Centrifugal filters? Anybody DIY one?

[casebrew]

3,000 rpm on a 4" cylinder makes 50g. Ought to separate red wine into white wine, don't you think? But from my reading, all the yeasties will be spun to the outside, where they die from nausea.

I think I have all the components to do it- stainless tube for shaft, pillow blocks, 12" length of 4" aluminum pipe, end cap stock, the lathe to do all that lathe-y stuff. Like o-ring grooves.

Put a plug in the middle of the hollow shaft. I figure pour the wine into the spinning vertical hollow shaft, holes in the shaft, wine gets spun to outside, as cylinder fills, wine will reach the holes in the lower half of the shaft, should trickle out the bottom end of the tube. I'll have to disassemble the whole thing to clean out the lees, but it will hold about a gallon, two cycles in a five gallon batch?

So, anybody got a clue as to the probability of it working? I know that much commercial wine is centrifugally filtered.

Hey, I'm always in a rush to drink my "Two Dolla Bolla Wine"....

 

[199q]

I know a winery that I commonly buy from is centrifugally filtered. have you tried looking at those machines on line?

try this website. they might have some good cutaway pictures

HowStuffWorks - Learn How Everything Works!

 

[Tusch]

Not sure what the commercial designs look like, but your idea sounds like it would have tons of aeration. Oxidation would be much worse than a little yeast. I love DIY so I hope I am just not understanding your description correctly.

 

[199q]

you could keep a constant flow of nitrogen over the whole deal until its completed, this would keep out the oxygen.

 

[casebrew]

I can purge the system with CO2, but I'm not degassing either- except via the centrifuge. I'm thinking the centrifuge would fill with CO2 asap.

My pear wine had so much lees that i saved some in a gallon jug. It is now about 1/3 clear wine, after two months. The rest of the lees was probably 1/3 wine too, looks like I composted a couple bottles of wine. So not only would filtration be faster, but it would save some of my good stuff. The bulk winerys filter fersure, they don't want their money sitting in vats any longer than they have to. I've got the parts, time, and equipment.

I'll test for leaks and function my gismo on water first, then shake up my gallon of settlins and see if the final result is a greater volume of clear wine, before I do the four gallons in the carboy. A few more days to get-er-done before I post results here. Latest taste test of the perry was so yeastie it was more like beer, though it has been settling in third stage for two months. I do also plan to taste test before and after the big spin.

Centrifugal filtration is supposed to drop the yeast count from jillions to 20,000. Sounds like that ought to change the flavor, at least at this stage.

 

[199q]

sweet! that sounds good. let us know how it turns out. I really want to see some pics

 

[EvilTOJ]

You could always try finings like isinglass or diatomous earth. But what fun is that? Go for it man!