Copper crystals in low wines.

[IDPotatohead]

I finally pulled out all my stuff including 10 gallons of UJSM low wines I never ran from two years ago with the intent to finish it off. I noticed a what looks like a ton of copper precipitating out at the top of each carboy.

Reading through a bunch of threads here and watching Youtube videos it sounds like it's unsafe and I should throw it all out. I'm ok with that but before I do I have some questions.

First, since a lot of those threads were old and filled with conflicting opinions, is there any way to make it safe to run or consume? I hate to waste it but if it's risky at all I'm good to chuck it.

Second, does this mean I have been poisoning myself with all the rest for the last couple of years? It's hard to see anything since it's all dark from agining on oak, but I did have one jar of white dog that looks completely clear and ok.


Third, why? Most of what I read talked about the distillate itself being blue. I never saw any blue distillate in any of my runs. It looks like it only precipitated out after the years sitting in the carboys? I read about ECs and vapor hitting copper on the downstream side being the culprit, but wouldn't that have produced blue distillate and not something that looked fine for 2 years? It was confusing to read about and sounded like a debated topic, is there an update with concrete info on any of this?

Thanks

[IDPotatohead]

I should also add they are only in the UJSM and not in my SSS neutral sugar wash low wines, both which were stripped using the pot still head??

[NZChris]

Make sure your still head and condenser haven't got any verdigris in them, then run it.

[IDPotatohead]

Make sure your still head and condenser haven't got any verdigris in them, then run it.

So just clean it and run it again, and it will be safe....?

[NZChris]

You only have to clean it if it's dirty or oxidized, or modified.

The blue won't be volatile, so won't come over unless you run it so hard it pukes.

[LordL]

See the blue as a part of your still. It's cooper, if your stillage on the other side is blue, some of it has left to you. If you still it, you leave it to where it belongs. The still. It's metals, won't leave your still easily.

[cob]

I am easy to confuse, so precipitating means to me coagulating and sinking. Is it sinking, at, or on the surface, or suspended?

At the beginning you say copper, and at the end you say blue. what color?

[JJB11B]

Interesting, I noticed Copper colored floaties coming out of the tails in a run recently the low wines that I actually kept were fine and to double check I ran them through a funnel with coffee filters so that I could see if any particles were being strained off. I was thinking it came from my copper mesh column packing, Ill find the post I made the other day...

[JJB11B]

bought some "100% copper Mesh on Amazon to put in my 2" column. I did 3x 4" rolls of copper, Yesterday I noticed as I was finishing up collecting my tails that there was copper particles floating on top of the tails....

When I pulled the copper out of the column after the run it had Patina'd fairly heavily, so I rinsed it with some Dawn dish soap and hot water and popped it into a quart of warm vinegar. Hopefully it didn't dissolve overnight. I will check when I get home.

this came from the thread titled "Increasingly convinced my copper mesh is not actually copper!" in the new to distillation section. Hoping maybe the OP and I have the same issue and someone has a fix at hand

[Bee]

Still not sure how to answer this, but put some product in a jar/bottle and some distilled water in the same type jar/bottle and look real hard at the colors. That will help you spot any light blue tint.

[IDPotatohead]

[juana_b]

Looks like the still or components need a good cleaning.
After use, pour hot backset through, then a good hot water rinse and dry.