Cleaning a Copper Wort Chiller

[Tiki_Jud]

A friend gave me a much improved Wort Chiller, however it is older and "tarnished". I have boiled it clean a couple of times but still not shiny. Is there something or a trick to cleaning a copper Wort Chiller? Do I really need to clean it I put it in the wort while still before Flame Out?
Cheers in advance.

 

[GuldTuborg]

It doesn't need to be shiny to work properly. Just clean.

In use, you do want to put it in the wort several minutes before chilling. This is to sanitize the chiller to prevent unwanted microorganisms from getting started before your yeast does.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Shiny doesn't matter. Clean and sanitized, depending on when put into brew kettle, does.

Most put the wort chiller into the brew kettle before flame out to sanitize it.

Otherwise, dip the wort chiller into sanitizing solution and then put the wort chiller into the wort.

No need to worry about the inside of the tubes since 1. The wort isn't on the tube inside and 2. Tube insides only have water.

 

[lumpher]

I put my chiller in about 20 to 30 minutes before flameout as a routine. When I’m done with it, I hose it off and store it. Before I use it again, I hose it off before I put it in the boiling wort. Seems to have worked great for over a decade. That’s all I do with it, but I’m an uncouth savage...

 

[bruce_the_loon]

When you say tarnished, do you mean #2 or #3 in the picture below?

If it's #2, that's fine. Copper will do that after a while and beyond repeated treatment with acids which eat away at the oxide layer to reveal bright copper underneath, there isn't much that can be done.

If it's #3, then you do need to clean it off. That's corrosion, not tarnish, and the best way to sort it is to soak it in an acid bath like white grape vinegar. Find the cheapest one you can and work in a ventilated area as vinegar isn't fun to breathe. You can scrub it with a mixture of salt and vinegar, enough salt to make a paste, to take most of the corrosion off before soaking for a couple of hours in vinegar or until it is shiny. Some online guides also suggest adding salt to the vinegar bath to help speed the process up.

 

[Tiki_Jud]

Bruce, thanks for the comparison. Mine is #2 issue. I put it in the kettle with about 10 minutes left to boil, and always hose off, wipe down and spray with StarSans after use. I will keep up this method.
Cheers

 

[dwhite60]

Bacteria don't last long on copper. They used to use copper in hospitals for door knobs, railings, other things people touched, because bacteria don't survive contact with it.

As long as there's no build up on it you're good.

https://news.arizona.edu/story/copper-kills-harmful-bacteria-ua-researchers-find

 

[McKnuckle]

Collect your warm run-off water during chilling into a bucket. When you're done chilling, pull the IC out and drop it in the bucket. This is all I do with my chiller to clean it.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Collect your warm run-off water during chilling into a bucket. When you're done chilling, pull the IC out and drop it in the bucket. This is all I do with my chiller to clean it.

Same here. But because I store mine uncovered in the garage I give it a quick spray with the hose before I drop it into the kettle with about 15 minutes to go in the boil.

 

[DosGatosBrewing]

I throw a handful of Scent Free OxyClean in my chiller runoff water for cleaning. Drop the chiller in that hot water and hit it with one of those dish scrubbers--think the plastic version of steel wool. It will get as shiny as you have patience for.
But, as many have already stated, you don't really need to to do all that. When you drop in in boiling wort next time, it will be sanitized, so a decent rinse and wipe is enough

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

When you say tarnished, do you mean #2 or #3 in the picture below?

If it's #2, that's fine. Copper will do that after a while and beyond repeated treatment with acids which eat away at the oxide layer to reveal bright copper underneath, there isn't much that can be done.

If it's #3, then you do need to clean it off. That's corrosion, not tarnish, and the best way to sort it is to soak it in an acid bath like white grape vinegar. Find the cheapest one you can and work in a ventilated area as vinegar isn't fun to breathe. You can scrub it with a mixture of salt and vinegar, enough salt to make a paste, to take most of the corrosion off before soaking for a couple of hours in vinegar or until it is shiny. Some online guides also suggest adding salt to the vinegar bath to help speed the process up.

View attachment 711749

Wow. 3 is bad. I've only seen #3 in house plumbing and this isn't welcome.
@bruce_the_loon thanks for posting. Most helpful giving a visual idea of what others are attempting to describe.

 

[burntchef]

Late to the party, but the lazy mans way to shiny copper is to immerse the entire worm in star-san. Discovered this by accident when I was too anal about sanitation. Now chiller sits on table till next use. Dropping it into wort at flame out is my evolved method.
Hope this helps
Eric

 

[bruce_the_loon]

Wow. 3 is bad. I've only seen #3 in house plumbing and this isn't welcome.
@bruce_the_loon thanks for posting. Most helpful giving a visual idea of what others are attempting to describe.

3 ain't good. The only time I've seen that type of corrosion is on an old copper tanked water heater that had the hot water out connector covered in that stuff and the tank was leaking from where the connector was braised to the tank body. I think you need heat, slow water leaking and some sort of salts in the water to get it properly.

 

[KeizerBrewr]

I drop my IC into my kettle the last couple minutes of the boil to make sure it's good to go. Then when I'm done with it; rinse it off, scrub if needed and then give a spray with Star San and put away inside my kettle where it stays after the kettle is clean.

 

[bobbycheetah]

Normally, I do the usual, put in to sanitize at 20 mins, then I let it sit in the hot water from the chilling process. When i was done, and poured out the water, I had an issue where i couldn't give it a final rinse and it sat for a day or so. There is no corrosion, and I understand (and dont care) about shininess. Can I just give it a general cleaning by soaking in warm water in my kettle with sodium percarbonate? Let the sodium percarbonate "do the work" for several hours, then give it a good rinsing? Also, I read somewhere that sanitizer is not good for copper chillers. Thanks all - and cheers to the bus driver!

 

[odie]

I just hose mine off real good after using and hang it on the patio. Before use, I hose it again real good and drop it in the last 5 min of boil to sterilize anything.

 

[IslandLizard]

A tarnished chiller with a surface as shown in #2 is better for your wort/beer.
The tarnish is copper oxide, much less prone to (slowly) dissolving in your wort than shiny (pure) copper would, which is much more reactive.

If it looks like #3, your chiller is asking for a thorough cleaning, yes.

 

[bobbycheetah]

basically, my question is: does anyone know if it is detrimental to copper if soaked in sodium percarbonate? thx