How do I clean copper HERMS coil?

So I got some free copper tubing from my father in-law. I think it will make a nice HERMS coil. I coiled it around a cornie keg and it fits nicely in my HLT. It has been sitting outside for like 20 years so it's really dirty. Is there anything I can soak it in to make it shine?
Thanks

I'd put it in a bucket full of double strength starsan for a while making sure the interior fills up as well.

I'd soak it in a cleaner first, like oxy clean (make sure to completely submerge though, in my experience you'll have rings of the nasty green stuff around where it sticks out of the solution if you don't), or maybe pbw. Then thoroughly rinse and soak in star-san as suggested by Bobby. You'll probably have to take a buffing pad to it if it's not shiny enough for you after that, but it should be sanitary.

Thanks guys. Oxy Clean soak is under way. After a few hours I'll soak it in some Star-San. I'll post an after pic later.

the acidic nature of starsan will take the tarnish (oxidation) off. as will vinegar, or any other acid. oxyclean, which is basically hydrogen peroxide and some detergents, will not really remove oxidation on copper.

edit: didnt see your post before i hit submit. if you are doing it anyway, please let us know what the oxyclean does to the finish. ive heard people say "no! dont use oxyclean on copper!" supposedly due to similar reasons you dont use it on aluminum... from what ive seen this is not true, but im interested to see what happens here none the less.

I use bar keepers friend on copper. It has oxalic acid. Acid is the way to go. A strong starsan solution could work.

I don't think oxyclean is a good idea but what do I know?

Oxyclean didn't do anything to the tarnish, so I went straight to Brasso and elbow greese. It's working great but it's a lot of work. Thanks for all of the input guys!

One more quick pic. I think it's going to make a nice free HERMS coil! I plan on soldering 90 degree elbows and then male threaded adapters and putting that directly through the wall of the keggle. Does that sound like it would work?

What about the inside? For a HERMS, aren't you pumping wort through it? Who cares what the outside looks like. Now that the outside is clean I would think it would be hard to gauge how a cleaning solution was working on the tarnish inside.

I don't know about the inside. I'm thinking maybe ill fill it up with vinegar and let it soak for a while then pump hot water through it.

As stated above, starsan works well.

AdamCanFly said:

I don't know about the inside. I'm thinking maybe ill fill it up with vinegar and let it soak for a while then pump hot water through it.

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Well.........I'd be more concerned about the inside than the outside. True, the outside will sit in water in your HLT, but the inside is where the wort will go. I'd work a lot harder on the inside and maybe just dunk the outside in a bit of star-san if it being shiny is important.

To clean the inside of mine (installed), I use PBW and water and recirculate through my system. I sometimes (not often) follow that with an acid rinse. But for a first time use, I'd definitely do a PBW (alkalai) wash, a big rinse, and then an Acid #5 (acid) wash, and a big rinse.

Sounds good. Ill try that once I get the system up and running.

What do y'all think about the idea of soldering elbows and and male threaded adapters to go through the side of the keggle?

you should be more concerned about the inside, and the build up of verdigris, that blue green tarnish found on copper. It dissolves readily in solutions with a pH below 6...i.e. beer. It is a good idea to pump some star-san or other low pH solution through your copper coil for a few (10-20min) before brewing.

According to John Palmer in How to brew this stuff can be toxic...

Star San alone would have done it... works awesome

As others have said, the inside is more important than the outside, and a quick soak in any mild acid (star-san, vinegar, etc) will make quick work of the tarnish on both the inside and outside. When you see how fast and easy it works you'll kick yourself for all that scrubbing you did with brasso.

Did the Brasso leave any residue on the coil? If so you don't want that in your HLT if you use that water for mashing too.

So what do y'all think about the idea of soldering elbows and male threaded adapters to the ends and screwing the valves directly to it? Of course I would use washers and gaskets. I'm asking because I've never seen anybody do it this way. Everyone uses the swedgelock (sp?) fittings.

Thanks for all of the input about the inside of the coil.

And no the brasso didn't leave any residue.

AdamCanFly said:

So what do y'all think about the idea of soldering elbows and male threaded adapters to the ends and screwing the valves directly to it? Of course I would use washers and gaskets. I'm asking because I've never seen anybody do it this way. Everyone uses the swedgelock (sp?) fittings.

Thanks for all of the input about the inside of the coil.

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My preference is to use a compression to make that connection. My current HERMS is set up like POL's cooler HERMS- the coil goes through the lid of the cooler.

White vinegar, citric acid.....easiest source of the latter is the "Lemi-Shine" product sold at Wal-Mart. It works. You may have to dunk something that tarnished several times to purty it up, but work it will.

Welp, hopefully he got it all cleaned up....three months ago

Vinegar/water bath. what would a good mix ratio be? seems the wortcooler coil got left outside since the last brew... umm... to long ago. nice a tarnished from rain, sun, temp changes... poor thing looks like its a dark brown metal. its a standard dunk type and the cold water is pumped through it.