Tried to clean copper IC, weird gunk on it

[h22lude]

I made my copper IC a year or two ago. I never clean it besides rinsing it after use. Today I let it soak in starstan to give it a good clean and shine. I went to rinse it and clean it with a sponge and noticed gunk all over it. At first it just looked dirty but then when I rubbed it with the sponge the gunk started to collect. The best way to describe it is like when you remove a sticker from something and it leave that film behind then when you rub it with your finger the sticky film clumps into the gunk balls. Anyone see this before? Is it just build up of wort and hops that weren't rinsed off well? I would think maybe that would happen where the coils are tight together but this is all over.

Edit: Let it soak more after scrubbing some of it and it isn't better. And I noticed that it has a terrible smell now. I think it might be best just to throw it away and make a new one or make a CFC

Reading more on copper, sites say not to leave copper in starsan for more than an hour because it can start to dissolve it. I probably left it in for 4 or 5 hours. Might have ruined it.

 

[brewkinger]

Where did you get the copper pipe to make it?
What type of copper pipe was it?

There are certain classifications of some copper pipe, used for refrigerant purposes, that might be less suitable for brewing purposes.

I recall reading something in a metallurgical thread here that dealt with this topic to some degree.

Hope this helps.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[masskrug]

It is not recommended to use STAR SAN on soft metals because of the acid nature of this product.

LINK

 

[NeoBrew]

Why are you cleaning with Star San? It's not a cleaner. Do you mean PBW?

 

[h22lude]

Where did you get the copper pipe to make it?
What type of copper pipe was it?

There are certain classifications of some copper pipe, used for refrigerant purposes, that might be less suitable for brewing purposes.

I recall reading something in a metallurgical thread here that dealt with this topic to some degree.

Hope this helps.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

I bought it at Home Depot. I'm not sure what type it was but if I had to guess I would say it was for refrigerant purposes. I didn't know soft coiled copper was for anything else. I may have to look into that.

It is not recommended to use STAR SAN on soft metals because of the acid nature of this product.

LINK

Why are you cleaning with Star San? It's not a cleaner. Do you mean PBW?

Starsan is not a cleaner for regular equipment but since it is acidic it is used to clean heavily oxidized copper (just like vinegar). Palmer mentioned in his book that you can leave starsan in contact with copper overnight so I'm not sure what is wrong with mine. I don't think I cleaned it well enough the first time I used it and probably didn't rinse it well enough after each use. I may try to boil it in regular water for 15 minutes to see what it does.

From How To Brew:

Cleaning Copper
For routine cleaning of copper and other metals, percarbonate-based cleaners like PBW are the best choice. For heavily oxidized conditions, acetic acid is very effective, especially when hot. Acetic acid is available in grocery stores as white distilled vinegar at a standard concentration of 5% acetic acid by volume. It is important to use only white distilled vinegar as opposed to cider or wine vinegar because these other types may contain live acetobacteria cultures, which are the last thing you want in your beer.

Brewers who use immersion wort chillers are always surprised how bright and shiny the chiller is the first time it comes out of the wort. If the chiller wasn't bright and shiny when it went into the wort, guess where the grime and oxides ended up? Yep, in your beer. The oxides of copper are more readily dissolved by the mildly acidic wort than is the copper itself. By cleaning copper tubing with acetic acid once before the first use and rinsing with water immediately after each use, the copper will remain clean with no oxide or wort deposits that could harbor bacteria. Cleaning copper with vinegar should only occasionally be necessary.

The best sanitizer for counterflow wort chillers is Star San'. It is acidic and can be used to clean copper as well as sanitize. Star San can be left in the chiller overnight to soak-clean the inside.

Cleaning and sanitizing copper with bleach solutions is not recommended. The chlorine and hypochlorites in bleach cause oxidation and blackening of copper and brass. If the oxides come in contact with the mildly acidic wort, the oxides will quickly dissolve, possibly exposing yeast to unhealthy levels of copper during fermentation.

 

[NeoBrew]

What Palmer is talking about is removing oxides from the copper with Star San. What you have is more substantial built up "gunk". For that I would recommend PBW. It's going to do a better job on dissolving proteins that might be built up on your chiller. Other things might help also: boiling water, OxyClean, dishwashing machine detergent. You might even resort to plain old dish soap and a brush.

 

[h22lude]

What Palmer is talking about is removing oxides from the copper with Star San. What you have is more substantial built up "gunk". For that I would recommend PBW. It's going to do a better job on dissolving proteins that might be built up on your chiller. Other things might help also: boiling water, OxyClean, dishwashing machine detergent. You might even resort to plain old dish soap and a brush.

I think PBW is next. The way it looked, I thought it was oxidation of some kind. It wasn't green flakes but it had a green tint to it which definitely could be hop leftover. I'm going to boil in water and scrub with PBW.

 

[calvey]

I found a liquid version of Barkeepers Friend. Seems to do well on copper. For an immersion chiller I might just squirt some on a towel and go around the outsides. For the insides, I would probably stick with PBW.