Old wort chiller

So I got my hands on a slightly used wort chiller (the style where the water flow through the copper) that had a fair amount of tarnish on it. I uncoiled it and scrubbed it down with a brillo pad, which helped considerably but far from the super shiny original copper. Will the residual tarnish damage the wort or should I not bother getting a copper polish and getting it super shiny?

Thanks!

See this
You certainly don't want to polish it unless you have friends that you want to dispose of.
-a.

normally mine gets all shinny while soaking in the star san solution while i do the boil

Mine gets all shiney when I put it in the boiling wort for the last 20 min.

brewhead said:

normally mine gets all shinny while soaking in the star san solution while i do the boil

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Huh?

Why sanitize an immersion chiller using starsan? Just drop it into your boiling pot about 15-20 minutes before the end of the boil and forget about it. Job done.

bikebryan said:

Huh?

Why sanitize an immersion chiller using starsan? Just drop it into your boiling pot about 15-20 minutes before the end of the boil and forget about it. Job done.

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I never drop mine in the kettle. If it has excess oxidation, I don't want that dissolved in the wort, but Star San (being acid) will remove the excess.

As I have a bucket of sanitizer available (it is needed to sanitize the fermenter and all the oher odds and ends), makes a lot od sense to me to use that.

I dread to think what would happen to the plastic tubes attached to the coil if I dumped it in the boiling wort.

-a.

Why sanitize an immersion chiller using starsan? Just drop it into your boiling pot about 15-20 minutes before the end of the boil and forget about it. Job done

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why drop it in 15 minutes b4 the end of the boil? i normally have a sink full of star san solution - why not use it? plus - when you pull your chiller out of storage what color is it? then when you pull it out of your wort - what color is it? wonder where all that grunge go? yer drinkin it! star san keeps my chiller shinny clean

it pretty much looks like the day i made it:

I agree with brewhead, you really don't want too much copper oxide in your ale. Metallic flavors can be iron (from water) OR copper and don't have a place in my beer.

david_42 said:

I agree with brewhead, you really don't want too much copper oxide in your ale. Metallic flavors can be iron (from water) OR copper and don't have a place in my beer.

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Actually, copper contains some great yeast nutrients. Yeah, you don't want too much gunk in there, but people can get way too anal about this sort of thing, too. People have been brewing great beer for centuries under conditions that are undoubtedly far less sanitary than the typical homebrewer's setup.

I give my chiller a good hot water rinse before and after use--it's pretty clean when it goes in the pot.

(DesertBrew contemplates all of the massive copper kettles in use at the macros...)

Yeah, you don't want too much gunk in there, but people can get way too anal about this sort of thing, too.

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i hear ya there...i usually have a tub of star san so it get's used throughout the brew day until i close up the brewhouse and the session is done