Copper Chillers

[Duff]

Just finished my second AG. Ran much more smoothly than the first!

I made up a copper wort chiller which chilled the wort to 20C in around 30 minutes. Since it was the first time I have used it, I gave it a quick once over with some steel wool under the tap to brighten and clean up the dull appearance. I then dropped it in a stock pot and started to boil it to sterilise, it only got to 80C as I didn't time it well because I wanted to drop it into the boil for the final 10 minutes. So it was in the 80C for around 5 - 10, and in the boil for 10.

After cooling and during transfer into the fermenter, I tried some of the wort and it was extremely bitter, and I was wondering if it could be some of the copper affecting the wort and giving it that flavour. I used 15gm P.O.R (60min), 35gm Hallertau (30min) and 20gm Hallertau (10min). Would boiling the chiller for only 10 minutes affect the flavour?

Everything seemed to be going smoothly until then :unsure:

Any help would be appreciated.

Duff.

(Great night at Paddy's by the way and to meet some other guys from the forum. The Chocolate Porter and Amber Ale were awesome)

 

[Justin]

In future just stick your chiller in the wort with 15-20mins to go, no point waisting the energy trying to boil another pot of water to sterilise-especially when you already have one on the boil .

And, yep my beer always tastes really bitter straight out of the kettle, it's not the copper. Trust me it will settle down over the ferment.

Cheers, JD

 

[joecast]

some good advice here on how to care for copper and other brewing metals...

http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixB.html

sounds like your chiller works great. take care of it, and it will take care of you (yeah, thats cheesy)
joe