degrees F for sanitation purposes. Aside from sanitation, hot water is beneficial because it helps keep particles in suspense and taken away from your equipment. It’s the reverse of the principals behind chill filtration. Remember: after cleaning you need to allow for proper drying of your equipment as well. Hang your hoses, vent your tanks. Moisture and darkness create a habitat for bacteria! There are multiple methods of cleaning available for filter media. Before cleaning any filter media consult manufacturer recommendations. Not all media is reusable or suitable for cleaning, and some require specific care instructions. One of several ways to clean a filter media is simply to soak the media in hot water with the appropriate cleaning solution. Between the aforementioned effects of hot water and the chemical reactions of cleaning solutions, your media can become clean again. The media will need to be rinsed with clean, fresh water after this step to wash away any cleaning solution. This would be best achieved with treated water instead of tap water, as tap water can have contaminants in it. Another way to clean media is by running hot water and cleaning solution through the media in reverse. By sending liquid through the media in reverse it will break built-up particulate and wash it away. This method also requires a rinse afterward to remove any left behind cleaning solution. Any cleaned and sanitized media also requires proper storage to assure it does not end up contaminated again in its dormancy. Some wineries store their glass media in vodka to maintain a neutral, yet contaminant free, environment. Pad filters should be kept dry and in a sealed container. Once again, moisture is your enemy. Distilleries can be messy places and I’ve more than once heard distillers joke that you shouldn’t trust someone whose still is too shiny; if they were making everything themselves they wouldn’t have time to clean it that well. Now I’m not going to tell you that you should spit-shine your copper, but please for the love of the angel’s share — keep your filtration equipment clean!
George B. Catallo is the “Whiskey Guy” and Floor/Social Media Manager at Parkway Wine and Liquor in Rochester, NY. He has been in the beverage industry since he turned twenty-one and has worked as the Bar Operations Manager of a wine bar, an Assistant Distiller and Supplier Rep for a craft distillery, and has even hosted a spirits review web series on YouTube under the moniker 'Just One Dram.'
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