RichBrewer

Recipes 

Vinegar definitely makes copper shine. I would give it a try.

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Rich

david_42

Recipes 

Hot 5% vinegar or dilute phosphoric acid.

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Ize

Recipes 

This little tidbit gave me a heads up. I probably wouldn't have realized that until of course I damaged the countertop.

Thanks man!

Ize

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AiredAle

Recipes 

You can run some white vinegar into it and let it sit, or dilute phosphoric acid as the Gabe suggested. Flush and take a look. If the green is gone, you're okay, otherwise repeat until gone. Rinse well, etc. Take a look at John Palmer's on line "How to Brew", I think he has a good section on cleaning brewery metals. I suspect the green stuff is copper phosphate formed by oxidation by the phosphoric acid in Star San.

I would clean it out before I ran wort through it, because it may dissolve in hot wort, I don't think you want this, because copper salts are toxic. The other possibility is that the sugars in wort will reduce the copper salt back to copper metal. I think this is the reason we get that nice clean copper surface when wort meets copper.

Hopfan

Recipes 

At least someone is learning from my mistakes. I did it twice!! Keep forgetting that there's a little drip down the side of the bottle after I pour.

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casebrew

Recipes 

Lime Away, or anyother Lime Dissolver, are made for removing metal oxides. Available at every place where better soaps are sold!

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So far, I've had more experience thinking than I've had brewing....you don't think they are mutually exclusive, do you?

57 batches so far,
33 wine, mostly Loquat, peach, plum, prickly pear
22 beers and ciders
1 sauerkraut
1 Tequila, from a prickly pear wine experiment that didn't work. I call it "Prickly Heat"

Sir Humpsalot

Recipes 

Arent metal oxides inert? Isn't that the point of a metal oxide? That it's stripping away spare electrons and stuff?

Furthermore, isn't a chemically inert surface desirable in brewing? Don't we all prefer SS kettles to aluminum? Wouldn't we all use a wort chiller made of gold if it were economically justifiable?

I'm just asking why the patina should even be bothered at all...

Reverend JC

Recipes 

Not sure if the paranoia was warrented or not, but a quick run of diluted vinegar and then some boiling water to sanitize and it was good to go. I just wont let him clean that thing anymore and there should be no more freak out on my part.

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AiredAle

Recipes 

Toot,

The green coating Reverend JC was concerned about wasn't an oxide. Copper oxides are black or red, not green. Some copper salts are used as insecticides, so I'd rather not have them in my beer. Also, while an oxide may be inert, some are soluble in acidic solutions, so you could end up with dissolved metal ions in said acidic solution, and again I don't want them in my beer for health and taste reasons. Copper oxides aren't an issue for us because they aren't soluble in wort, but are reduced back to metallic copper by the wort sugars, as I recall.

bummerkit

Recipes 

why are you so worried about the inside of your chilller?

the inside shouldnt affect your beer...