Gonna use immersion wort chiller for first time.

For batch #11, I'm gunna use an immersion wort chiller for the first time. Anything I should know?

How long do you put it in the boil? 10 min? 20 min?

Any advice on cleaning before/after?

Anything I should do different for the very first time to treat it?

One site says to soak it in water and vinegar for 30 min before putting in the boil... is that necessary?

I'm going to put the run-off through a garden hose... which explicitly says "don't run hot water through this hose!" I assume because it may crack the hose? Anyone have problems with this?

You should put it in the pot about 15 minutes before the end of the boil to sanitize. Prior to first use, make sure you clean it with soap and water to get off any residual stuff from the manufacturing process. Once you're done using it, just make sure you clean it again before next use. It would be a good idea to blow out the water in the chiller for storage, but it's not completely necessary since the water never actually touches the wort, so if anything starts growing in there it's not a huge issue. It will reduce your flow over time, though, so you should probably give it a thorough inside cleaning every now and then. I don't know if they make anything small and long enough to get all the way through there, but I suppose you could give it liberal running of sanitizer through it. For the garden hose, if you're not going to be using it for anything else, I don't see any reason not to. Hope that helps.

-AJ

I put mine in 15 min. before the end of the boil. Do not attach the hoses until you have finished your boil. I put my hoses on to soon, and the fittings became so hot the connections failed on the hoses. I had to reattach the ends of the hoses.

also, when you use it stir like crazy and you can cool down your wort in half the time. i cool my 5.5 gallon batches in a couple of minuts down to 65-70 degrees.
im using a 5/8"x50' immertion wort chiller though.

This thread made me rethink my brew day on Tuesday. I took my chiller and put it into the boiling wort as soon as I took it off of the stove. Now that I think back.........that was STUPID. I should have boiled it for 15 minutes.

I hope that I can add this to the "Mistakes you've made when your beer still turned out fine" thread.

Crap......time to hope for the best.

When you place the chiller in your brew pot, you may lose your boil for a few minutes. This happened to me on a 3 gal boil on the stove top. Good luck.

You should be just fine as long as the wort was 180 deg or more when you put the IC in the wort. 165 deg kills most things (Pasturisation temp).

Cheers

+1 to 15 minutes. I always add Irish moss and chiller together.

One small thing I don't see mentioned is be careful. The chiller will turn the first bit of water into instant steam and that can be at high pressure. Make sure you have the output hose secured and not pointing at skin or anything sensitive.

bennyd said:

I took my chiller and put it into the boiling wort as soon as I took it off of the stove. Now that I think back.........that was STUPID.

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i always do this...

I just leave my chiller in a bucket of no-rinse sanitizer and stick it in the wort after I turn off the heat. I bought mine used, so I soaked it in a vinegar solution before the fist time I used it. Just be sure to wash it really well so you don't get any vinegar in the wort.

Congrats on the new chiller, btw. You'll wish you had one the entire time!

bennyd said:

Now that I think back.........that was STUPID. I should have boiled it for 15 minutes.

Click to expand...

Don't be so hard on yourself! You haven't had an infection right? I can partly tell you why...
I will let you guys in on a little secret, I bet almost no one here knows about it.
COPPER IS NATURALLY ANTIMICROBIAL!!! That's right folks, it sanitizes itself.
If you don't believe me, check out the EPA website. http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/factsheets/copper-alloy-products.htm
Recently there has been a push to incorporate copper into hospitals to reduce infections. Door hands, HVAC systems, etc are being designed to help control the growth of bacteria.

(I'm not saying you don't have to clean it at all though)

For what its worth... here's a +1 to antimicrobial properties of copper. Good sanitation procedures will save you're brew and you wouldn't be doing anything wrong by sticking to those procedures even when using copper but copper will work in your favor none-the-less...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99458486&ft=2&f=510221