Did I Ruin my Still Components?

[Nagorg]

This post may or may not make it into a "mistakes" fall of fame. Guessing somebody out there may have done the same things before.

On Saturday, I did a vinegar run on my brand new still setup. It was near the end of the day and I was in a hurry to wrap up, had a date with my wife.

So, I shut it down, disconnected the water connections and that's pretty much it. I did not break everything down for a good rinse with fresh water.

This morning I went out to break it down and was not to happy to see that the vinegar sitting on the copper without being rinsed was not a good thing to do. My previously shiny bubble plates are now black. The inside of the other copper parts have a blackish, film like coating on them.

Did I ruin these parts or can this be salvaged? I can replace these parts if I need to, what an expensive mistake if I do. Will just another vinegar run save the day? Any other tips?

Thanks in advance..

[Yummyrum]

I hate Vinegar .

You haven’t wreaked your copper still bits .

My 101 acid is and has always been 20% Sulphuric acid to water . ….but … I know that isn’t always easy to find with the fucked up world we live in now . (EDIT : the wonderful world that has been fucked up by a few )

How ever , good old Citric acid will clean that mess up . A teaspoon to a cup of water should do it .soak all those black bits fir 12-24 hours .

Now , don’t make any dates with ya misses . You need to get scubbing with a stainless steal scrubber under a running tap and all that copper will be gleaning pinky goodness once again .

So now you can deem that copper cleaned and shove your shitty vinegar down the drain .
Time for a Sacrificial run with some alcohol to season that copper . Now …… don’t touch it agin . It is ready for many years of action

[Nagorg]

I'm guessing you're talking about scrubbing the bubble plates? What about the inside of my shotgun condenser, dephlegmator and elbows? And yes, whiskey onion too..

Those things aren't so easy to get to the inside. I had everything assembled for the vinegar run even though I won't run it that way all the time.

And are you saying I shouldn't have done a vinegar run in the first place? I can get some sulphuric acid from Duda Diesel if that's better.

Thanks for the help on this by the way...

[Saltbush Bill]

You shouldn't have to scrub anything imo.
Dump the parts into a bucket of citric acid.......you can buy that in powder form at the super market.
Failing that a bucket full of dunder or backset will do the job.
Leave soak for 24 hours, squirt and rinse with fresh water from garden hose........job done.

[BigSwede]

My 101 acid is and has always been 20% Sulphuric acid to water . ….but … I know that isn’t always easy to find with the fucked up world we live in now . (EDIT : the wonderful world that has been fucked up by a few )

Last I looked, sulphuric can be found at big box hardware stores in the USA as "100% sulphuric acid drain opener."

The once chemist in me cringes a bit at dealing with concentrated sulphuric, but if handled like a grown up with care, it's super effective. Outdoors, gloves, goggles, acid to water, etc.

[Windy City]

I agree you will not need to scrub at all.
I buy citric acid in bulk and generally make a 10% solution.
Just soak it overnight and then thoroughly rinse.

[Nagorg]

Excellent! I have Citric acid already. It's pretty cheap and safer to handle than Sulphuric too... I can get it cheaper at Duda Diesel also.

Can't wait to give this stuff a Citric acid bath. I'll post the results here, may be a few days...

[MooseMan]

Yeah a nice citric bath then a good hard hosing off will sort that out, then do an alcohol sac run and never clean it again.

[Corn Cracker]

I use the bathtub for soaking citric baths, might need more citric powder but you can fit it all in there with hot water to soak, shines right up. You can get bottle/carboy brushes to scrub it all clean if needed

[Nagorg]

Quick update, citric acid for the win!

My bubble plates looked the worst but check this out.

Before:

image.png

After:

image.png

I used a 10% citric acid solution and soaked for ~30 minutes.

I'm contemplating another vinegar run before the sacrificial run, just will make sure I rise this time. Thoughts on this? Is it a waste of time or a good idea?

[Copperhead road]

wow i have never seen plates that dirty.
my perforated plates on my 4" column have not been washed in 10 years.

[LWTCS]

Second pic is fine.
Jeebus Crise relax .

[shadylane]

My goto for cleaning copper is backset for the acid and baking soda to neutralize the acid.
Give it a good rinse and after drying, spray some cooking oil on the copper so it doesn't corrode.

[Nagorg]

Second pic is fine.
Jeebus Crise relax .

Relax? LoL I'm a home brewer just now exploring this craft.

We're know for obsessing over details. LoL

Alright, I'll move on to the sacrificial run. Just trying to make sure those new setup I nearly ruined gets a fair shake.

[Saltbush Bill]

I'm a home brewer just now exploring this craft.

Home brewers, all the same when they first get here, obsessed with starsan and sterilising everything to with in an inch of its life...
Next time save the cost of the citric acid, dump parts into a bucket of dunder or backset, same result for zero cost.

[Username]

Second pic is fine.
Jeebus Crise relax .

Relax? LoL I'm a home brewer just now exploring this craft.

We're know for obsessing over details. LoL

Did you never hear RDWHAHB or is that a thing of the past, I'm a long time out of the homebrew circles?

Relax, dont worry, have a homebrew

[Nagorg]

Next time save the cost of the citric acid, dump parts into a bucket of dunder or backset, same result for zero cost.

I'll remember this. But I need some dunder or backset first..

Did you never hear RDWHAHB or is that a thing of the past, I'm a long time out of the homebrew circles?

Relax, dont worry, have a homebrew

It's definitely not a thing of the past. Probably not used as often these day's but it still gets thrown out from time to time.

Anyway, lots for me to ramp-up on as I tool up for this craft. Really, it's just the addition of stilling equipment to my homebrew setup. But then there's also learning new things and possibly forgetting others or casting them aside anyway.

It just kinda stunk when I saw what happened to the new stilling parts after leaving the vinegar on it. Some lessons are best learned the hard way, sadly. I know I'll never make this mistake again, kinda like my "Starsan Suck-Back" lesson years ago and countless others.. lol

Thanks for the citric acid suggestion... Now I'll get back to reassembling my reflux column and prep for the sacrificial run..

[Windy City]

Nagorg please remember you do not want your copper to stay shiny clean.
You do want some patina on there otherwise it can bring over a metallic taste in your spirit.
This is one of my plates with pretty standard patina on it.

image.png

[Nagorg]

Nagorg please remember you do not want your copper to stay shiny clean.
You do want some patina on there otherwise it can bring over a metallic taste in your spirit.

Thanks for the tip!

FWIW, I did notice some residual, blackish, stuff that would wipe off on a paper towel on a few pieces after the citric acid bath. I guess this is the stuff that I'd like to make sure is delt with properly before I get into stripping and spirit runs.

For this reason, I do think I'll soak the pieces in hot PDW for a bit before rinsing them and moving on the the sacrificial run. Maybe it's not needed, but I think it will give me a little peace of mind.

Nice to have an example of what the copper should look like for normal operation. New pieces are so shiny! lol

[Windy City]

For this reason, I do think I'll soak the pieces in hot PDW for a bit before rinsing them and moving on the the sacrificial run. Maybe it's not needed, but I think it will give me a little peace of mind.

Nice to have an example of what the copper should look like for normal operation. New pieces are so shiny! lol

If you soak the parts in PBW overnight it will put a patina back on your copper.
I do this often as it seems to repatina it perfectly.

[Bee]

Just run it.

[Nagorg]

Just run it.

LOL... Thanks!

[shadylane]

Truth be told, Ya could have run the caps dirty and made liquor will they were being cleaned.
On a side note, I hate to say it but that's a terrible cap design.

[googe]

Never seen plates like that almost looks like some sort of chemical, petroleum contamination? What's the blue stuff on the rim of the plate? What sort of gaskets are you using? In reference to the question, yep I've always used citric acid, works great!

[Saltbush Bill]

yep I've always used citric acid, works great!

But your rich Goo, not like us poor folk that can only afford to use Backset or Dunder

[googe]

Lol sbb cit acid is cheap as chips, not a good comparison though as chips are bloody expensive now days! But it is cheap and dunder does works great

[googe]

On a side note, toothpaste works great to....

[Yummyrum]

yep I've always used citric acid, works great!

But your rich Goo, not like us poor folk that can only afford to use Backset or Dunder

Poor……… …..Short arms and deep pockets Salty
But you have a point .

150g Citric acid from Woolies is $5.00 . (But you can but it in bulk elsewhere )
A 10% solution would make 1.5 litres .

We literally dump 20-30litres of Dunder /backset each stripping run .

[Saltbush Bill]

Ive been called the " Man with death adders in his pockets" before Yummy......no offense taken...lol

[Copperhead road]

Ive been called the " Man with death adders in his pockets" before Yummy......no offense taken...lol