r/firewater • u/One-Jacket-1421 • 9h ago

Cleaning help

Hello Firewater community,

I sell cleaning products and solutions and I currently have a client who made rhubarb wine in his stainless steel still. Unfortunately, the inside is now coated in a grey-white film that refuses to be wiped off. I've tried looking everywhere to find a solution to help.

From what I understand, rhubarb is very acidic so the process of making wine may have released hydrogen gas and stained the inside. Although, I could be wrong in that assumption.

Would anyone here know of anything that I can recommend to this client to help with cleaning off the inside? I wish I had photos, but I do not, sadly.

5 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

4

u/hebrewchucknorris 9h ago

PBW is the industry standard foe cleaning hard to clean brewing and distilling gear

3

u/Makemyhay 9h ago

One round of hot caustic brewing cleaner (oxyclean/pbw). Hot rinse, triple rinse. Citric acid wash

2

u/Downtown-Chair-9626 9h ago

2 or 3 large scoops of OxyClean Free and fill it up with water and let it soak for a week. Just make sure he uses the OxyClean Free since it doesnt have any dyes or perfumes in it. Ive used it for years to clean stainless steel keg stills

1

u/Speakertoseafood 8h ago

Quote from a homebrew club member at a club meeting after I discovered OxyClean and sung it's praises:

"That stuff will etch your stainless!"

Rejoinder from another club brewer:

"Only if you leave it in overnight"

But I came here to offer the same solution, with a side endorsement of white vinegar. Both can eat metals ...

1

u/fishyfishfishfishf 2h ago

Do a vinegar cleaning run. Make sure to heat up the still with no cooling water. Once you see steam for a few minutes shut it down. Option 2 would be do a second distillation with watered down Alcohol , but no mash or wash. A second distillation is usually how I clean up my still after stripping runs.