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Gents
Looking for a bit of steering on this one please. I built a liebig condenser and into it I put a plaited copper wire as a muffler / anti huffing devise. The condenser works great and today before doing a stripping run I pulled out and gave a look at the plaited copper muffler up inside the condenser to check if it was dirty.
At the hot end of the condenser (the side which meets the steam first from the thumper) the copper muffler was all shiny and looked silvery. I pulled out more of the muffler and after 12 inches / 30 cm or so the copper wire turned back to looking like ordinary copper wire again. Anyway I pulled out the muffler and washed it and the silver coating came off with a bit of scrubbing. I have a picture hereunder of what it looked like before I scrubbed it.
The copper muffler was made from electric wire which I stripped, doubled up and plaited as per the picture. This silver coating has appeared only after 3 to 5 runs.
Can anyone tell me please what it is?
What causes it?
And most importantly will it taint my likker and if it is poisonous or something to be concerned about?
Thanks in advance
Jimy

To my eyes it looks like its in the process of turning blue. This would happen when the copper is reacting with sulphates in the alcohol vapour which is a desired effect.

Yes, looks like copper reaction to some compounds in the vapors.
If copper tone was disappearing and wire becoming white I would tell to thrown this away.

Have you tried citric acid bath to clean copper instead of scrubbing ?

White is becoming blue a bit like on the picture:

looks exactly like tails oils stuck to the copper. it will wash off with your fores collection.

\i get it on mine every run that i go deep tails, distillte output 10-20%

Gents
It never ceases to amaze me the depth of knowledge on this forum. I think you are all correct. White to blue makes sense and also I was stripping corn mash and was going down to 20% ABV so not doubt tail oils were in the equation too. Good tip about using the fores to clean, I would never have thought of that. Thanks again to all
Jimy

Jimy Dee wrote:Gents
It never ceases to amaze me the depth of knowledge on this forum. I think you are all correct. White to blue makes sense and also I was stripping corn mash and was going down to 20% ABV so not doubt tail oils were in the equation too. Good tip about using the fores to clean, I would never have thought of that. Thanks again to all
Jimy

Jimy, I see that all the time on my stripping runs. I have copper mesh in the riser, and it almost always looks like that. An overnight soak in a vinegar jar cleans it right up. BTW, good talking to you today, I'm back to mashing now.

sláinte,
RHB