Green Spirit

[Sam.]

I'll take the green FSW off your hands though :greetings-waveyellow:

It's coming clear now mate, but I can send you the heads if you want :teasing-neener:

[Geko]

I work in water treatment and about a year ago I sold an organic filter to a customer to remove tannins from his water which was being pumped out of a dam. The coconut carbon in the filter had a side effect of lowering the ph of his water resulting in copper being leached from his pipework and green deposits in sinks and basins etc. Further research told me that water with a ph level below 6.5 will start to leach copper from pipes. I supplied him with calcite filter to neutralize the ph and his problem was gone. I for one dont trust those ph test strips. Im betting that your feints have a higher ph than your wash which is why they are coming out clean. Its probably not good practice to leave backset in your boiler for a week either....

[Urrazeb]

I work in water treatment and about a year ago I sold an organic filter to a customer to remove tannins from his water which was being pumped out of a dam. The coconut carbon in the filter had a side effect of lowering the ph of his water resulting in copper being leached from his pipework and green deposits in sinks and basins etc. Further research told me that water with a ph level below 6.5 will start to leach copper from pipes. I supplied him with calcite filter to neutralize the ph and his problem was gone. I for one dont trust those ph test strips. Im betting that your feints have a higher ph than your wash which is why they are coming out clean. Its probably not good practice to leave backset in your boiler for a week either....

Yeah not good practice I know :oops: I have been doing it this way for a few years now and it's never been a problem.

Think this recurring green shit may be the kick I need to improve my processes. Backset left for a week is nothing, have had it in there for quite a bit longer than that before :shhh:

I have some tpw and two seperate rum washes ready, going for a long steam clean and then I'll run the tpw Friday. If the green comes back then I don't know what I'm gonna do... cleaned the still, boiler, adjust washes... I seem to have covered everything ~x(

[P3T3rPan]

Lots of water in the downcommer traps if you don't turn your still upside down to dry
Patinates to green copper oxide very quickly

[Urrazeb]

Lots of water in the downcommer traps if you don't turn your still upside down to dry
Patinates to green copper oxide very quickly

Thats a very good point PP! :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Sam.]

Just went to try some cuts on the green tainted run :puke-huge:

In the feints it goes. Did you keep any of your green tainted spirit Urrazeb?

[Urrazeb]

Just went to try some cuts on the green tainted run :puke-huge:

In the feints it goes. Did you keep any of your green tainted spirit Urrazeb?

Nah I turfed it, well most anyway.

The last two runs I did was not completely tainted through the whole run so it sort of worked as a heads indicator. I'll age it and have a drink, if it gives me any problems it's going on the weeds :handgestures-thumbdown:

Just ran a steam run and the condensate came out clean, going to charge up with some TPW for friday and see how that goes, if it's good then I'll try another UJ and see if it is in fact the wash.

The last thing I want is for it to just go away and not have an answer to the problem, I'd like to know what causes it so I can avoid in the future

[AndyCapp]

G'day All,

I can't help thinking that the search for the problem is focusing on the wrong end of the still.

From my understanding of chemistry, metal compounds don't evaporate readily, so any corrosion products from the boiler or column are not going to appear in the distillate unless carried over by a puke or some such.

So by my reasoning, you are looking for compounds forming in the condensation path and washing down into your collection jar. Thus the places to look are from the top bend, to the condenser and the parrot.

Now for a couple of dumb questions:

1) Have you also cleaned the liquid path of you still? Have you checked the bottom of your parrot? (the lowest point)
2) Do you have any scrubbers in your condenser or in the bottom of your parrot that are breaking down?

Cheers,
Andy

[Sam.]

During that last run I even too off my copper parrot and it was coming out with the green tinge from the still.

When pulled down and washed the cleanest part of the still was from the RC up and over the bend.

The walls of the T pieces where the plates are were filthy, even after going through the dishwasher a wipe out was needed and some more greenish brown shit came off. Wonder if that is your problem Urrazeb? Have you cleaned the T pieces out as well or just the plates?

[Urrazeb]

Wonder if that is your problem Urrazeb? Have you cleaned the T pieces out as well or just the plates?

Yeah I had the same film S&L, needed a wipe out. I fully dismantled the still including plates and cleaned each and every part including seals and glasses, absolutely everything got some action.

I initially approached the issue with an open mind and just started ticking things off as they were ruled out.

All I have left now is the UJ wash (Corn? Preservatives?)

But if I run tomorrow and the rum comes out green then I am going to be at wits end with it ~x(

I got another straight gen 1 UJ on as a bit of a tester, heater holding 25C also got some TPW to run as well as some rum. I'll update results after the weekend either way.

There is no copper mesh in the path. Plates and caps are all the copper.

Cooling water is cool, bottles/still/boiler are clean, the green is only smeared in the start of the run (approx 5-7 300ml bottles)

[MacStill]

dolomite ? :think:

[pulsetech]

dolomite ? :think:

My Kids have those with the commonwealth bank

But in all seriousness it is a great neutralizer and should work well after a citric bath.

[Urrazeb]

Yeah I use dolomite to bring the sourmash (UJ) to 5.5 before pitching yeast but did not use it for neutralising the plates.

Surely after so many runs the still would be neutral by now? I do not beleive it is the still because I have ran feints and they came out clear. If it was the still I would have a consistent result no matter what was ran.

Got a rum in for todays run... :pray:

[MacStill]

Even if it was the still mate I cant see how it'd color the spirit for so many runs, your copper mesh is from a different source than mine too so doubt it's that either..... which brings us back to most logical point of what's going in the boiler :think:

I want to know the answer as much as you do mate, I didnt know what dolomite was until I looked this morning and it's kind of the only thing you're doing different but I'm still not 100% on what dolomite consists of (just dont have the time to read all the info I found) and will have a better look later on.

:think:

[TheMechwarrior]

Do you by chance have a second still that you could run identical washes through?
Perhaps a mate nearby?

[Urrazeb]

Do you by chance have a second still that you could run identical washes through?
Perhaps a mate nearby?

I recently sent my pot off over east but... there is a guy across the road who runs a T500, I just haven't talked to him yet, only his Mrs. Might be time to meet the neighbors :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Mac, there is/was no mesh in the path with all but one of these runs, and I checked with the supplier and it is in fact pure copper, I'm leaning towards the wash.

I might leave the dolomite out and adjust with a food product, I just never had an issue with it before :angry-banghead:

It seems either it comes off at or with high ABV or is only visible at high ABV or it only comes off at the start of the run

[Urrazeb]

Ok so running a rum now... no green in sight and smells like it should :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I hope its just the corn.. thats an easy fix.

[MacStill]

Ok so running a rum now... no green in sight and smells like it should :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I hope its just the corn.. thats an easy fix.

I asked about the corn source earlier, reason being depending on it's purpose it's treated with all sorts of nasty shit ;-)

But, I'm not convinced that's the reason.

[Smbjk]

Was your rum wash one large ferment split into 5 washes or 5 separate generations. Maybe the problem was in the first wash and each generation after the problem just continues :think: do you put your still through the dishwasher maybe the dishwasher powder and rinceaid could be a problem with the copper plates

[Urrazeb]

Rum was from a 200l gen 1 and another unknown gen 25L topped up with wash from the 200L, the unknown gen was not green but the one from the 200 was.

I ran a uj I put down last week as another test (mostly to see if it's the corn) and it was a textbook run, nice clean hearts, some good flavours in the early tails and no green in sight.

I think that cancels out the corn.. I will run the rum from the 200L again and see if its green, it may just be the batch/s? So far it I have narrowed it down to the two washes in the 200L drums, but will confirm once I do another run from each.

I really hope it just doesn't go away without getting to the bottom of it.. :snooty: