Top of wort chiller exposed

[cg17]

So, I received my new WC and had a question regarding sanitation when the entire chiller cannot be submerged. I did some research on this and came across a quote from this gentleman:

I have a keggle with pick-up tube and false bottom so I can strain whole hops out after the boil while draining to the fermenter. My chiller is also made with 70' of 3/8" tubing so I have enough height to cool 10+ gallon boils. When I do 5 gallon boils, there is about half of the chiller exposed above the wort and the chiller just sits on top of the pick-up tube. It always leans over to one side of the kettle and this is not a problem. The chiller does not need to be below the wort level to do it's job. Just place it in the hot wort 10 minutes prior to the end of the boil and the steam will sanitize the exposed coils.

Is the bolded sentence accurate in regards to the unsubmerged section of the WC?

 

[maffewl]

That's what I do... I add the WC in with about 5-10 remaining in the boil to sanitize it (mine sticks out of the top of the kettle as well).

 

[Brandonovich]

That is probably fine, but I don't take a chance. It takes five minutes to starsan it, and you don't have to worry. If the part that is not submerged during the boil does not get sanitized, and then some beer splashes on it while it is cooling.........

 

[kpr121]

Well, a portion of the bolded statement is partially correct. You do need at least SOME of the IC to be submerged in order for it to work!

But yes, steam sanitizing is used in many different applications, and you definitely get quite a bit of steam from 10-15 minutes of boiling.

The other thing that helps is that the copper is such a good conductor, the unexposed portion will easily get up above 200 def F very quickly, essentially killing all bacteria.

 

[Jaysus]

That is probably fine, but I don't take a chance. It takes five minutes to starsan it, and you don't have to worry. If the part that is not submerged during the boil does not get sanitized, and then some beer splashes on it while it is cooling.........

Is this like mad libs? If so I am going with "nothing bad will happen"

 

[kpr121]

Is this like mad libs? If so I am going with "nothing bad will happen"

...the universe will explode!

 

[BryceL]

Steam will sanitize it. I will usually place the lid on my kettle the last 5-10 mins if I know I will want to cover it for any reason after the boil. Same concept.

 

[badhabit]

It seems like I always have a little of my WC exposed when I add it to the boil tem minutes before flame out. At one point I had the same question that you are raising. After much careful consideration and several pintes of liquid stimulation I decided that if I haf problems with contamination from the WC in this case I would have MUCH greater problems with infectiion from the air, any added tap water......you get the point. I am able to report that I am still enjoying my HB made with the exposed WC with no realill effects!

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

Copper is highly conducive. It would be interesting to know how hot the very top of the WC gets to during the time that it's submerged. My semi-educated guess would be that the 8-12" above the wort level would get close to 212F.

M_C

 

[ThePearsonFam]

I know that I can't touch the top of the copper coil once it's in the hot wort...

I've recently started sitting my chiller cock-eyed on the top of my boil kettle to get it hot before dropping into my active boil. I've found that it get so stinking hot (at the top of my keggle) that it is too hot to touch anything exposed to steam. I have to take hold of the tubing that's connected to the hose to lower it down in. I put it in place ~ 20 minutes before boil completion and lower it in for the last 15 minutes of boil time.

 

[theonetrueruss]

it's a non issue... heat sanitizes it fine as it conducts through the copper. and the only part of the chiller that is going to touch the wort is pretty close to the wort and bathed in the steam for the 10 minutes of boiling as well further removing any risk.

 

[Mogref]

I purchased a '5/10' wort chiller, which is basically a double height coil with a slight separation in the middle, made to work with 5 or 10 gallon batches. I've only done 5gal batches with it so half of it is always sticking out of the wort and had zero problems. I drop it in 15 mins before flamout and heat does the rest.