Stupid: Wort chiller extinguishes turkey fryer

So, I was boiling up a batch of wort the other day, my first all grain batch and my first with the crappy chiller I made. I had cleaned the pipe out earlier wit star san and there was still water inside it. You know where this is going... That's right, I put it in the boil with the water still inside, and it boiled over and spouted out the end and dripped down straight into the flame, thusly extinguishing it.

The flame went out and I, well, ended the boil early. I didn't realize it, but there was actually quite a bit of wort left in the burner. In the cup of the burner, if you know what I mean. It took me a week to figure this out (dark basement), and now my question is, how do I clean this out? I don't see too much residue. Will this burner rust? Anytime there's propane involved I'm a little nervous.

Thanks,

Alex

Consider yourself lucky that it only extinguished your flame. I've had steaming hot water come flying out of my immersion chiller. I make it a practice to aim the connection ends away from me when I put it in the kettle.

Here's what I think happened. You dunked the copper IC into the boiling wort. The small amount of water that remained inside instantly boiled and some of it along with some steam shot out of the tubing. Meanwhile, the copper coil near instantaneously conducted a lot of heat into the wort and that resulted in the boil over. Copper is a really, really good conductor of heat. Be careful with the water in the chiller syndrome. It's mighty easy to get burned that way. Been there! Otherwise, shut the burner off (or turn it to very low) before you put the chiller or anything else into the kettle, including hops. You can resume heating without worry soon after.

Take your burner apart and soak it in hot water. Wire brush any major rust. Minor rust I don't worry about.

Catt22 said:

Here's what I think happened. You dunked the copper IC into the boiling wort. The small amount of water that remained inside instantly boiled and some of it along with some steam shot out of the tubing. Meanwhile, the copper coil near instantaneously conducted a lot of heat into the wort and that resulted in the boil over. Copper is a really, really good conductor of heat.

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Thanks. I gathered that much, especially since I watched it happen. I actually knew it would come out but I thought it would just be steam. Im glad that I can clean the burner though that's good to know.

Pipe cleaners would probably work pretty well for the small burner holes. I imagine the temps would burn off most of the residue so long as the holes are clear enough for the propane to get through.