Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

long story short my brother decided to clean the copper saddles and ss saddles with vinegar.... they still smelt really foul but repacked the condensor anyway. the firs run was really horrible and put it aside to redistill at a later date the follwing run a couple days later came out alot better but still not quite right. have since got 2 packs of brand new copper saddles and decided to go for the ss scrubbers over the saddles. now the run i did last night the hearts came out fine but the tails were an off color almost a pale yellow green color. i rinsed the condensor as normal with clean cold water. i just had a look at the condensor and bottom scrubber is tarnished and has that horrid vinegar smell to it. i removed that scrubber the next one looks to be ok but the inside of the condensor looks to be corroded. any ideas on what i could do to get rid of the smell and to do something about the corrosion would be much appreciated. i am going to take the rest of the scrubbers out and copper saddles and check them now was just wondering on what i should be looking at doing next. a cleaning wash perhaps? :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:

just to ad i have the copper t500 condensor

G'Day Nathan,
the purpose of the vinegar is to clean the inside of your still, whatever make? model, from any gear greases/oils or corrosions and basically wash all the surfaces clean. The next run is usually a Sacrificial run because now your running high grade alcohol to remove any left over oils and the vinegar from your still.

Rather than putting new saddles or scrubbers, it might pay to rinse your still out with hot water and then repeat the cleaning runs until your happy with the cleanliness of the product you're making. I don't have a T500 and have never run one but something doesn't sound quite right - like someone took a short cut... and its now coming back on you.

In all seriousness, to do it right, start again by emptying your still of the saddles and scrubbers, rinse them off in hot water until that smell is gone. Then you can decide to either repeat the vinegar and sac runs OR do your first real run,

NB: the first run after the vinegar run is called a sacrificial run and should not ever be used for anything other than cleaning after a vinegar run! Don't drink that shyte, mate! It not good for you... :puke-huge:

Maybe poor a bicarb solution through it, or even soak it. If you've got vinegar that won't come out of your saddles and scrubbers reacting the vinegar with bicarb should make it more soluble and able to wash out easier. And hot water will do a far better job than cold water.

EziTasting wrote:G'Day Nathan,
the purpose of the vinegar is to clean the inside of your still, whatever make? model, from any gear greases/oils or corrosions and basically wash all the surfaces clean. The next run is usually a Sacrificial run because now your running high grade alcohol to remove any left over oils and the vinegar from your still.

Rather than putting new saddles or scrubbers, it might pay to rinse your still out with hot water and then repeat the cleaning runs until your happy with the cleanliness of the product you're making. I don't have a T500 and have never run one but something doesn't sound quite right - like someone took a short cut... and its now coming back on you.

In all seriousness, to do it right, start again by emptying your still of the saddles and scrubbers, rinse them off in hot water until that smell is gone. Then you can decide to either repeat the vinegar and sac runs OR do your first real run,

NB: the first run after the vinegar run is called a sacrificial run and should not ever be used for anything other than cleaning after a vinegar run! Don't drink that shyte, mate! It not good for you... :puke-huge:

have taken fully apart. cleaned saddles with citric acid the done the vinegar and bicarb. have also soaked the condenser in citric acid and boiling hot water twice then done the bicarb and vinegar rinse then rinse with water. it has come up really good. have repacked the condenser with new ss scrubbers.

will i need to do a sacrificial run or should it be good? :text-thankyoublue:

I would do a sac run, just to be on the safe side. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

TasSpirits wrote:I would do a sac run, just to be on the safe side. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

:text-+1:

TasSpirits wrote:I would do a sac run, just to be on the safe side. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

by doing a sacrificial run can i then re destill that alcohol? or just literally throw it out?

Yeap just keep it tucked away for the next time you need to do a sac run for cleaning. I'd suggest storing at or below 40% though for safety reasons.

You can either chuck it or keep it and use it as " Cleaning alcohol " for a future build or it you want to run a cleaning run at any time. Hope that makes sense.

thanks guys :text-thankyoublue: