Wort chiller has turned orange

[dannythemanny]

I know that copper is kind of orange anyway, but...

I've had a copper immersion chiller for about 8 years or so. As you might expect, it has the odd patch of discolouration here and there, but hasn't ever really looked much different until I soaked it in some VWP. That turned out a kind of purple/red colour. I managed to get rid of that, or so I thought, but after my most recent brew, I removed it from the kettle and dunked it into cold tap water, and it turned a sort of dull orange. The pictures don't really do it justice, but it just looks so much more orange than copper normally does. I'm sure I'm worrying over nothing, just concerned if I've somehow destabilised the copper and it's reacting with something and producing anything harmful. Any advice appreciated.

 

[HoppingMad]

This could well be one of those "not overly helpful responses", as I don't really know the answer but...given it's copper, I would imagine that the WPP has caused oxidation to occur which is what has caused the change in colour of the copper. You could try cleaning it with some copper cleaner to see if that returns it to its former glory?

Hope that helps.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

From Brewing Metallurgy - How to Brew

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.

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.

You do not need to clean copper shiny-bright after every use. With time, the copper should take on a dull copper color, not black, not green or blue, just dull, like an old penny. This copper oxide is relatively inert to wort and will mimimize copper dissolving into the wort, more so than shiny-bright copper.

The best sanitizer for counterflow wort chillers is Star San. It is acidic and can be used to clean copper as well as sanitize. Sanitizing with Star San only takes minutes and should not be left in the chiller more than an hour, because it will start dissolving the copper.

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.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Just to reassure you on one point: my understanding is that the level of copper dissolved in the wort to be considered harmful to health is considerably higher than the yeast can tolerate, so if a brew ‘works’ then it’s unlikely to be a problem.

 

[Clint]

My chiller has stayed quite shiny. It gets a good scrub with a pan scourer in hot water after the brew day then slung in the shed for the spiders to play on...

 

[terrym]

The metal material of construction in breweries in contact with beer and wort used to be copper until stainless steel became cheaper and widely available in the middle of the last century onwards. Many brewery engineers started out as coppersmiths and larger breweries had their own coppersmiths in house. I'll bet some of the older breweries still have copper in use.

 

[dannythemanny]

Thanks for the replies. I cleaned it with white vinegar, and for the most part, it went shiny again. I then dunked it in a bucket of food water to rinse the vinegar off, but within a minute or two, it took on the blotchy orange stuff again. Very strange. I used it anyway and it came out shiny, dunked it back in tap water and now it appears to have stayed shiny. It's got a mind of its own! Anyway, it seems to be sorted, and assuming this beer gets off to a healthy fermentation, I'll assume it's fine to drink! Cheers.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Are you sure it's not the same source that turned Trump orange?

 

[Gerryjo]

When I first cleaned my heat exchanger I was amazed at the copper plating process which took place.
I had filled the boiler with a 20/1 ratio of water to vinegar and recirculated it through the coil and into the boiler for an hour using a small pump and the brass fittings had taken on the copper coating. Quite cool I thought..

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

When I first cleaned my heat exchanger I was amazed at the copper plating process which took place.
I had filled the boiler with a 20/1 ratio of water to vinegar and recirculated it through the coil and into the boiler for an hour using a small pump and the brass fittings had taken on the copper coating. Quite cool I thought..

That sounds like an electrochemical effect, like the sacrificial anode on a ship, which is why you don’t really want fittings of different metals in direct contact with each other in the presence of acidic wort (basically that creates a battery and you get electrolysis)

 

[Clint]

I made an electrolysis thingy from an old phone charger and some crocodile clips..attach a steel spoon to one and a cruddy old coin you want to clean to the other...place in a bowl of salty water,not touching,and watch the crud come off the coin!
I once did this with a totally undistinguishable coin that took ages to clean. It turned out to be a silver Denarius of the Roman emperor Hadrian.

 

[scomet]

In a word 'No Chill' sorry two.....

 

[Pennine]

This is what mine looks like, similar to yours. I don't think it's anything to worry about.... unless I need to worry? the beer is fine so I am not going to.

 

[An Ankoù]

This is what mine looks like, similar to yours. I don't think it's anything to worry about.... unless I need to worry? the beer is fine so I am not going to.

View attachment 34392

That's exactly what mine looks like, too. There's no need to clean it, just rinse it after use and let it dry. Chemical cleaners are more likely to produce copper compounds that'll dissolve in your (slightly acidic) beer. But since these are poisonous both to the yeast and to you, as the Engineer said above, as long as your yeast works, the copper levels are fine.

 

[dannythemanny]

Cheers.

This is what mine looks like, similar to yours. I don't think it's anything to worry about.... unless I need to worry? the beer is fine so I am not going to.

View attachment 34392

Cheers. I reckon that's what it ought to look like. Looks as though it has dulled a bit, which John Palmer says is a good thing.

 

[Cwrex]

Leave it immersed it in a bucket of warm water with some lemon juice (the kind you can buy in Tesco/Lidl/Aldi that comes in a plastic lemon) for 20 mins. Then a quick cold tap rinse and leave to dry.