Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

hey all just wondering what people do to clean their copper components after running your still? at the moment I am just running a dunny brush through them with some clean water should I be washing them in a vinegar/water solution every time or is what I am doing fine
thanks for the help

Hey Dave,

I give my stainless steel boiler and my copper pot a bit of a scrub with warm dish washing detergent. The bits I can't reach, like the insides of the reflux column and condenser I flush with the dish washing liquid. Then I rinse everything three times with hot water from the tap.

About every 5 or so runs I'll do a run with 50/50 vinegar & water solution and then rinse three times with hot tap water.

I got that method from reading various posts on the forum, but there may be other methods that work just as well or better.

cheers mate I will do that sounds like the way to go

Depends on what your running and how frequently really.

If your doing the same type of wash back to back then you don't have to clean in between unless your still has sat for that long it has build up a heap of oxide crud/patina.

If your going from say rum to vodka your going to want to clean it in between. A good soak in a hot 2% citric acid solution will do the job nicely with a good rinse afterwards. Or a vinegar run will do the job as well.

Plenty of ways to clean a still, have a search on the forum for cleaning copper, some guys do it many different ways :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I just give mine a good flush out with tap water after every run. Flood all the plates.

I just give mine a good flush with foreshots by holding in full reflux. Unless doing neutral then I do vinegar run..

I'm pretty much with Bluc, I hardly clean mine at all..I do work from clear light flavoured spirits to dark full flavoured and then clean it before goin back to the light ones

tipsy wrote:I'm pretty much with Bluc, I hardly clean mine at all..I do work from clear light flavoured spirits to dark full flavoured and then clean it before goin back to the light ones

That’s the ideal scenario :handgestures-thumbupleft: