External Cleaning Copper Wort Chiller

I am new to brewing and the forum with only a couple of batches under my belt. The forum has been a wealth of knowledge and it is time to make my first post.

The homemade immersion chiller I recently acquired was not used in a while and has green tarnish on a few of the coils. Does anyone know of a good cleaner that will take care of the tarnish without leaving a residue that will not make me blind in the process?

Thanks!

Boil it in some vinegar and water. A good soak in star san should clean it up too. Just remember to toss out the star san when you are done.

+1 on the vinegar or starsan soak. both are acids and will eat the green patina off, if you have a stubborn spot use some steel wool on it.

Since an IC gets thrown in the boil at 15 mins, how important is it to have all the 'patina' off? I have some greenish tinge around my solder joints that won't scrub off, I just leave it as is. Is that a problem?

if you scrub it use a green 3m pad don't use steel wool . +1 on starsan or vinegar will remove it.

The green stuff is toxic. You should try to get it off.

illin8 said:

Since an IC gets thrown in the boil at 15 mins, how important is it to have all the 'patina' off? I have some greenish tinge around my solder joints that won't scrub off, I just leave it as is. Is that a problem?

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try some emery cloth on it .

Regular "tarnish" and discoloration is fine and will come off in the boil. BUT, anything with a greenish color you DON'T want dissolving in your acidic wort. As McKBrew said, it is some vile stuff that isn't considered healthy.

Wow...been scouring the forum for about a year and never even heard of this. Point taken, thanks!

BTW...what causes this greenish tarnish?

illin8 said:

BTW...what causes this greenish tarnish?

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Oxidation. I've found if I clean the chiller quickly after brewing and store in a dry place, that I don't have any problems. The copper dulls in between uses, but that dull patina is actually good.

vinegar and baking soda then soak in star san

Agreed on the vinegar and waer boil, you will be suprised at how shiny it will come out.

I scrub mine with some Star San before each use. Gets it looking shiny and new!

I stopped boiling my coil all together because of the effect on the finish. The coil soaks in an ice & starsan solution while the wort boils instead now. Results in a beautiful clean coil and really helps crash the temp just a little faster

How often should I should soak my wort chiller in vinegar or StarSan? I did initially before my first use but since it's submerged in my boil. So I usually just spray the chiller down and then put in boil. I don't want to over clean the wort chiller.

I keep a 5 gallon bucket of starsan on brew days. Usually while the boil is going on I let the chiller soak until Im ready to use it. After Im done I dunk it back in there basically just to give it a quick rinse. Then I repeat process next batch.