A wine filter is certainly not required in the production of great homemade wines, but it can help do-it-yourself distillers polish up their libations. Generally, commercial wineries conduct filtration during the crush, the process through which "must" is generated. Must describes the mix of skins, seeds, and juices found in the manufacture of red wines.

Before the must can be transferred to its fermentation tanks, it has to be filtered. Since you probably don't work for a major winery, you likely don't have access to an industrial-sized rotating drum, which is what most vintners use to separate juice from seeds and stems. You can, however, purchase a wine filter to fill a similar function for your homemade wines.

How a Wine Filter Works

The wine filters included with most wine making kits are really quite simple. The typical package includes a pump that draws the wine through some sort of strainer that weeds out pieces of particulate, thereby giving your final product greater clarity and purity. Even if you're still a beginning oenophile, you'll notice the difference between clear wines and those with significant sediment.

It's important to remember that some wines deliberately leave sediment in the bottle for any number of reasons. For the most part, however, you'll want to use your wine filter to grab the offending particles with their grooved pads. Most wine kits will include filters as part of their standard packages, but in the event that they don't you can always purchase one a la carte from your nearby wine shop or online retailer.