Homemade wort chiller

[ErieShores]

I've decided to make my own wort chiller based on this fellas instructioins...
http://www.olderascal.com/brewing/wortchiller/index.html
I went to Home Depot, purchased all of the equipment and began assembling the chiller. I noticed that ofter working with the copper, my hands were full of a foul metallic smell. I'm concerned that this with contaminate my wort or give it a metallic smell/taste. Anyone else have any problems with this?

 

[ArcaneXor]

I am no metal expert, but it probably needs to be passivated in some boiling water.

 

[bad67z]

No I have never noticed a metallic taste, I have used my copper immersion chiller on 15 batches or so and have had no negative results.

There are varying opinions on cleaning your chiller. Once I completed my build I scrubbed with soap and water, then purchased 5 gallons of vinegar from Sam's and soak it for few hours. I keep the vinegar in an old fermenting bucket and use it over and over for cleaning my copper pieces of my rig.

Cheers...

 

[ErieShores]

Thanks guys, I'll try both techniques. Do either of you notice the metallic smell on your hands though?

 

[Bobby_M]

Initially scrub it down a bit with some dishwashing detergent and the back of a sponge, rinse with hot water. Then you can spray it down with a double strength mix of starsan or equal parts white vinager and water. Let it sit for an hour and rinse it off. IMHO, a full strength vinager soak is not necessary and it's a waste of money. Star san is a great sanitizer anyway and it's great for shining up metal pieces.

 

[ErieShores]

Thanks Bobby

 

[bf514921]

probly just some kind of manufacturing oils resident on the material, clean then see if it smells.

 

[ErieShores]

Just a follow up...
I essentially used all of these techniques. I scrubbed it with soap, boiled and soaked it in a vinegar/Starsan cocktail. I figured I couldn't go wrong and there would be now harm in overkill. It removed the smell, residue and worked well to boot. I went from 220 degrees to 80 in about 20 minutes thanks to the chiller and a recently thawed Lake Erie!

 

[annasdadhockey]

Take some pennies and put them on a plate. Smell them. Nothing, right? Now take those same pennies and hold them in your hands and rub them a bit. Smell your hands. Same metallic smell, right. It's a chemical reaction between the oils in your skin and the copper in the penny(or wort chiller). No worries, you'll be OK.

Still won't hurt to clean it first, though.

 

[smarek82]

Boiling water is your answer. +1 on whoever said vinegar too. I would not get too worried.

 

[xiejol]

I'm the guy running olderascal.com. I'm glad the instructions worked. I never had a metallic taste with my chiller, but I also cleaned it thoroughly before boiling it with the wort. The copper is actually supposed to help the brew, but I don't have the reference backing that up anymore.

I just put pictures up of the prechiller. It helped me drop the temperature much faster.

www.olderascal.com/wortchiller