my homemade carbon filter

[Jonc26uk]

hi ppl

just thought i would share my first attempt at making a carbon filter!

After doing a bit of research about them i decided to try and make one out of a 70cl wine bottle. Firstly i need to cut the bottom off the bottle so a bit of googling and some string,acetone and a cold bucket of water i had managed to cut the bottom off a bottle. i then used a small nail to make a hole in the lid. i then used some wood to built a stand for the bottle to sit in, i used a 32mm wood bit to drill a hole in the platform which the bootle sits nicely in and very sturdy.
I then used 300 grams of active carbon in a muslim bag, or in my case a new pair of stockings (not mine i promise......) inside the bottle which nearly fills it. Underneath i used a sieve with a coffee filter in it on top of a glass jug.
As this is my first wash i have done i have split it into 2 batches, first batch is single distilled and second double distilled.
I filter 1litre of single distilled in less than 10 mins so passed it through twice. before it was filtered it smelt like old homebrew but after it was filtered it smelt well it smelt like vodka and got to admit tasted very nice!!also i didnt have a hangover this morning and had a bit of a wobble on the night before
Roll on the double distilled tonight
Also i kept the bottom of the bottle which fits back on,i then tape it on to seal and protect the carbon also use a little on the hole in the lid!!!

heres a pic of it and only cost pence to make

[Jimmy]

Great bit of DIY that mate, thanks for sharing it!

[John51]

Great idea! My thread about continuous filtration was before I learned that the activation is relatively easy.

If filtering twice I suppose there could be one bottle above the other. I wonder if those little essence bottles would hold the little ciggy type filters?

You've got me looking for a wide bottle with a narrow neck to turn into a funnel. lol

[YHB]

Great set-up, I really like the use of the glass when it would have been so much easier to use plastic bottles and funnels, but then you go and use a pair of stockings which I presume are made of some form of plastic / synthetic (Nylon)or are you into the silk expensive ones??

Fortunatley they are the easiest part of the setup to substitute.

How did cutting the Bottle with the burning string go? Do you think cutting a demijohn with this method would be a possibility? or has it already been tried?

[Capt-Cudellez]

I really like that, maybe look at blocking up the cap somehow, running much slower will be adventitious.
When I was using a store bought filter it was outputting about a litre per 24 hours, but was very neutral.

[Jonc26uk]

Thanks people, I made this up in about 5 mins tbh just didn't want to spend £80 on the proper filter. I had intended to do a double bottle system just by doing a double tier with the wood it's really stable and u can slow the filter down by drilling a smaller hole in the bottle top,also hadn't thought about the plastic in stockings so will adjust that myself, but with a smaller hole in the bottle I don't think the stockings would be nessacary. I was also on the look out for a longer thin bottle ( a grey gouse one might be better..)
Cutting the bottle went a lot better than I thought its not a perfect finish but usable, u could try it on a Demi John but why? Would this not be too big an area for filtering?

I also found 1ltr bottles in aldi today (cloudy lemonade) which are good for storage but are also very funnel shaped!

The great thing abut using wood is u can change and screw extra bits where needed to suit yr needs!

Sorry if this is all over answering questions but have been on the home brew again

[John51]

Would a small plug of cotton wool in the bottle top be ok instead of stockings/muslin bag?

[Capt-Cudellez]

Should work, I've never had much joy with that personally, always seems to block up, but I didn't persevere with it.
Maybe just a piece of undyed cotton sheet would do, or a paper coffee filter.

[John51]

Thanks Capt. I'll mess about with different paddings and see what works.


I've just made a very clean cut in a sherry bottle.

Scrap wood for height, hold the glasscutter firm and rotated the bottle until I had a neat score line.

Carefully poured a full kettle of hot water over the score line while rotating the bottle. (Eye protection advised, just in case.)

When I plunged the bottle into a sink full of cold water, I first thought it hadn't worked but what I thought was the score line was in fact a perfect crack and the bottom pulled off easily.

[Normski]

Hi John

Great Idea

[LeeH]

How much carbon did you use and how many times can you re use it?

Thanks.

[Jonc26uk]

Hi lee

I weigh out 300grams of active carbon and use that, I just pour straight into the bottle now and use to filter the batches from one wash. I then throw away and use fresh for the next wash. Out of one large bag of carbon is enough to filter all the batches from 3 washes so works out about £2 per wash to filter.

[billmcc]

If you can be bothered the cabon can be boiled and dried in the oven ready to use again
Cheers

[Magnu420]

thanks for sharing Jonc i think I'll look into this
it's sounds it's gonna be cheaper doing this way
then using the carbon cartridge filter from still spirits

[Jonc26uk]

No probs magnu420, yer I have read about recovering carbon bill but started doing it then realised I only had a gas oven and was worried about the fumes and a naked flame...