Wort chiller leak

Name says it all... The copper crimped and water from the hole in the copper got in the wort at 120*. Anyone else have this issue? I have no idea how clean the inside of the copper was.....

If you haven't pitched yet I would say bring it back to a boil for a few minutes. If you have, RDWHAHB the damage, if any, is already done. You still have a good chance of coming out of this with no problems.

ejf063 said:

Name says it all... The copper crimped and water from the whole in the copper got in the wort at 120*. Anyone else have this issue? I have no idea how clean the inside of the copper was.....

Click to expand...

this is scary. Any ideas how it happened? Was there a lot of strain on the copper line for some reason?

I wouldn't worry too much. People add straight non-chlorinated tap water to fill up partial-boil extract batches all the time. Your chiller had clean water running through it fora bit before the break, I presume?, and there were no sugars inside it to aid bacterial growth. It's probably ok.
If you are really worried, bring it up to a pasteurization temp again (180F for even 1 second) and then cool with a water bath and pitch.

So, what I was going to do was raise the temp back to 180, as suggested but then I said "F it". I really didn't say "F".... I was running out of time. After turning up the heat, it got back up to like 140* and I figured that since the ic was in the wort throughout the boil, whatever may have been in there died a long time ago.... So I moved the hose over the crimp and turned on the water. It sucks cuz I had 7 oz. of hops up in there. That will add up. AND I could have fixed my issue without contamination. See, I saw a slow leak coming from under the hose, I believe it happened as a result of an over tightened clamp. The water was dripping on the floor and safely away from the wort. Instead of trouble shooting with the water off, the dumb ass over here tried with the water on. So I adjusted the hose, which made the ic shift, then the water just sprayed out of the hole, right into to wort. I immediately thought, get the temp up, which I started to do.... Then I thought all those hops would essentially be bittering hops even at 170-180*. and that's when I just said.... Well, you see.
I will post the results.... The only other issue is that I pitched washed yeast from March. It's old, i know. my original plan, Plan A, didn't work. So I opted for Plan B. old yeast and no starter. Not too worried about that tho..... Anyway, for anyone else who has had a major equipment malfunction like this and is or will be too rushed to properly troubleshoot, hopefully they can learn from my mistake.
Thanks for the replies. I would still like to hear from anyone who had a similar issue. Six weeks is a long time to wait to see if I ruined it.

I wouldn't worry too much. I had the end pop off from the pressure and water slashed into the cooling wort. That same 10 gallons of beer was drank in 3 hours at our annual Low Country Boil.

djonesax said:

I wouldn't worry too much. I had the end pop off from the pressure and water slashed into the cooling wort. That same 10 gallons of beer was drank in 3 hours at our annual Low Country Boil.

Click to expand...

Great. Thanks for the reassurance. I read on one of these forums that when a mishap takes place one freaks out. But after 3 or 4 cold ones, the problem doesn't seem as bad as originally thought. That's where I am right now.

Brew on

ejf063 said:

Great. Thanks for the reassurance. I read on one of these forums that when a mishap takes place one freaks out. But after 3 or 4 cold ones, the problem doesn't seem as bad as originally thought. That's where I am right now.



Brew on

Click to expand...

I used an immersion chiller for the first time today. Turns out that the clamps weren't terribly tight (despite having tested them!) and I got some spray in my wort before I was able to tighten them up.

I'm not overly concerned, to be honest. I'm sure we'll both be fine!

Copper is fairly antibacterial, it is what is used on the bottom of boats to keep the growth off. You will be fine.

ejf063 said:

Great. Thanks for the reassurance. I read on one of these forums that when a mishap takes place one freaks out. But after 3 or 4 cold ones, the problem doesn't seem as bad as originally thought. That's where I am right now.

Brew on

Click to expand...

That's really good. We should come with an acronym for that.