few small strange fusels? Can you pack just a quarter of the carbon? Or is there some other way to manage the level of filtration?

[@keglandau]

It sounds like you want to filter finished spirit is that correct? If you try and use carbon it will also strip the botanicals out of solution too so generally you would only use carbon with the neutral base first and once you have a suitably clean spirit then run the neutral through the still and add botanicals.

[@IrikanjiToys]

@@keglandau Heya - no I don't do neutrals, the spirit I make is a single distillation pot still spirit. I went to very lightly filter some of it out - yeah I know carbon strips, that's why I was wondering if you used less carbon, and maybe ran it quite quickly through, it may not strip so much of the flavour.

[@IrikanjiToys]

Sorry that may have been confusing - I'm not looking to filter the spirits 8 make with botanicals, i just got this because I want to try using botanicals - my filter question is separate to that.

[@rocketsroc]

Instead of using activated charcoal, place two coffee filters in a funnel and fill with rinsed lump hickory or white oak charcoal which is available on Amazon. Br sure you don't buy anything, but charcoal made from virgin wood. Let the spirits from the coalescer run through the filter. This will remove or more correctly, polish the spirits without removing too much.

[@IrikanjiToys]

@@rocketsroc so in the year or so of experimenting with this and doing a lot of research, I've found the solution that works perfectly and is used by many distilleries in Japan - diatomaceous earth. I have had huge success in filtering fusel oils using this technique on single run distillations with a pot still, it removed the majority of the oils and doesn't impact any of the lowe tails flavours (which with what I am making, shochu, is essential to the flavour profile. Give diatomaceous earth a go, it's great stuff!

[@matthewnicola5021]

Can I connect this to a mini keg, to collect the liquid?

[@dudleygraham7178]

At what cost is this filter and all the fittings

[@KegLand]

Please check the website for pricing www.kegland.com.au

[@johnrasmussen3752]

All good... I was going to rubberband a chux cloth to the end of this same 2inch extension ... this looks sexier, and s$x sells. Working slower with a ball valve cannot hurt either.

[@johnrasmussen3752]

Note to self after my filter kit arrived today. Ordering KL06576 instead of KL06583 as described in this video doesn't work so well. There is a remarkable difference between the 3/4 & 1/2 inch reducing brushes. God I'm an idiot : )

[@jacklaw9867]

Thanks for the vid, but you could ease up a bit on the teflon tape mate! You need about 1/5 of what you're putting on.

[@KegLand]

Yes with the new yellow teflon tape we stock you need much less. With the white teflon tape in this video it's really really thin and a lot but we made this video before we stated to stock the thicker and more expensive teflon tape

[@meyogy2414]

I was yelling at the video "thats enough tape....STOP! THATS ENOUGH" my old apprentice manager would have made me do it again😂👍

[@Madmick82]

how often should the carbon be replaced?

[@KegLand]

It really depends.

[@royceschaefer2824]

Depends on what? Like on average how many litres of neutral spirit could you filter before having to replace the carbon?

[@gibiore]

With this filter is it necessary to separate the heads and tails?

[@johnrasmussen3752]

yes mate ..

[@The_Gallowglass]

@@johnrasmussen3752 Especially the heads. Methanol will blind ya.

[@jasonharper2601]

do you ship to yanks

[@KegLand]

More beer and/or Williams brewing should be able to help you out.

[@matman8159]

Man is this in America ? Doing it all the hard way !

[@The_Gallowglass]

?

[@Beecher_Dikov]

Way too much fhread tape. Three turns is plenty.

[@KegLand]

You are correct. We had very thin teflon when we shot this video. Our new teflon is much thicker and you only need a few turns as you have suggested.

[@iamhe981]

Ridiculously expensive contraption for a simple job. You need to own the store to buy this or have rocks in your head. Why cant they (continue) to make a cheap stainless filters that cost $20 instead of pushing this shit that costs $200.

[@myrtilusgames]

What the hell are you on about? It costs like $40-50 on the kegland website.

[@BitcoinNoddy]

@@myrtilusgames i thought he must be speaking about the ez filter? or he's just really bad at math?