Initial Wort Chiller Cleaning

Hi Guys, I'm new to the site so please forgive if this road has been tread before. I recently bought a Wort Chiller (copper/immersion). The included instructions say to clean it first with TSP or TSP/90 "to remove any manufacturing oils that may still be present on the copper". I picked up some TSP at Home Depot. Its for cleaning decks and siding and the box contians some harsh warnings against skin contact and ingestion. Is an initial heavy duty cleaning necessary? I'm not that comfortable using this sort of chemical on a food prep item. I have cleaned it well with dish soap and warm water already. The chiller looks clean to the naked eye with no visible oils. Other than routine sanitization, are any additional cleaning steps necessary prior to use?

I used PBW to clean mine. I usually just hose it off after using it, sometimes it may need to be scrubbed a little.

I use oxyclean . The one that is free of dyed and perfume. I believe it is called Free. I use it for all my cleaning.

Oxy Free or PBW are more friendly and there are TSP substitutes (ACE Hardware). TSP will work but do not let pets around it (they may try to drink it). TSP is not all that terrible but can chemically burn the skin with prolonged contact. Cleaning the chiller after use is harder. Best if you can find a bucket that you can put the chiller in after use. We no longer use one as we switched to a plate chiller (1000 times better) but when we did, we took out of the wort directly to soak in a bucket

TSP is probably unnecessary. if you already have some, might as well use it, but a 2 minute dip in some strong starsan would do the same thing.

TSP isnt any more dangerous than bleach or something like that. you still dont want it on you and should take more precautions than you would with regular dish soap, but its not going to kill you.

If it is a copper chiller, you can just clean it with some distilled vinegar. It should clean it up fine if you throw some on there and clean the coils for a couple minutes. That is all you should need.

I posted a while back that other than Star Sans and a wash off, I completely and boneheadly forget to clean it. I'm not enjoying the beer I first used the chiller in and it has no bad taste or oily sheen to it. Came out great. Guess I was lucky, huh?

PBW and StarSan would be my recommendations. PBW is great for removing stubborn gunk, and StarSan is an excellent way to renew the finish of the chiller (for anybody with a rustic looking chiller, try applying raw StarSan with an old rag - it'll shine brighter than the day you bought it!)

PBW - http://morebeer.com/view_product/16016//Cleaner_-_PBW_1_lb
StarSan - http://morebeer.com/view_product/5575//Star_San_-_4_oz

Cheers!

Thanks for all the help. I'm going to try PBW.

I like to use barkeepers friend on anything copper or stainless. I use PWB or oxyxlean for glass, plastic, vinyl, etc...

Am a first time brewer. Cleaned and sanitized everything. However, I did not clean the wort chiller. Put it in the wort the last 15 minutes of boil right out of the box, and forget to clean it before its first use. My questions is this: Did the oil on the chiller likely ruin the beer? Thanks Vince

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vincep said:

Am a first time brewer. Cleaned and sanitized everything. However, I did not clean the wort chiller. Put it in the wort the last 15 minutes of boil right out of the box, and forget to clean it before its first use. My questions is this: Did the oil on the chiller likely ruin the beer? Thanks Vince

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I did much the same, except I forgot to put my new chiller into the kettle while it was still boiling. I put it in right after flameout.

My beer came out just fine. Yours likely will too.