Home Distiller

So like a few weeks back I made a still and fermented molasses using ingredients off this site. I have a few bottles of clear rum that smells and looks great and all but I was wondering if the bakers fluid (soldering fluid) used to braid the copper pipes would be toxic? I have run water through it a few times to clean the pipes but if some of the fluid somehow got into the pipe when it was being soldered, I think it would heat from the condensation and release small quantities of it into the alcohol (it may even be more soluble in alcohol than water) It seems to turn into a gel on the outside of the pipe when its hot at the joint seams and I can scrape some of it off with a screw driver, should I be worried about this?

Also, in theory a 20L of wash wouldn't produce enough methanol to blind or kill you even if you didn't throw away the foreshots am I right? Not that I'm going to keep them to drink ( I always throw away a 50mg jar full of distillate that comes out first off 4L of Molasses wash)

Did you do a couple of cleaning runs with vinegar etc, before running a keeper wash.

olddog wrote:Did you do a couple of cleaning runs with vinegar etc, before running a keeper wash.

No I didn't know that, will any old vinegar do? Will this neautralise the Bakers Fluid? As I understand it is an acid. Don't worry I'll throw away the rum (Molasses is cheap here in Fiji anyway) Thanks for the tip old dog.

On my last build the Evil Twin, I bought 3 two litre containers of vinegar and run the still flat out to clean all of the crap from the inside, yes vinegar is acidic, and will give a good clean. once you have done your vinegar runs, put the spirit you have distilled watered down to 40ABV and run it through again, and discard when finished. You might as well use this for another cleaning run as it should not be consumed, as it contains crap from solder flux etc.

OD

deliciousrum wrote:Also, in theory a 20L of wash wouldn't produce enough methanol to blind or kill you even if you didn't throw away the foreshots am I right? Not that I'm going to keep them to drink ( I always throw away a 50mg jar full of distillate that comes out first off 4L of Molasses wash)

In theory, most folks would still fell like shit from consuming fores (and heads,,,,,,,,apparently) distributed in equal ppm within a 3 liter take (or the like).

LWTCS wrote:

deliciousrum wrote:Also, in theory a 20L of wash wouldn't produce enough methanol to blind or kill you even if you didn't throw away the foreshots am I right? Not that I'm going to keep them to drink ( I always throw away a 50mg jar full of distillate that comes out first off 4L of Molasses wash)

In theory, most folks would still fell like shit from consuming fores (and heads,,,,,,,,apparently) distributed in equal ppm within a 3 liter take (or the like).

Does that mean if all the fores were diluted enough in 3 liters of heads it would just leave you with a bag hangover? No toxicity? Just curious, not that you should drink meths (according to wiki 30mls will leave u blind) I have the odd kink in my worm and was thinking if meths accumulated there even though it would be diluted by ethanol it may have bad consequences?

do you drink beer? do you drink wine? if you do you are drinking that stuff. not that is good for you, the big part of hangovers is that
you have injured your body and its trying to recover.a lesser part is dehydration.

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This is the still in question by the way, I know it's ugly as hell but I only have limited resources here. Is there anything wrong with it?

Looks like your pressure cooker is aluminum... that might not be a good idea.
You say that piping is copper?

Doc

Aluminum pot, rubber bung for the thermometer.... bad ideas, my friend.

yes that is aluminium, and I knew I shouldn't have used it due to epic fail reasons such as alzheimers disease and other nasty stuff. Will be upgrading it soon.

The copper pipe was a freshwater pipe for 20 years until I ripped it out of a house and replaced it with PVC. It is 3/4 " and very thick. It also has a build up of sulphate on the outside so yeah it doesn't look like copper at all.

Not making proper cuts, even with a small run, can produce noticeable problems... I have accidentally drank spirits from a strip run with improper cuts and ended up with stabbing pain in my eyes... One of those "DOH!" moments that comes too late...

Check out all this copper sulphate that came out with the vinegar, it looks like a brand new pipe now from what I can see. Also should I be worried about this soldering?

It's on the out side.
If you got no leaks and your solder is lead free then your fine.

Wire wheel (or steel wool for olddog ) wouldn't hurt though.

LWTCS wrote:It's on the out side.
If you got no leaks and your solder is lead free then your fine.

Wire wheel (or steel wool for olddog ) wouldn't hurt though.

Even if it was lead and it was on the outside, it wouldn't leach into to the copper eh?

Just enjoying my first few glasses with no ill effect as yet

With flux and heat there will be a capillary effect.
The solder gets sucked in and likely exposed on the inside wall.

Needs to be lead free. Hope it is.

Enjoy your lead free go-go juice

Baker

Your soldiering certainly adds "character" to your build.
Looks like you added flux and soldier to a pre loaded fitting.

As dad used to say any landing you can walk away from is a good one.

still crazy wrote:Looks like you added flux and soldier to a pre loaded fitting.

Oh yeah. Those are leadfree loaded fittings.

Clean your tubing and fitting good, just a bit_o_flux on all surfaces and enough heat to make the fitting bleed. Thats all you need.

LWTCS wrote:

still crazy wrote:Looks like you added flux and soldier to a pre loaded fitting.

Oh yeah. Those are leadfree loaded fittings.

Clean your tubing and fitting good, just a bit_o_flux on all surfaces and enough heat to make the fitting bleed. Thats all you need.

phew! thanks for the reassurance! I've already given the tails to the locals to have. I think just to be safe I'd better ask the guy who soldered the thing what brand of Solder Wire he used before making any more

The acetic acid in vinegar will react with copper produce copper acetate which I believe is not good to ingest. I checked a Material Safety Data Sheet on the net to confirm it.

A good, thourough rinsing with clean hot water afer using vinegar to clean the system should remove any acetate residue though.

Citric acid from the grocery store used in cooking is also great for cleaning copper.Citric acid does not directly react with copper, but will react with copper oxide and residues to remove them. Soaking copper in a hot solution around 55C made at the rate of one teaspoon of citric acid powder to 600 mils of water water works wonders. This is what I have been using to clean with.

Hey thanks Icarus, I was trying to identify where the metallic after taste was coming from and it doesn't appear to be from the aluminium as I heated some water up and tasted it - no metallic there, so it must be related to the copper reaction when I cleaned it out with Vinegar. Got 3L of metal tasting Rum that lingers for a few hours after you drink it lol so much science behind this hobby eh.

you got to let the copper age, and develop a patina, do not keep cleaning it with vinegar. especially the worm/condenser/lyne arm