Copper in stills, effect on sulphur compounds research

[thecroweater]

I work in an industry that uses a lot of plated pieces, could we plate the SS tri clamp fittings with copper?

Sure can a few blokes have done that but it was for looks as the tri-clamp is not in contact with vapour...or shouldn't be anyways

[shadylane]

http://whiskyscience.blogspot.ca/2014/10/copper.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

too good of a link not to share...

Thanks for the link

https://www.stilldragon.org/uploads/Fil ... 7beeb7.pdf

Every thing I've found was based on pot stills
I wonder how that information pertains to the reflux stills many of us use?

[tiramisu]

Just skimmed the linked article. That was a pretty compelling read. Now is it true? Is there data to support the paper?

A Copper still reminds me of Alchemy. A magical device.
Stainless seems too clinical. Science.

SS304 Lego is cheaper and convenient though.
Use Copper Mesh as a nod to history. I would love to see the EC story data.

Rather than trying to strip urea out of your distillate, you should probably just not push your yeast so hard.
12% on a good day, 10 if you are smart. I know guys push 15 and use a scope and nutrients and temperature control....
If nervous rack your beer.

I just want to try to ferment grain in with a brute garbage pail.
I think you could make a 3 gallon barrel of a nice Irish Style Barley Mash ( I think they call that single malt but I'm not sure) ...
Basically just buy a bag of malted 2-row and some yeast.
No peat.

Vodka and Gin first of course but a nice 2 year old 3-gallon barrel of whiskey for the next 20 years sounds perfect to me.

[workpress]

Hi all,

In the summer I did an experiment to answer this question for myself.
I ran three runs of beer through my stainless steel still without copper packing in the column. I ran it as a stripping run just like a pot still.
The results were really noticeable in that the smell of the distillate was harsh sort of like Sulphur but with a dirty earthy note. (this is where my wife informs me that I am lazy and should add the copper back into the system) (copper raschig rings)
I repeated this with my next run to see if it was something in the beer, it happened again, same thing.
On the third run and was convinced that the copper in your system really does help to "clean" your spirit.
So when I moved my still to its new home I put the copper packing back in the column and ran the three stripped runs through the still with the next batch of beer, and it came out nice and clean, smelling floral and light.

that is my experiment I hope it helps,

Workpress

[Mr Jim]

I wonder if there is any research on iron and zinc. I have no bad experience with iron myself, other than the rust and the corrosion in contact with copper. Anybody seen any research?

Yes there is research. Surfaces were used to test the robustness of bacteria and viruses and the baseline was on Silver not Copper. China has produced volumes of white papers on the nature of Silver as an anti bacterial anti fungal. There is a YouTube of Streptococcus and Staphylococcus cells dying on contact. I have used an ionic version in water in an atomizer for pnumonia and the results were astonishing. The liquid is a marvelous sterilizer.

In 1914 the Lancet published on Silver and its uses. In 1930 it was outlawed by the ? as snakeoil more or less: we had new science and inoculations to cure us, to invest in, not some ancient remedy.

Now there is no mention of how long a pathogen can live on Silver.
Here is a paper on Copper and Covid.
https://blog.eoscu.com/blog/just-how-do ... kill-germs.
Silver has the most free valence electron love to give, Copper is next.

"The use of copper to help prevent transmission of SARS-coronavirus and influenza viruses. A general review"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7428768/

Zink is a relatively new cure for nose colonies too. Same thing going on with Zink: it kills pathogens.
A cleaned still will not sour output with Copper Sulphate unless it is exposed to caustic liquids and O2 or it was never not properly cleaned to begin with. Copper is hygienic but it is not entirely self cleaning.