Sorghumrunner Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 I've been using the CIP spray balls and a caustic copper wash from Loffler chemicals for cleaning my 400 L copper Hoga potstill. That works well on the hat and the pot, but I'm not able to properly clean the worm and the swan's neck. I was thinking I could hook the output of my pump up to the output of the worm and pump hot cleaning solution back through the worm, into the swans neck and then recirc it in the pot. But I'm not sure what type of fitting is used on the parrot and the swans neck, it seems like 1.25", but doesn't seem to be NPT. What are y'all doing to clean the worm and swans neck? Anyone know what type of union type fittings those are? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mendodistilling Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 The heads work pretty well, hot water, clean after distillation before it cools off. You can use wire brushes as long as they are made for copper, some are too stiff and will scratch up the copper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mendodistilling Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 You can pump it back wards too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sorghumrunner Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 So, I haven't been having problems with the pot, but am trying to clean the condenser coils and swans neck. I was trying to figure out what type of fitting is used on the parrot connection and the two connections the lyne arm/swans neck uses. They are unions, and don't seem to be NPT. I was gonna attach a triclamp fitting to them, fill the pot with hot caustic cleanser, and backflush the condenser coils and swans neck, recirculating through there. I figured that would work pretty well, though it would just be liquid flowing through, not beating on the copper the way the spray balls do. Probably doesn't need to be done as seriously as in the pot where solids can bake on, but I don't want residue building up. Anyway, trying to figure out what type of fitting that is, or some other way to clean those pipes. You can pump it back wards too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ned Posted July 29, 2014 Share Posted July 29, 2014 We've got the Iberian stills and the worms were truly a puzzle: no easy adapters and so long there's too much friction to get any sort of brush through them. As near as I can figure, the fittings on the stills are BPT (British Pipe Thread) so you won't easily find a fitting to match here. If you've got a spare fitting (or get one from Hoga) you could braze up an adapter to take you from BPT to NPT to tri-clamp pretty easily. We clean the worm on its own using a chugger pump from a home-brew shop hooked up to draw from a reservior (bucket) at the outlet of the worm then feeding in to the top of the worm with a hose with the end trimmed to fit inside the pipe. The chugger moves a lot of liquid so we get good filling of the pipe but doesn't move it at such a rate that it's going to want to walk the feed hose out of the top of the worm. We just loop it like that with Birko's BRU R EZ and then follow that with acid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sorghumrunner Posted July 29, 2014 Author Share Posted July 29, 2014 We've got the Iberian stills and the worms were truly a puzzle: no easy adapters and so long there's too much friction to get any sort of brush through them. As near as I can figure, the fittings on the stills are BPT (British Pipe Thread) so you won't easily find a fitting to match here. If you've got a spare fitting (or get one from Hoga) you could braze up an adapter to take you from BPT to NPT to tri-clamp pretty easily. We clean the worm on its own using a chugger pump from a home-brew shop hooked up to draw from a reservior (bucket) at the outlet of the worm then feeding in to the top of the worm with a hose with the end trimmed to fit inside the pipe. The chugger moves a lot of liquid so we get good filling of the pipe but doesn't move it at such a rate that it's going to want to walk the feed hose out of the top of the worm. We just loop it like that with Birko's BRU R EZ and then follow that with acid. Cool, thanks Ned. I'll need to get back in touch with Armindo, at least get the fitting size. Could probably rig some sort of conversion thread from BPT to tri clamp fitting. any reason you don't just recirc from the worm to the lyne arm to the pot? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ned Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 We use thumpers so it's not a straight connection from the worm through the lyne to the head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mendodistilling Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 din fitting maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Telluride Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 You could hook up a simple steam generator and clean it that way, i posted an economical way to build a simple steam generator on the continuous still thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salishseaorganicliqueurs Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 We'll simply be running a cleaning distillation using a mixture of water and citric acid. Works pretty well from the other Alembic users I've talked to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tipk99 Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 Hey Salish, What concentration of Citric Acid do you use for your cleaning run? Thanks Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salishseaorganicliqueurs Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 Hi tipk99, We've been using a ratio of roughly 1 cup of citric acid per 5 gallons of water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tipk99 Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrick260z Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 Just a question, being as I don't have a hoga. Is it a foam up issue dirtying the swan neck? When cleaning with a brush and citric isn't there a concern of copper scoring and metal removal limiting the age of your still? Have heard that aggressive cleaning can shorten a stills life to a couple of decades, where as gentle cleaning can lead to almost a century of use. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteB Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 I agree with Patrick. Why do you want to clean it? Unless it has puked or you are changing to a very different flavor. The foreshots and heads of the next run are great cleaners. Let your still build some of its own unique character. Also in my opinion a little bit of charr on the bottom of the still is good. It can give the spirit a slight smokey (not burnt) taste. I do like peat smoked whiskies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mendodistilling Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 Send hoga a message BC I've found them to be very helpful. Especially if you need tubing fitting size info. I use 7 grams per gallon for washing / rinsing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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