Beer Forum

I just finnished my second batch of beer, a cream ale extract kit, and used a homemade wort chiller that i made myself. This beer realy was crappy, metally, kinda burnty, just plain bad. A freind asked if i cleaned the chiller, I had washed with soap and water rinsed well, then soaked in the sanitizer and rfinsed again. My pal mentioned that there was a reaction with the wort. is there a way to lessen the the efect of this reaction or elliminate it all together?m Thanks for your time.

what kind of metal was the chiller?
BUB

An excerpt from John Palmer's How To Brew

Metallic
Metallic flavors are usually caused by unprotected metals dissolving into the wort but can also be caused by the hydrolysis of lipids in poorly stored malts. Iron and aluminum can cause metallic flavors leaching into the wort during the boil. The small amount could be considered to be nutritional if it weren't for the bad taste. Nicks and cracks ceramic coated steel pots are a common cause as are high iron levels in well water. Stainless steel pots will not contribute any metallic flavors. Aluminum pots usually won't cause metallic flavors unless the brewing water is alkaline with a pH level greater than 9. Shiny new aluminum pots will sometimes turn black when boiling water due to chlorine and carbonates in the water.

The protective (grayish) oxides of aluminum can be enhanced by heating the clean pot in a dry oven at 250°F for about 6 hours.


Do you thin k anything like that may have caused the metallic off-flavor?

If your wort chiller is copper the only sanitizing it should get is 15 mins in the wort before you're finished with the boil. I don't use any chemicals on my copper immersion chiller. I wash it off real good with hot water when I'm done and put it away. Then the next brew day I let it boil for the last 15 mins.

I used new copper tubing I purchased at the Farm & Fleet, along with all the necessary fittings to attach it to a 12-volt bilge pump working in a pail of ice water. I do remember noticing the shinny bright tubing coming out if the chilled beer. I mentioned this to a friend of mine and his thought was of a penny coming out of a vinegar solution, all the oxidation that was on the tubing had reacted with the wort and ended up in the beer. Will I get this same reaction every time I use it? Do I have the wrong type of tubing? Or was this a one-time thing?
Thanks again.

Doesn't new-from-the-box copper piping or tubing have a coat of oil on it from the manufacturing process?

I never licked a new piece of copper, but I wonder if that oil has a metallic taste?

your chiller will be shiney every time!
Very Nice... I get no off flavors tho.
BUB

This is also from How to Brew. Go to www.howtobrew.com its a great piece of free online info.

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.