Cleaning a long unused still

[ufo8mycow]

I’m not sure where to post this so forgive me.

I have not run my 4” 5 plate flute I’m many years but have gotten the itch again. It has been sitting in my garage for about 4 or 5 years and has accumulated some corrosion. I am curious how I should clean it before making a run. I am not able to remove the plates as they were a very tight fit going in and will not back out. I have thought about giving it a good soak in vinegar or maybe some salt water before a cleaning run with some old heads and tails I still have sitting on the shelf.

[Yummyrum]

Don’t soak it in vinegar .

What kind of corrosion is it ?

If its just plain old dark brown or black then I wouldn’t worrry about it . It will be ready to use .

If its green or blue then a 24 -36 hour soak in Citric Acid will clean it followed by a good hose out . Remove the sightglasses so you can get the hose in there .

Dilute Sulfuric acid would have it done in about 1/2 hr .
Again thoroughly rinse with water straight away .

[ufo8mycow]

I just checked again. It is a bluish green and it is a pretty thin as in it Doesn't come off if I rub it. I also noticed it is only on the bottom of the column and the bottom plate. As for citric acid. What kind of strength are we talking?

[Yummyrum]

Couple of teaspoons to a liter of water .

[shadylane]

I have not run my 4” 5 plate flute I’m many years but have gotten the itch again. It has been sitting in my garage for about 4 or 5 years and has accumulated some corrosion. I am curious how I should clean it before making a run. I am not able to remove the plates as they were a very tight fit going in and will not back out.

Do a sacrificial run.
Plan B
Cap off the lower end of the column and fill it with backset for a day or 2
And then do a sacrificial run.

[TDick]

Don’t soak it in vinegar .

If its green or blue then a 24 -36 hour soak in Citric Acid will clean it followed by a good hose out . Remove the sightglasses so you can get the hose in there .

Again thoroughly rinse with water straight away .

Well damn I'm confused!
I have a 5 gallon copper pot, thumper, worm that I haven't used in almost two years.
I already bought vinegar while I could still get out & about.
But I'm reading a LOT that says no vinegar run.

Don't have citric acid - don't even know if it's on the grocery shelves this week - & SWMBO says I'm grounded.
I do have BSG B-Brite sodium percarbonate and sodium carbonate


How would a soak of that do, followed by a sac run?

[NZChris]

When I've used citric acid to get rid of verdigris, it's taken minutes, not hours.

If you have a lemon tree, each lemon has around one and a half teaspoons of citric acid in it.

[Sailman]

I use about 1 and 1/2 tablespoons per gallon of water for a citric acid soak, it helps to speed up the cleaning action if the solution is hot but keep an eye on it because it will work very quickly. Citric acid can be found in the canning section most grocery stores or in vitamin / health food stores. This is after about a 10-minute soak and then a little steel wool.

[StillerBoy]

Don't have citric acid - don't even know if it's on the grocery shelves this week - & SWMBO says I'm grounded.
I do have BSG B-Brite sodium percarbonate and sodium carbonate

How would a soak of that do, followed by a sac run?

Get it a try.. and if you see it doesn't work.. get some lemons..
And I wouldn't do a sac run after.. just a good hot warn rinse will do it..

Mars

[cranky]

I see everybody already commented about the speed of citric acid...Hell last year I completely derusted a 50 year old tailgate with it in only 12 hours.

In the past I used orange juice in a pinch but you should be able to find it in the canning section or use vitamin C tablets.

As far as cleaning and sacrificial runs, I like to do them every so often especially if I had to clean corrosion and in your case it wouldn't hurt.

[Tummydoc]

It's no longer a cleaning run, it's a hand sanitizer run!!

[TDick]

It's no longer a cleaning run, it's a hand sanitizer run!!

[cayars]

If it's just blue/green I'd just run some spirit through it which should clean it just fine. Rinse with water after and you're good.
I personally don't like using any acid unless a small alcohol run doesn't work. (not talking about a new still or new parts)

[jonnys_spirit]

I buy citric acid by the lb at the home brew store. Very cheap. $1.99/lb.

Cheers!
-jonny

[Wpoole8]

I'm also a fan of citric acid for cleaning the still. Except when I @#^ it up. I thought I had run enough water through to clear out the acid post cleaning, but apparently not. I tossed the foreshots as usual, and then ran a nice long cut that should have been my prime drink from this session. I stuck my nose in it and got a pungent aroma of hot citric acid! Not pleasant.

Question is this: Do I have to toss this (which is more than half of the run), or can I neutralize the citric acid with sodium bicarbonate or some other means? Or should I neutralize it and toss back into the wash and distill again? Or toss the entire batch and make a note to not do this again?

Thanks.

[cranky]

I'm also a fan of citric acid for cleaning the still. Except when I @#^ it up. I thought I had run enough water through to clear out the acid post cleaning, but apparently not. I tossed the foreshots as usual, and then ran a nice long cut that should have been my prime drink from this session. I stuck my nose in it and got a pungent aroma of hot citric acid! Not pleasant.

Question is this: Do I have to toss this (which is more than half of the run), or can I neutralize the citric acid with sodium bicarbonate or some other means? Or should I neutralize it and toss back into the wash and distill again? Or toss the entire batch and make a note to not do this again?

Thanks.

I don't have an answer to that but I always do a sacrificial run after cleaning because in my personal experience the first run after cleaning is nasty anyway.

[Bushman]

I don't have an answer to that but I always do a sacrificial run after cleaning because in my personal experience the first run after cleaning is nasty anyway.

Haven’t ran mine in a year and just going through the cleaning process. Pulled all my mesh packing and soaked it in a vinegar, salt, water solution. Washed down all my equipment and will do an all feints (sacrificial) cleaning. As part of the run I also make sure I do a short steam cleaning. Usually gets that smell and taste out before doing my regular run. Got a rye Ag going in the fermenters.

[Wpoole8]

@cranky thanks. I have not had this problem before but see the virtue in doing sacrificial runs to clean out bad stuff before putting the more crafted wash in and going for it.

[ufo8mycow]

As an update. It really wasn’t as nasty as I had first thought. I have done a 20 min steam run at the full 5500 watts and will be running 2 spirit runs this week one will be dedicated to hand sanitizer and the other will be rerun in the second generation of the ujssm. I will probably save some of the hearts to compare the different generations.

[Black Hearts]

Does anyone get that blue green crust after soaking in vinegar and rinsing?