Home Distiller

can anyone using a reflux column give me a ball park number of runs they felt comfortable doing before making a thorough cleaning. im talking breaking down and saoking with vinegar and boilng scrubbers? also any tell tale signs, other than taste, maybe even in operation? i did a run a couple days ago, aired, proofed, froze, aired again out of freezer and noticed my drink didnt look as clear as usual. not blue or foggy just didnt seem as crystal clear as normal. looking closer against the sun i noticed 3 or 4 light flecks of trash suspended in it. maybe just some dust from airing it out, but i see it in several jars.

My collumn is stainless, I just rinse it with water right after a run, when shes still warm. I soak the copper scrubbers in water, even throw them in with the dishes in the dish washer once and a while. Get the good solid copper scrubbers from mile high, and they wont fail you. Not the crappy plated ones at the local store. they are good for 1 run, and toss them.

It starts to become a matter of personal preference. I used to clean after every batch right back to shiny copper. One batch I didn't rinse as well as I thought, and ended up with a soapy taste in my product.

Moral of that story, don't use any scented products to clean your column. I then switched to using a concentrated citric acid solution to clean and a rinse. I've been lazy lately, so now I just give the column a rinse down to flush out the boiler too, (so I don't have to take things apart), and while it's on it's 12th run, it needs a good cleaning since I used olive oil as a defoamer on the previous batch, and it's coming through as an overtone on the product. But the place where I get my good scrubbies (they don't last forever) changed from selling 3 for $3, they now sell 2 for $3, and it takes 9 at least to fill my column.

I did notice that I get brown flecks coming out when I rinse my column, it does need a good back flush after a run.

Hooch.

thanks for the replies and thoughts.

Hi All

The normal thing to give your column a good clean is vinegar or a citric acid solution. I would normally do 3 or 4 strips of a sugar wash and then run the high wines through the VM to get a neutral.

Has anyone ever used the contents of the boiler after a strip run to give the VM column a good clean out? When you are finished the strip it is good and hot and pretty acidic. Then give a good rinse out with clean water and you are good to go for your next spirit run.

It also smells like tails... I wouldnt do it. Thats how I guage when to tear down and clean, when I can't wash the tail smell out of my column and packing.... but thats just me... WD

Never done more than a hot rinse as soon as I'm done distilling... Haven't had an issue after years with the same equipment... I just keep all components where they will stay clean between runs, in unsuspecting cardboard boxes on a shelf...

I mix 2tsp citric acid in 1l boiling water, and leave that in my column for 30 minutes before giving it a thorough rinse