Wort chiller burped into brew

[Nick667]

My wort chiller is a new toy and while sterilising for the second brew it burped up some 2 week old water into the wort. The beer has a slight sour taste. Has anybody had this happen?

 

[earle]

No, but if its a coil immersion chiller you can drain the water to prevent it from happening again. For some reason it won't just drain out when you turn it upside down, airlock or something maybe. I normally turn mine so its about half way between on its side and upside down with my arm on the inside, then use my free hand to rotate the coil, after a few turns you get a siphon type action going which will drain the majority of the water out.

 

[klangers]

Good practise is to ensure that you sterilise things BEFORE you connect them up/immerse your chiller. This way there's no chance of old water coming out into the wort. This applies to any sanitary pipework/process.

 

[earle]

Isn't it a fairly standard practice to sterilise immersion chillers by putting them in the boil for the last 10 minutes. Are you suggesting to sterilise it separately first?

 

[Nick667]

I put the coil into the boil for the last 10-15 mins but I didn't think I could hook it up to the hoses because of the heat. I will next time.
It hasn't happened since and wont happen again but can anyone tell me if the watery burps can give a sour flavour? Old water sitting in the copper tube for 2 weeks and not boiled for very long.

 

[earle]

Hard to say. Water by itself generally doesn't go off or sour. The small amount that would have gone into your beer probably wouldn't give a sour taste by itself. It is a potential infection source though, a small amount into your boiling wort should not take long to kill any bugs though.

 

[onesnzeros]

water burping from your immersion chiller might make the beer taste bitter or sour perhaps, if enough was added… the fact the water was sitting in the chiller for 2 weeks may sound bad but I've also read that copper can kill bacteria such as E-coli, so unless it expelled a vast amount into your wort, or your wort was cooling under boiling temp at the time…? must have been a LOT of water burped or a small brew if it made your wort funky?
You mean the bottled beer tastes sour?

 

[klangers]

Isn't it a fairly standard practice to sterilise immersion chillers by putting them in the boil for the last 10 minutes. Are you suggesting to sterilise it separately first?

You can do that method to sterilise, just don't plug in your hoses until you know it's clean and rid of any "storage water".

 

[mtb]

This is one of the reasons both ends of my IC hang out and over the edge of my kettle. It means you've got to buy a longer coil to get those ends to reach out and way past the wort, but it's worth the cost to mitigate the risk. This also stops your brew being ruined if the IC inlet/outlet hose pops off while you're running water through it (personal experience!) - much prefer that water on my floor than in my kettle.

 

[Nick667]

Thanks guys,
when I posted this topic I had just got an IC and had been no chilling until then so it was a new experience.
The inlet and outlet do protrude outside the pot and slant down to stop any accidents, I just didn't think that the plastic hose connectors could handle the heat.
I stretched the coil slightly to give better gaps between the coil and lean it back toward the side of the pot. Not a drop even gets close now.
I am really getting there now, even the wife likes it! Go figure that!!!!
Need a bigger pot.