Usually I make wine from juices that I buy from the supermarket. This is wine making for the lazy. Which does not mean that I am lazy, or that the wines are not good. It is just the easiest way. Sometimes I make wines that require a bit more labour, like the wine from peaches.
They are a bit more work because you have to get rid of the solids. And I did that the wrong way for years. I see that now. Only recently I saw the light.
The way that I used to filter is as follows. I placed a funnel on a demijohn and covered it with cheese cloth. It works but it has several drawbacks. The cheese cloth gets soaked with the wine and when it hangs over the edge of the funnel the wine leaks out over the side. To prevent a wet floor I used this set up in the shower. The biggest problem however is that all the fluid has to pass through a very small hole that gets clogged all the time. I would lift the cheese cloth and squeeze it to get as much wine as possible. Usually the wine would squirt out the cheese cloth in places that I did not expect and it would not come out easily because the cheese cloth would completely be clogged.
When I started making beer I also bought a bucket with a coarse filter. For malt it works perfectly and I am very happy with it. Only recently I realized that this way of filtering also works very well with wine.
So here is the new set up for wine. A mashing bag is hanging inside a bucket. I empty the bucket with the wine/most and solids in this bucket and let it drain inside the third bucket. It works so much better. Because of the greater surface the wine can easily pass through the filter. There is a lot less work, less mess, and less wine remains in the solids in the bag.
The funny part is that beer making has given me this idea. And I also use the filter as you would in beer making. After filtering I have to add some water to reach the intended volume. In the past I would add this directly to the demijohn. Now I pour this water over the mashing bag so the last juice and sugar can drain out of it.
Cheers.
Hans
