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Hi Guys

I've ran 100Litres through my 'water purifier' and now when I rinsed it out it has some blue liquid in the column. I never rinsed it straight after the last batch, and let the spent wash sit in the boiler still for a day or two. I completely forgot about it. Anyway, I've been drinking Rum a bit just lately, and I picked up a bottle of pure distillate today and I THINK it might have a tint of blue. I'm not sure if it is paranoia or what, I just can't tell. It could be clear, but at certain angles I think I can see a tint.

My question, is the distillate dangerous? I'm starting to regret getting a Copper still. I only want to make pure neutrals, and it seems that this copper corroding is quite a hassle.

I have done a search on it, but I can't find a thread about anyone drinking the blue distillate. Help would be much appreciated.

Ciao!
Intoxicated

PS: Edwards Rum is quite nice.

Dont drink the blue distillate.

Most of the time this is caused by excessive nutrients in the wash or a failure to clean the still properly before using it. Too many nutrients break down into ammonia which will corrode copper. Generally you see this in the beginning of the run. If you only see it in your rinse, it may be that you had some tailsy residues which sat and corroded your copper. Sounds like you might want to check the recipe you are using to make sure you arent overfeeding. Pay attention to your PH and if you are using carbonates,, dont add them to the mash. They should only be used (sparingly) for stripped runs.

Do a heavy vinegar cleaning and make sure that your rinse your still out after each use. Best time to do it is when you shut down from a run. Everything is nice and hot and nothing has had a chance to oxidize. You need the copper, but you also need to keep it clean, especially if you are doing nuetrals. A little "off taste" can go a long way towards making a nuetral into BBQ lighter.

The search box will be your best buddy ever if you decide to use it.
Search for "Blue Distillate"...

This kind of wasn't the answer I was looking for. I probably should have been clearer, I don't know if it is blue or not. I think I might just be paranoid, however what I wanted to know is wether it is dangerous for me to ingest it. If it is, how dangerous?

I know why it turned blue, however I do not know if this was before the distillation or after. I have been using the turbo wash, I haven't got another wash sitting, as I am 'done' with them. I will be starting an All Bran wash when I get the time to duck up to the grocery store.

I know how to clean my still, I should have mentioned this as well. I did mention that I used the search function . I came up with a bunch of stuff that wasn't really any use to me. I want to know if it is dangerous for me to consume, and how dangerous. It's a little too late to 'not drink the blue distillate'.

Thank you for your post though.

Ciao!
Intoxicated

I had a couple of bottles that made the hooch look blue but when poured into a glass it was perfectly clear.

Al.

This is a picture I took with my phone, It's a really horrible picture and it serves pretty much no use.. However it does 'kinda' give you an idea of what I am talking about. You can't really see a blue tint, which may or may not be there. I could be just paranoid.

Intoxicated

Pretty hard to tell really, it looks ok in the pic.

Mate if your that unsure about it just ditch it

Al.

Austin Nichols wrote:Pretty hard to tell really, it looks ok in the pic.

Mate if your that unsure about it just ditch it

Al.

I don't plan on drinking this batch, I'm just concerned about it.

While it is entirely possible you are being paranoid, I still wouldnt drink it.
Copper salts have a tendancy to cause a very emetic reaction in humans. It doesnt take too much to cause it and it can be quite unpleasant.

You are making this for fun and for the skill development. So why would you want to risk it? The possibility of it being bad has already raised enough angst in you. I would just chuck it, especially since it was made from a turbo, and then start fresh. Better yet, keep it around for household cleaner. I use methyl with white vinegar for glass cleaner and it works very well.

My house has a saying about food "When in doubt, throw it out."
I do the same thing with my whiskey.

Hope this helps.

Here is discussion of blue distillate from Tony Auckland's site:

Blue Spirit

Sometimes the spirit may get a slight blue tinge to it. This is usually a sign that you've used too much nutrient in the wash. Mike explains ...

I [previously] replied, saying it was probably due to copper salts coming from acid wash. I WAS WRONG!!!!

In fact, I've learned that it is just the opposite! Acid washes do not corrode the condenser (unless, perhaps, they've been allowed to sit far to long and have gone acetic), but neutral to alkaline ones DO. Heating an ALKALINE wash, particularly one with lots of nitrogen-containing compounds that have been put in as nutrients, liberates ammonia, which corrodes the heck out of reflux coils and dyes the distillate a distinct greenish blue.

The Upshot: if the WASH is turning blue, it's probably due to acid wash corroding a copper sheathed element or a copper boiler, but if the collected DISTILLATE is blue, (and probably ammoniacal, but not always), the wash should be acidified!

Turbos contain a lot of nitrogen-containing compounds, and at neutral to high pH, these can liberate free ammonia. At low pH, they are bound up with the acid as salts, and do not liberate ammonia. So, by adding nutrients to an already nutrient rich turbo, you can inadvertently push the mix over the line and get ammonia with your distillate.

Intoxicated wrote: ... It's a little too late to 'not drink the blue distillate'.

It's never too late to give advice regarding safety. You said that you know what caused your problem, you also said that you had no intention of drinking it and you said that you are not using turbo again.

Make a new batch without turbo and see what happens. None of us will be willing to tell you to drink something that you are worried about. Safety just happens to be paramount in this forum.

Stop worrying about this batch, it's history now and you aren't happy with it so dump it and start again. And what's this "water purifier' you're talking about????

I had about 5 gal of strip sitting in half gal jars for about 2 months, uncovered, it looked normal. I dumped it all into a carboy to add baking soda and salt to it, going to make some neutral. So, I then put my air hose (copper tubing) in it and gave it about a 10 minute blast of air to mix things up.

Next day I went out to mix it again and the strip had a nice robins egg blue tint to it and looking through the side of the carboy and up to the underside of the surface, there were several small crystal looking things growing(?) down from the underside of the surface. No copper was left in the strip during any point in time.

I let it go another week or so before i got back to it and the blue color particles/crystals had settled to the bottom. I racked and filtered it to another carboy, added more soda and salt, then gave it another good shot with the air hose to mix it.

Its been another 2 weeks and no sign of color or particles settling out.

No turbos or added neutrients to the wash, just ujssm.

I have stripped more wash since and it appears to come out of the still fine.

So, you think it is safe or sorry? Run it?
ty
c

Are you happy about drinking it, castleclr?
I have no idea why copper sulphate crystals would form - I guess that's what you have - but I've never had them, however I never add baking soda and never strip. Have you tried the search function yet, third button from the right above?

This thread caught my interest because I just ran off 30 gallons of sweat feed wash and all of it came out with a blue hue. I did some reading here and came up with the theory that the feed had to many nutrients in it which followed the spirt through. The color did not settle out of the low wines. I ran a spirt run mixed with water to drop the % and the final product came out perfectly clear with a very nice flavor. Is my explanation reasonable or is thier something I missed?

Searches for blue, crystal, and blue crystal, come up, as interpreted by meself, that blue is bad. Unlce J says that. No consensus as to precisely what it is or the cause or cure. Nutrients in wash, hi temp runs, resulting in amonia and copper are the most suggested causes for the color.

Several members have rerun and get their -originaly blue colored- strip to clear up. One member used some acid to clear his strip. I will try that to see if any reaction happens. Mike says to use acid for blue.

After the acid, I will do a cleaning run or 2 and run it again and see and smell what it comes out like, then make the decision to toss or not.

Never had any color, puking, previous. Did have nasty flavor when first rum I did wasnt clear enuff to cook (I guess, since then I rack and clear 2-3 times) and once I tried the oil and flour paste sealer and got oil flavor, both of those experiences never did clear up well, used soda, salt, airing, recooking, VM, and carbon.



I spilled 2 containers of wash once, I nearly fell to my knees. I dont know how I would hold up to tossing 5 gal of strip.....

ty
c

castleclr, nobody said anything about dumping it... But only you can decide whether or not you want to dilute and redistill to clean it up... And only you can decide what to do with the final product, whether to drink it or use it in your lawn mower or fire starting fluid... There's always a use for alcohol...

IHO you should think about building a still and getting away from that water purifier. Start looking into seeing who might be able to build one for you if you do not have the skills.

If the blue color is coming from copper (II) sulphate salts, then one can consult the msds sheet to see how bad it is.

Toxic orally in accordance with FHSLA regulations. Acute oral LD50 (male rats) = 472 mg/kg.

LD50 is the quantity of the salt (given all at one time) to kill 50% of a sample of rats. So I guess that means an 80kg person has a 50% chance of croking if they ingest about 38 grams of copper (II) sulphate.

For a vague idea of how much copper this is, a saturated solution of water at 0 degrees C has about 32g of copper (II) sulphate in it.


Interesting enough though, it is NOT soluble in ethanol, but is soluble in methanol (about 10 times less than its water solubility I think).

I use vinegar as a cleaning agent during the manufacturing of stills, what starts out as white vinegar turns out the color illustrated in the previous post after repeated use.
When using vinegar as a cleaning agent for a new still, thorough rinsing with clean water is required to neutralise the acidic effect following a cleaning run.



OD

if that was produced with vinegar it was not copper sulfate but copper acetate.but still not good to drink.

I'm far from an expert, but I've read many times that the use of copper in stills is meant to have the copper react with sulpheric compounds in the wash. The reaction results in a solid stuff, the blue copper sulphate, in the low wines. Because it's solid, it will remain in the still when you distill it a second time. So provided the still is cleaned between runs, the spirit run should always be free of both sulpher and copper sulphate. At least, that's my own experience. To answer the question: I wouldn't drink the blue stuff, I'd run it a second time. Filtering before the second run can help take out the solids, some might perhaps dissolve again in the hot still and boil over.

Well, I beleive I found the cause,, the worm doesnt drain completely (yes I do flush out and shoot air through it when done, but evidently too many low spots) and that corrosion is the cause. Have soaked on more salt and soda and no green left. I will run it through pot and leibig and salt and soda a sample to see if it colors.
ty
c

My spirit was not even close to the sample/example above, was much lighter than the back ground color of this page. Is clear now and I have tried a couple of things on samples to try to get color to reappear or something to condense out and so far it stays clear.
ty
c

So, I put about a cup of lemon juice (cause I have no real acid) in the carboy, let it sit a few days, nothing changed color or fell out, so I diluted to 27 abv, let sit for hydro separation, and it all seem good after the pot run, tested a sample for any futher percipitate and all well.

I believe my uneven worm was the cause for the color and that the soda or salt caused the green whatever to percipitate out. I think everything was gone before I put the lemon juice in.

I have noticed some containers influence the colour of the alcohol, does reprocessing the batch ever change the result

There's a whole bunch of if in the answers.
What you catchin likker in that changein colors

So I'm tole

GavinSR wrote:I have noticed some containers influence the colour of the alcohol, does reprocessing the batch ever change the result

And you are digging up a dead topic because . . . . ??? And not adding any worthwhile information because . . . . ???

The topic has been covered in depth several times before and after this one... A bit of research would have proven that, as well as answered your question...

Rerun it... if you have any concern...

Here's a picture of the first batch of shine I ever ran. Now this is BLUE! haha

The mash was done by a local winery for me, as my biggest trouble when I started was fermenting. The still I believe was the cause, I don't know if it came from the steel boiler that was an old piece of pipe or from the new reflux column that came from Mile High Distilling but I blamed the boiler.

or from the blue pigment out of the box on the table labelled "Kolor Kit"?

ain't april 1st yet.

i'm calling bullshit.

HDNB wrote:or from the blue pigment out of the box on the table labelled "Kolor Kit"?

ain't april 1st yet.

i'm calling bullshit.

HDNB = Troll buster.

Go away.

tp