The proper wine bottling procedure might help you prevent huge costs and problems. Bottling is the final step in the winemaking process, but it is also the most important, especially when filtration is used. Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Saccharomyces bayanus are the most common yeast strains used in wine fermentation. Turbidity, precipitation, and yeast scent and flavor can all be caused by yeast cells holding residual sugar in bottled wine. With enough residual sugar in the bottle, the wine may potentially explode.
Implementing a well-thought-out wine bottling plant, complete with pre-filter and final filtration, would assure consistent product quality. It will also assist you in avoiding hazards and potentially large losses. Cross-flow filtration or a mix of diatomaceous earth (DE) and sheet filtration are common upstream cellar treatments before the wine is bottled. Furthermore, the wine could have been chemically and/or cold stabilized (tartaric acid stabilized). The wine should be particle-free and clear (turbidity 1 NTU) at this point, with a filtration index of less than 30.
To minimize contamination, change the characteristics of the wine (oxidation, precipitation), and prevent the growth of microorganisms, the storage time before final bottling should be as short as possible after upstream filtration in the wine cellar. Cellar filtering should be completed no more than three days prior to final filtration and bottling.
Wine Pre Filter
The primary goal of wine pre-filtration is to lower the expense of final filtering by removing impurities that could shorten the filter's life. To improve the service life of the final membrane filter, the pre-filter should be able to remove leftover particles (crystals, DE, clarifiers) from upstream processing, remove colloids, and minimize typical wine spoiling organisms like yeast and bacteria.
The wine pre-filter developed by Alfa Chemistry should have a high dirt holding capacity, be easy to regenerate in situ and be unaffected by wine characteristics. To increase the life of the final filter, it is advised that a wine pre-filter with an absolute particle level of 0.8 to 1 micron be installed directly upstream of it.
Because the wine pre-filter is typically installed just before the final filter and filling machine, it must be able to endure the same disinfection and cleaning system as the final filter and filling machine.
Wine Final Filter
The final filtration ensures that spoilage microorganisms that could cause deterioration, odor, or turbidity in the wine after bottling are removed. Yeast, lactic acid bacteria, and acetic acid bacteria are common wine spoilage microorganisms.
Pore sizes of 0.45 m and 0.65 m are commonly used to define final wine filters. Because pore size does not reflect microbe reduction, the final wine filter must confirm the reduction of bacteria and yeast by the wine's unique microorganisms.
The integrity of the final wine filter should also be tested. The integrity test, which is a non-destructive test, is linked to the filter's performance and ensures that it performs as intended in the application.