Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi all.
I've gone through loads of the threads and tried the search function, but found nothing definitive.
When you make up a citric acid wash to soak copper bits like pipes and saddles in, how much of the powdered acid do you recommend for about 5L of water?
Also, how long would you recommend I leave it in my T500 reflux still? I intend to pull all the packing out for a soak, but want to fill the column up for a clean as well.
Thanks.
Greg.

1 tsp per litre is the norm

My citric acis bucket has seen 2 packets of citric acid and still gets everything clean. I did hear years ago the greener the better for cleaning the copper, I just need to keep an eye on the evaporation as the bucket did get pretty low so I added another packet of citric acid and somemore water and it cleaned the fix on my bubbler nicely.

I used to put my copper from my T500 in a small/medium saucepan then put enough water to cover them and then some, put in about 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid and boil for about 5 minutes which did a pretty good job after rinsing well. Recently however, I’ve put my copper saddles in a 1 litre bottle with about a cup of white vinegar and about a tablespoon of table salt and shake the shit oughta it. Cleanest I have ever got them. As for cleaning your column, I think you’ll find it will leak around the black top when you turn it upside down and fill it. I have seen something on the internet about taping it up, but I couldn’t get it to seal with common insulation tape, maybe another type of tape will work, but I just rinse mine with water every now and then. I clean the stainless and copper saddles every 3 or 4 runs and after 4 runs, the copper is pretty black. Hope this helps.

Woods314 wrote:I used to put my copper from my T500 in a small/medium saucepan then put enough water to cover them and then some, put in about 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid and boil for about 5 minutes which did a pretty good job after rinsing well. Recently however, I’ve put my copper saddles in a 1 litre bottle with about a cup of white vinegar and about a tablespoon of table salt and shake the shit oughta it. Cleanest I have ever got them. As for cleaning your column, I think you’ll find it will leak around the black top when you turn it upside down and fill it. I have seen something on the internet about taping it up, but I couldn’t get it to seal with common insulation tape, maybe another type of tape will work, but I just rinse mine with water every now and then. I clean the stainless and copper saddles every 3 or 4 runs and after 4 runs, the copper is pretty black. Hope this helps.

May have got the amounts wrong with the salt and vinegar, probably not much more vinegar than is needed to cover the copper saddles and experiment with the salt as I just pour it in til I think it’s right, must have got it right tonight as that came out shiny as with FA shaking. Probably about a table spoon. Always fun doing this shit when ya half cut and can’t remember next time what the fuck ya did. :obscene-drinkingdrunk: one thing I did notice last time, I left the copper on my stainless bench to dry and they weren’t as shiny the next day, so this time I’ve put them on a cover glass to see if it was a reaction with the stainless or just the water left on them that dulled them.

Thanks all. I did my 4th run yesterday. The initial run was TurboWash but the next 3 were all TPWs. I noticed today, after 24hrs airing, that I can taste a very faint trace of something, even right in the middle of the hearts cuts, so I will strip the still down and give it a good clean.
It will be interesting to see what next week's run is like.
I have it worked out now. I only work a half-day each Friday, so that's my distilling day. My TPW takes 5 to 7 days to ferment out, so I always have 2 batches running. If I start it on Saturday, it ferments most of the week and then gets the rest of the following week to clear. I distill it Friday afternoon, clean the gear and put down another batch Saturday.
With mostly 200ml cuts I am getting 1 to 1.2L of hearts each run. It's very consistent, so I have started doing 100ml cuts at jar 3, 4, 9 & 10. So far, the heads and tails start to be noticeable right at these points so I can usually save a bit at each end.
Greg.

I have been brewing beer for many years with a break of about 6 or 8 years and I have found consistency was the go and I find it’s the same with what I do with distilling. This is not the same for probably most of the people on this forum as a lot, from what I have read, are always trying different things and have 2nd and 3rd generations etc. not to mention the fact that a 50 litre boiler seems to be a starting point giving a relatively large volume of distillate thus giving consistency by volume for want of a better phrase. But us t500 users need to be consistent to get the next 3 or 4 bottles tasting the same as the previous 3 or 4 bottles if that is what the aim is. So I have found that I use the same amount of boiling water to dissolve each wash, the same procedure for each wash and my small shed has an air conditioner to keep a steady temperature from start to finish of the fermentation process and I use whatever means necessary to keep my still running at a steady rate each time. And now I get to the point, I find the same thing that you do, Ravvin, the cuts are the same each time, the amount of distillate is almost identical each wash and if I keep the saddles clean, there are no off tastes in the hearts. On one occasion I went “tight arse” and used the cuts that were a bit iffy and realised my mistake the next day after a few too many the night before when I had flashbacks of the tastes that shouldn’t have been there and I had a similar experience by not cleaning the saddles. So when you get to where you want to be, be consistent and if you want to try a different flavour (read essence) in your neutral you can be sure that is the only change in flavour, not something else. It’s like tuning a carby, only change one thing at a time, otherwise you’re not sure which change made the improvement or made it worse. Finished my dribble, good luck!