Breaking in new copper alembic...

[Guest]

Hi,

New to the forum, great site!

Just bought a 5L copper alembic pot still, plan to make absinthe with it. It has two rows of rivets, quite a beautiful thing. However, it didn't come with great instructions. Supposedly, I'm to boil water in it with some rye flour. On the inside covering these rivets looks like some kind of dried paste that has already been smeared, so I am assuming this is also rye paste.

What I can't figure out is, after I boil this for the first time, will the paste remain, or am I to remove that after the first boil? I guess it's supposed to seem into the rivets, but not sure.

Also, it lacks a thermometer. Would be nice to put one up near the top of it, any recommendations?

Thanks!

[Grayson_Stewart]

Your instructions said to fill the BOILER with water, flour and boil this to seal it? That doesn't sound right at all to me. Maybe I just misread your post.

[kevangogh]

Here's what they say...

Hello,

Before you start distilling liquors or essential oils, please clean the inside of your distiller filling it with water up
to a coincident point a bit over the riveted parts. Add 1 kg = 35 ounces of rye flour and let the mixture get a
boiler point. This quantity is estimated for a 5 gallon still. Please use proportional quantity to your still.

Do nothing when solution boils until it passes completely to the condenser. As a second operation, please fill
the pot with clean water, let it to boil again and be passed by spirits transfer to the condenser. Now pot is
cleaned, sealed and the putty inside is removed. These steps are necessary to clean the pot still as well as to
seal riveted unions inside.

Sixty minutes is the estimated time to conclude the operation.

Allow your distiller to cool.
Make certain the switch of your heater is off, or better yet unplug everything
Always wear gloves as you will be dealing with hot metal and hot content.

Never leave your distiller to sit, without cleaning it first. Essential oils will resinify over time, and will taint your
next batch. Dry it!

[Grayson_Stewart]

Never heard of that, maybe someone else will weigh in here.

[Guest]

I'm thinking the object here is to get the paste inside the rivets that are located in it. There are a row of rivets around near the bottom, and also up near the top. Inside, there is some kind of dried paste thinly covering the rivets.

Just not sure, pretty unusual. Was just wondering if anyone else came across this...

[Captin Moron]

i think its just cleaning instructions. The flour must seal the rivits...

[possum]

Congradulations on your aquisition, I assume it is pretty with a swan neck.

Is there no evidence of solder? Rivits only?

Do you have a digital picture?...Picture is worth 1000words.

[kevangogh]

So let it be asked, so let it be done!



Looking inside towards the lower rivets. If you look closely, you can see the round rivet heads. It must be paste of some kind.



From the outside.

For the upper part where the swan neck meets the dome, there is solder. Around the rivets, in the spaces between the cracks (as seen from the outside) where the parts meet, no solder.

[echthegreat]

Sorry to bump this ancient thread, but what were the results of your cleaning runs? I recently bought the same (well, same design, smaller capacity) still, and I've been having some issues with it. I ran the water/rye flour many times, distilling water afterwards each time, and my distillate tastes awful! Do you have any wisdom to share on the subject?
Did the putty dissolve, or did you have to clean it out manually?
I have tried so many things to clean my still out, but the horrid flavour persists. Any help would be very welcome.

[rubber duck]

Echthegreat, I have heard of folks having issues with stills like the one you purchased. The only solution I have heard of is soldering.

Would you please provide a link to the website where you purchased the still?

[echthegreat]

I bought mine from http://www.copper-alembic.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow.
Perhaps it is not as legitimate as I once thought.
Now that you mention it, the strange taste is very similar to the smell of soldering. I specifically bought the riveted still to avoid this problem, though. Strange.

[rubber duck]

That's the company I suspected. I've worked on this equipment before, a friend of mine has one of their larger models, he had to completely rebuild the thing. He didn't have anything good to say about the company.

[goose eye]

dont make since yall havein to seal rivets.

so im tole

[echthegreat]

That's the company I suspected. I've worked on this equipment before, a friend of mine has one of their larger models, he had to completely rebuild the thing. He didn't have anything good to say about the company.

Was your friend's issue taste or leaks? You mentioned soldering as a possible solution... how so?
Thanks for all the help. I have yet to hear back from the company regarding this. They claim to have excellent customer service...

[rubber duck]

Leaks bad leaks. The taste was ok but he had his for awhile before I ran it, he never mentioned anything about taste but his English is none to good and my Czech is worse. He broke the whole thing down, cleaned it and re soldered it. I don't know what they are using to seal the riveted model, by what the web site reads it's not solder, though something could be lost in translation.

[echthegreat]

Leaks bad leaks. The taste was ok but he had his for awhile before I ran it, he never mentioned anything about taste but his English is none to good and my Czech is worse. He broke the whole thing down, cleaned it and re soldered it. I don't know what they are using to seal the riveted model, by what the web site reads it's not solder, though something could be lost in translation.

I see. I may be dealing with an entirely different problem, as my still appears to be leak-free. According to their literature, the rivets are sealed with a paste made from linseed oil. It is supposed to be neutral in taste. If this is true, I am even more confused than before. Despite my model being the riveted one, the union of the swan's neck and the "onion head" has been soldered. Perhaps this is part of my problem.

It is a shame, really, as the company has been very professional up until now. Ordering and shipping were both painless procedures, but their technical support has been rather lacking. I see you made a new thread concerning them. I will post in it once I get this cleared up .

[goose eye]

they solderin the neck but they aint solderin the rivets on the inside.
rekon why

so im tole

[echthegreat]

Finally got an email back from the company...

If you have already completed that many distillations, then the taste you are achieving now in your distillations is the normal taste to be achieved from a copper alembic. There will always be some taste using one of these equipments, it will never be completely tasteless. This is in fact why so many people prefer to use copper alembics. You haven’t done anything incorrectly, over time your distillate will end up rubbing off on your copper alembic and the taste will gradually be less as the alembic gets used to the materials you use. This is perfectly normal. The paste that seals the rivets will gradually come off too but that does not affect the taste.

Seriously, this is bogus, right? They are basically telling me that my distilled water will always taste like shit. I am assuming that this is not the case for most copper stills.

[WalkingWolf]

Yeh, kinda sounds like their way of telling you ya got what ya ordered. Too bad. I hate too see folks getting screwed over (I know the feeling ).

[goose eye]

ole boys played a joke on there pa an filled the kettle with water. he sat there when time
passed on by he give em that look.well he sat there a spell longer got up said he was goin to the
house an get somethin. ole boys couldnt nock the plug out the kettle quick enough an charge it back full. he never come back that nite an never said a word an the ole boys never did charge no more water.

you ask em why they didnt solder them rivets on the inside.


so im tole

[Usge]

Mine (5-liter) but soldered unions, came with a mal-adjusted/soldered union connecting to the coil that leaked. When I inquired about it, they apologized for the shoddy work and suggested I bend the tube to make it align better — I mean what are they gonna do? ..have me send it back? I ended up having to knock out it out and resolder it myself. It worked fine after that.

That's also the alembic that I got a scare when I used a home-lead test on it and it came back positive. Turned out to be false positive because they used solder with very high levels of tin...which can through those home test units off. It also uses brass....that tests negative for lead. There was a LONG thread on it back a couple years. The company actually had their solder and some of their distillate tested here in the states and posted the results in the forum. They put that up on their website showing "0% lead" , etc...with the same test results posted there. But, I wasn't thrilled with the finishing build quality myself. After several complaints....they did offer me 10% off on my next purchase from them. But, I was never able to take advantage of it...cause PayPal, for some reason...would never authorize my account for the purchase regardless of what I did (give CC info, bank info, waited and got confirmation code from bank, etc). The company in Portugal just kept saying...they don't have anything to do with it...it's PayPal. So, I gave up trying....(prices and shipping shot up too).

[kevangogh]

Hi,

Original poster here. I ended up soldering it and have made many, many fine absinthe distillations through it. If you are careful, it's not that tough to solder it. You want to put just enough flux in the seems so they drain into the cracks when you heat it up, and apply the solder slowly. Make sure it's upside down so gravity will help the solder flow into the seam. If you do it right, the solder will go straight into the seams.

There is another company in Portugal that my friend bought from - the quality was better. This one will still do the trick however, nothing wrong with it.

[kevangogh]

On another note - I took that crap paste off of mine, so it's not affecting the taste at all now.

[rubber duck]

Apparently their using linseed oil to seal the seams. I have a friend that uses linseed oil every day so I asked him about using it to seal a still. He laughed and said it was the worst idea he had heard all day.

[ozone39]

A non gasket-ed rivet joint that needs to be water/vapor tight is a bad idea....Looked what happened to the Titanic.

[rubber duck]

My friend said it would seal for awhile but it would eventually spring a leak. He also said he didn't know if it would be a health hazard but that it would make your booze taste horrible.

[kevangogh]

Just solder it, it's too easy...