Immersion Chiller Sanitation

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zfite731

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Question... If i am going to use an immersion chiller to cool my wort after the boil, I am assuming that the entire copper tubing must be sanitized before dropping it into the wort? What is the best way to make sure that it is completely sanitized? Do you spray it? Drop it in another large bucket/kettle with sanitizer?

I still have a lot to learn from you veterans!

Thanks in advance.
 
I have never sanitized my immersion chiller, I simply set it in the boil appx 5 mins before flame out, this sanitizes it.
 
I have always just let it soak in my sanitizer bucket until i need it. I use like a 3-5 gallon bucket and just soak anything i need sanitized.

I was home with my brother brewing a Farmhouse Ale this weekend and he wanted to drop his chiller in the boil for the last 5 minutes to sanitize it rather than just soak it in sanitizer.

Turns out the vinyl tubing couldn't stand the heat conducted by the copper pipe. The tubing expanded and got really really soft. When we hit the water to chill it, the tubing had gotten so soft due to the heat, the tubing leak hose water in the the beer.

I will never again drop a chiller in the boil, just let that baby soak in the sanitizer until you need it. I have a spray bottle to get the nooks and crannies but splashing it around would probably do the same
 
There is no need to sanitize it - the boiling wort does that for you.

Just clean it thoroughly before you use it, and make sure that it is fully rinsed. Drop it in your wort with fifteen minutes left in the boil, and you are golden.
 
I have always just let it soak in my sanitizer bucket until i need it. I use like a 3-5 gallon bucket and just soak anything i need sanitized.

I was home with my brother brewing a Farmhouse Ale this weekend and he wanted to drop his chiller in the boil for the last 5 minutes to sanitize it rather than just soak it in sanitizer.

Turns out the vinyl tubing couldn't stand the heat conducted by the copper pipe. The tubing expanded and got really really soft. When we hit the water to chill it, the tubing had gotten so soft due to the heat, the tubing leak hose water in the the beer.

I will never again drop a chiller in the boil, just let that baby soak in the sanitizer until you need it. I have a spray bottle to get the nooks and crannies but splashing it around would probably do the same

The chiller should have been made with different tubing. Do a search on this, boiling is by far the most common method of sanitizing a copper immersion chiller.
 
You don't need 15 minutes. You need about a minute at boiling to pasteurize the chiller. It doesn't hurt to do it with 15 minutes remaining. Just get it in there near the end of the boil between those last hop additions and all that extract.
 
I bought a piece of radiator hose from a parts store for the outgoing tubing on my chiller, no issues with that whatsoever, it's obviously made to withstand high temps.
 
Boiling with all that copper tubing doesn't impart some metallic flavors? Is a stainless steel Ic better? I'm sure it doesn't matter, since everyone does it, but just wondering...
 
Copper conducts heat much much better than SS does thus it is much better for use as a heat exchanger. It doesn't impart any flavor to the beer. It is the same copper that's used in household plumbing
 
Copper is also antimicrobial and doesn't form slime easily. There isn't a lot of research on the relationship between copper and beer-related microbes, but it is a common metal for fermenters.
 
So basically SS IC's are garbage?
Or should I say inferior?

No, that's nonsense. Copper tends to be a little cheaper than SS and easier to work with, hence all the copper chillers.

Also, soaking your chiller in your Star San bucket can only help. I do that and then plunk it in the hot wort.

Rick
 
chungking said:
So basically SS IC's are garbage?
Or should I say inferior?

No. They are certainly not garbage and I don't think inferior. I find it very hard to believe that an equivalent surface area of ss vs copper will do an inferior job. The tube walls are only 1/16" thick. The heat transfer is good with both.

As far as anti microbial, I'm not sure how different the two materials are. Basically, what you want is a hard, non-porous material, which they both are.

If someone can show me legitimate results showing that a copper IC works better than a ss IC, I'll eat my hat. I'm guessing people know that copper transfers heat better, so they think it works better, and take anecdotal evidence as gospel. I've never known of someone being dissatisfied with a ss chiller and being thrilled with their new copper chiller.

My two cents.
 
I'm no metalurgist but the main reason most ics are copper is because its/was cheaper and easier to work with. I built my own a few years ago for about 20 bucks, was super easy to coil it around, don't think i would've had such an easy time with ss.
 
First a fore most, always take teh time to clean your equipment. Second, it is hard for bacteria to grow on metalic surfaces, especialy copper. I normaly dip SS wort chiller in saitize, star san, to give it a quick cleaning and a rinse. Then i just stick the chiller into the kettle and begin cooling. I never boil it or do anything special as once it hits the wort it is pretty much instantly sanitized.
 
The difference between SS and Copper as far as cooling time is probably negligible. They can make the SS ones thinner because steel is stronger, and the thinner metal makes up for the difference. I recently cooled 3 gallons from boiling to 63 degrees in 10 minutes using stainless (granted it was 35 degrees outside and the ground water in Michigan this time of year is pretty cold).

I am very happy with my SS IC. Also, as far as I know you can't use StarSan on copper (it will dissolve it), not a problem with a stainless chiller. Not really necessary, as others have said you can just put it in the boil, but I think it's nice to be able to give it a quick dunk if you don't think to put it in the pot in time.
 
Copper tends to be a little cheaper than SS and easier to work with, hence all the copper chillers.

I'm not sure how true that statement is. I ended up getting a SS immersion chiller because it was 25 bucks cheaper than a comparable copper one.
 
The price of copper has skyrocketed lately. This isn't a big surprise. I'll bet the last two posters got their ss chillers in the last two years?
 
The difference between the metals is negligible on our end. I'm a machinist, I deal with SS and copper a lot. Copper is much easier to work with and transfers heat way better than SS; however like someone above said the walls on SS are thinner and this equals them out. SS is much more resistant to high heat, salt, corrosion, and damage (like scratches and gouges) than copper, but again, to us home brewers, we'll never have to worry about these factors. In the long run, SS will start to oxidize and rust, especially if you use a lot of OxyClean and let it sit for a while.

Anyway my point is they both have their pros and cons, but to us homebrewers, neither one is any better or worse.

I made my own immersion chiller; I made it out of copper because there is no way you would see me wrestling 30 feet of stainless tubing.
 
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