by EziTasting » Thu Sep 15, 2016 8:56 am
:laughing-rolling: this brings back memories!
Initially it was recommended to me to wash all the parts with warm soapy water to get all the grime & oils off. Then it is understood that you do a vinegar run (50/50 vinegar to water), after that, to get rid of the vinegar, you do a sacrificial (or sac) run...
Later I read a post by Mac where he said the vinegar run is for the guys building their own stills... but I found it educational. And it can't hurt to give to copper bits a good clean anyway.
The Sac run is where I learned the most (initially) about my still and, because you aren't going to drink the product, it doesn't matter if you goof it up! It will also get the vinegar out of your still so your first run will be clean... and that's always a good thing!
As for running, there's a post on how to run a bubbler still, it is easy to understand and follow - read it. Print it out and have it with you until you get it! Then get a couple of runs under your belt (TPW is the cheapest I think) for practice! We've been running ours for 6 months now and are still learning, but it's more of a fine tuning to each different wash... Take shedloads of notes!!! It'll help finetuning!!!
As for cleaning - heaps of posts on here; in summary it's up to you! Your making high ABV alcohol, there's nothing that sterilizes better than that... Most rinse the still out without necessarily deconstructing it... Again, it's up to you. Have a go, have a look, if you think it needs cleaning, clean it. Rum tends to be dirtier and would need more cleaning attention!
Hope that helps.
EDIT: as for filling, make sure your elements are covered! Otherwise you get this orange glow in your boiler :oops: . Which could cost you a heating element! We generally use 2 X 2400W elements to get a boil going (and for stripping) then turn off the top element and run the rest of the spirit run on just the lower element. We don't have a controller; MK2, erm .. 3 will have different elements and I want a controller for that so I can variate (?? If that is a word??) anywhere between 1200,2400,3600 and 4800 watts...