I am not sure of the speed of the distilled vinegar process - I soaked in a 5% solution (straight from the gallon jug of the stuff, which is labeled as 5%) for about an hour and upon scrubbing with a blue scrubby, I found no discernible difference occurring, so I dumped it and rinsed repeatedly and am now soaking my BK in PBW for the second day. I am pretty sure it will peel off the beerstone, but I have BKF at the ready, if the PBW falls short...