How Filtration Makes Our Drinks Better

Whether it’s coffee, whiskey or juice, ‘filtration’ has been a high-profile selling point for decades when it comes to the beverages we enjoy. Triple-filtered vodka, long-life milk and fresh water trickled through volcanic rocks are just some of the most popular filtered products out there. 

At Smart Separations, we’re creating the next generation of microfiltration with our ceramic membranes and we wanted to take a look at how filtration helps to improve some of our favourite drinks, from creating a smoother mouthfeel to increasing shelf-life.

Milk

Most of the milk you grab off-the-shelf in the supermarket is homogenised. This is a process where the cream in your milk is mixed-up by pushing it through several small holes under high-pressure. This is to stop milk separating and gives it a whiter colour, while removing any lumpiness. 

Where filtration really gets exciting with milk, though, is in the varieties of milk you can create. 

Lactose can be filtered out from milk in order to make it safe for allergy-sufferers without altering the flavour. It can be filtered at a micron level to remove bacteria and increase shelf-life. And it can also be ‘ultra-filtered’ using high pressure to remove large fat molecules, leaving milk that has more protein and less sugar.

Spirits

Alcoholic drinks such as whisky, rum and vodka aren’t always filtered after distillation but filtration plays an important role in creating a variety of drinks.

The reasons for filtration vary. Whisky often goes through a process known as ‘chill filtering’, where it is chilled down to as low as -10C and then filtered in order to give it a cleaner finish. Without filtering, whisky can go hazy at room temperature and may have ‘bits’ in it. 

Filtration plays a more complex role with rum making. It is used mostly in traditional rums from areas such as Cuba and Puerto Rico in order to make an aged rum that is lighter and clearer. This can help to remove some of the bitterness from rum and gives it a more delicate flavour that is perfect for cocktails such as mojitos.

Vodka is the most famously filtered spirit. Some brands of premium vodka claim to filter vodka up to 10 times after distillation. This can help to change the mouthfeel of the vodka and can remove impurities or alter the flavour.

Wine

Filtration is a crucial step in producing wine if you want it to have beautiful clarity and smoothness. This is how the cloudiness and yeast particles are removed from fermented grapes. It’s also vital for removing tannins from wine - the natural chemicals in wine that control how bitter it tastes and how ‘dry’ it is.  

Some traditional methods of filtering wine require the use of fining agents such as fish oil or milk protein. These bind with the sediments found in unprocessed wine, which poses a problem if you don’t want to consume animal products.

Using materials such as ceramics for filtration, we can make totally vegan wine that is just as clear and delicious as traditional wine. 

Juice

Filtration plays a hidden but vital role in the production of various juices. 

At its simplest level, filtration is necessary to remove pulp and other impurities from the juice. It also helps remove cloudiness and gives it more clarity. 

On a larger scale, filtration is necessary in order to remove bacteria and give the juice longer shelf-life. Citrus fruits in particular experience a phenomenon known as ‘delayed bitterness’. Thanks to the chemical substance ‘limonin’, industrially produced orange juice loses flavour over time and becomes more bitter.

By helping to reduce the levels of limonin, filtration makes orange juice a viable business model. 

Coffee

Filtration is one of the best ways to get a smooth cup of coffee. Primarily, the point of filtration is to extract the coffee flavour from ground-up beans.

However, filtrations also catch an oily substance that naturally occurs in coffee, known as ‘diterpenes’ or ‘terpenes’. The health effects of diterpenes are disputed but in very strong unfiltered coffee, the levels of diterpenes are high enough that they have been shown to increase cholesterol levels. 

One of the downsides of traditional coffee filtering is that it uses disposable paper filters, which adds up in waste and cost over the years.

Drinking water

Filtration of water for drinking is one of the cruxes of human civilisation and there is evidence of water filtration dating back 2,500 years. Today, filtering water to further remove impurities and to improve mouthfeel and taste is common.  

Depending on your location, the water you get on tap may already taste crisp and fresh or it may have a slightly metallic, chlorinated flavour. Filtering can help providing a more neutral flavour. 

Filtration is vital for creating safe drinking water and people with compromised immune systems may need to have additional filtering of water to remove all potential bacteria. 

Creating fantastic drinks

Smart Separations is always looking for inspiration to help refine filtration methods around the world, using our customisable, antibacterial ceramic filters to provide unique solutions for even the smallest problems. 

If you’d like to help us explore how our membrane of the future can help you, then please get in touch today.