cleaning my worm

[dave32]

how long can I wait between runs before I have to clean my worm? I run hot water thru it after every run.

[IrishEnigma]

Imo wouldn't run anything through it after a run. I'd rather have alcohol in my worm than water. I just run it. I figure a full quart of heads into the feints is enough to clean it. If your worried just run a little through it before you start collecting. also I'd rinse before a run not after.

[dave32]

Ok thanks for the tip. I thought the heads would clean it too but wasn't to sure.

[Prairiepiss]

I rinse with the hottest water I can. Then it needs to dry out. So you want it to breath.

Tails are some nasty stuff. With very little alcohol. I would rather rinse with hot water then leave that stuff in there. Even though the foreshots will do a good job of cleaning it out.

[bearriver]

Rinsing/cleaning your rig seems to be personal preference, provided there is no pooling anywhere. I rarely remember to rinse my Bok/Pot with hot water afterwards, and do not notice any negative side effects to the liquor or still from not doing so. The best I can figure is a little bit of the first cleans out whatever is left from the last.

If I were to make something that I considered extra effort or special, then the whole still would get a hot water shower before distilling.

[francis]

I built some spiral stills, and worms of course, and I find the easiest way to clean them is to shoot hot steam through it with a steam cleaner.

[NZChris]

It depends what you are doing with it. it also depends on if you are making a flavored product, or a neutral.

if you only ever use the still for stripping runs, you never need to clean it.

if you only ever use the still for spirit runs, you never need to clean it, but you might want to do the misting test.

If I'm doing a spirit run after several stripping runs, I give it a soak in foreshots, then a pull through with a rag. But that's just me, making flavored product.