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Hi all

I just chopped up a load of copper piping into 1" lengths to replace some of the ceramic saddles in my T500 column.
This copper pipe wasn't brand new, and I'm wondering if there is a way I can clean and steralise them before I put them in so I dont need to perform more cleaning runs?
Also, the column is packed with ceramic saddles and a small amount of copper saddles at the very top. Where is the most logical place to put my bits of copper pipe?
I figure if I put them at the bottom then they would get cleaned alot faster, with any potential nasties being dripped back into the wash.
But would they still be effective at desulphuring at the bottom?

"is a way I can clean and steralise them before I put them in "
backsets or vinegar and salt.

Dnderhead wrote:"is a way I can clean and steralise them before I put them in "
backsets or vinegar and salt.

I looked up tutorials on youtube and did exactly that.
First I heated the copper in a mixture of salt, vinegar and hot water until they were shiny.
Then I rinsed them off and heated them in a 50%ish ethanol solution to remove the vinegar, then popped them back into the column.
I also noticed that the copper in the column was dirty after only 2 runs. I can only assume the copper caught all the dirt from the ceramics below?
Anyway, I cleaned all the ceramics and copper using the same method and put them back into the column.
Ready to run my first birdwatcher or do another cleaning run?

Can't clean my copper saddles with vinegar + salt!

I've just done a failed run with a T500 still. Filled with still with a stripped Birdwatcher recipe and added sodium hydroxide @ 1g/L to bring the pH to >12.
I started getting spluttering from the still outlet despite the tank only being 70% full. Thought there must be a blockage so I unpacked the column and found the copper saddles to be a matt-red colour. Could not bring them back to their original shine with the usual vinegar + salt solution.

Any ideas what's going on here?

Harley wrote: ↑Sat Jan 02, 2021 6:42 pm found the copper saddles to be a matt-red colour. Could not bring them back to their original shine with the usual vinegar + salt solution.

They sound clean to me, shine doesn't mean much.
Red/pink is the colour of clean un polished copper.
The hot slops from your last run will clean you copper saddles just as efficiently as anything else.

Agree . That shiny copper look when you buy copper stuff is the same as when you buy copper fittings from a plumbing supply merchant the polishing is a treatment they do to it so it prolongs the natural oxidation that happens to copper ... IE ... it stops it turning brown ( unless you handle them ) .

When you “clean” copper in an acid , it removes the oxide and reveals the true colour of copper , the reddish / pinky colour you see . You will never see your copper saddles look the same as they did when you first got them . ( Unless you have time to polish them all up )

Its not a bad thing or a good thing its just the way they are when new .

Anyway , my advise is don’t clean them all the time . Part of their job is to remove sulphides and they do a better job and not add a metallic taste when they have developed a natural patina

Harley wrote: ↑Sat Jan 02, 2021 6:42 pm Can't clean my copper saddles with vinegar + salt!

I've just done a failed run with a T500 still. Filled with still with a stripped Birdwatcher recipe and added sodium hydroxide @ 1g/L to bring the pH to >12. Why?
I started getting spluttering from the still outlet despite the tank only being 70% full. Thought there must be a blockage so I unpacked the column and found the copper saddles to be a matt-red colour. Could not bring them back to their original shine with the usual vinegar + salt solution.

Any ideas what's going on here?

As I understand it, an alkaline wash or low wines will react adversely and often yield blue distillate among other issues. What is that step about?

Edit: I recall hearing derwo and others speak of converting some undesirable congeners into ethanol prior to distillation using an alkaline treatment. I could be wrong, but the hydroxide was neutralized prior distillation to avoid issues, no?

Hi Zed, that's right.

Ethyl acetate (which is a harsh flavour and boils at 77.1C) hydrolyses in an alkaline environment to essentially create ethanol and a salt.

That's interesting about the blue distillate. That comes when you run the still and there's patina on the copper. I don't think the sodium hydroxide could be doing that much through the column though - the pH of my final distillate is ~8.5

Also thanks saltbush and yummyrum!

Harley wrote: ↑Sun Jan 03, 2021 2:06 pm I don't think the sodium hydroxide could be doing that much through the column though - the pH of my final distillate is ~8.5

I wouldn’t be so sure about that . 8.5 is ridiculously high for ethanol distillate . It is normally around 5.5 ph

This is some I distilled yesterday at 95.5@ABV For comparison , here is some Methylated Spirit .( Ethanol 95%abv) There is something wrong going on with what you are doing if your distillate is coming over at pH 8.5

IIRC , the dosage to treat ethyl-acetate was like a teaspoon of Sodium Carbonate per litre , not sodium Hydroxide .

I like you thought it converted it to extra ethanol but I have since found out it does not . It converts it into another product ( sorry Ican’t remember which ) that doesn’t have the same heads bite as Ethyl Acetate . I will try and find where I read that .

I'm very interested in this but we're moving away from the thread topic.

I've created a new topic here: https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... 40&t=81639

Can you repost so we can keep it going

Just do normal cleaning runs. Vinegar run. Followed by a water run. Then a sacrificial alcohol run. Just like you clean a new still. Easy peasy no lemon squeezy needed.