What Can I Use To Clean My Copper Wort Chiller?

You may take read when learning how to utilize yous immersion wort chiller that there's no need to sanitize your it since you're dipping it in about-boiling wort. And this makes sense. I usually practice little (if anything) to clean my immersion wort chiller before using it to chill my wort. I usually give information technology a practiced rinse later use and permit it hang dry til the next time I apply it. Merely I've been wondering – is this really the best style to treat an immersion wort chiller? Are in that location reactions I should be worried nearly or routine maintenance I should exist doing?
Allow'south explore the topic of how to care for an immersion wort chiller.
To sympathise the requirements for maintaining immersion wort chillers, we need to empathise their blueprint and what they're made of and how they piece of work. Most wort chillers are made of copper, though you will encounter wort chillers made from stainless steel. They're basically a copper coil with vinyl hoses on each end. Some wort chillers can use up to 50 ft. of coil. To rapidly arctic your wort, you dip the wort chiller in the wort at the end of the boil, and then run common cold h2o through the chiller. Every bit the water passes through the chiller, heat is transferred through the copper scroll and pulled away by the water, which can then go down the drain or into your yard or washing machine.
My concern was mostly with the copper portion that comes in straight contact with the wort. Copper is used for wort chillers because it is an excellent material for conducting oestrus. But copper, though a cardinal function of the human diet, tin can also exist toxic in high amounts.
As information technology turns out, copper develops a protective oxide layer through repeated employ. Though a shiny copper scroll would look pretty, it's actually preferable for it to exist a dull copper color. This oxide layer helps foreclose reactions with your wort. Luckily, even if information technology were exceptionally clean, the copper wouldn't react in the wort in such a mode to cause whatever business organisation. Simply leave that oxide layer in place to be safety. This goes for any way of wort chiller, whether it be a counterflow chiller or plate chiller.
What you should go along an centre out for is a blue-green or black build-up on your copper wort chiller. The bluish-green layer is called verdigris (information technology's what makes the Statue of Freedom dark-green) and it is toxic. That's not something you want in your homebrew!

So what'due south the best way to care for your immersion wort chiller?

Rinse the wort chiller of protein and hop droppings after every use. In most cases, this will be all that is needed to clean your chiller.

Drain the water from within the immersion wort chiller after every apply. This will help prevent corrosion inside the wort chiller.

Allow the wort chiller to air dry betwixt uses. Don't soak it overnight.

To be prophylactic, don't reuse the chilling water for cooking or drinking. Since you can't see within the chiller, y'all can't be sure whether in that location's any verdigris within.

If y'all see any blue-light-green verdigris or heavy oxidation (blackness), clean your immersion wort chiller past wiping it down with a rag soaked in vinegar. Information technology's not recommended to use bleach, hydrogen peroxide, or oxygen-based cleaners, because these will only accelerate blackening.

Equally information technology turns out, caring for your immersion wort chiller is pretty easy!
If you lot'd like to learn more about caring for your metal homebrew equipment, I highly recommend John Palmer's Metallurgy for Homebrewers article in Mash Your Ain magazine.
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David Ackley is a beer writer, brewer, and self-described "craft beer crusader." He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder and editor of the Local Beer Blog.