Cleaning inside copper pipe

[StrontiumDog]

Hi everyone, hope you're all well.

A friend of mine is a fridge engineer and has built me a counterflow linear type wort cooler (pics below)

Tested with 10ltrs of boiling water and it works awesomely to bring the temp down to 19°C without messing with flow rate or anything.

My question is, what can I use to clean inside the pipe prior to putting wort through it? I can rig up some kind of brush but would flushing it through with vinegar and letting it sit before thoroughly rinsing work?

Best

Jase

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[aamcle]

Use a rod, wood if you like, and push a wad through or pull a wad through it.


ATB aamcle

[Fil]

google for dairy suppliers, they dont have a huge online presence having a tiny closed marketplace of dairy farms, so you may only get phone numbers, I did, but they will sell you a long 1/2m 1m, 2m, even 3m iirc long wire tube brushes, i use the 50cm version as my pipe cfc uses 50cm long ss tubes

It was a supplier to the goat milking industry i ended up buying the the brushes from, i think it was a pleasant change for the sales chap to talk to someone outside the goat milking business for a change..



straight tube cfcs rule..

[JabbA]

Citric acid cleans up copper nicely, a flush through with that will clear out any verdigris et all.

Cheers,
Jamie

[Haydnexport]

starsan is a beast at cleaning up copper too

[setmash]

I am a massive fan of Goat chillers and this is a nice example. Goat chillers are super efficient and can be 100 percent inspected and cleaned. Only disadvantage is they take up a bit of space. Straight pipe CFC just doesn't have the same ring to it lol. Enjoy your Goat they are superb. Starsan will work a treat ....

[PeeBee]

The trouble with cleaning copper until it's shiny is it can then dissolve into your beer - until the copper builds up another passivation layer. I doubt a (tiny) bit of copper is harmful? It's toxic to bugs which isn't going to cause lost sleep.

I recirculate my mash through mine (HERMS) and then when ready to cool flush and recirculate the boiling wort through it to sanitise (for about five minutes - until the cooler gets above 90C). I'll also recirculate (element off) until the wort gets below 80C before chucking in steep hops. I rinse and then fill it with clean water before storing to prevent Verdigris formation. Very occasionally it recirculated with hot VWP.

[setmash]

Ive used my goat dozens of times and never needed to clean it. Just recirculate boiling sort for 15 mins prior to flame out.

[HTH1975]

Citric acid cleans up copper nicely, a flush through with that will clear out any verdigris et all.

Cheers,
Jamie

+1 on that - I find citric acid to be good for cleaning copper, and all my SS stuff too. Just rinse through with hot water afterwards.

[StrontiumDog]

Where did you guys get a goat brush (?) from in the UK? Are they expensive? I've been using a camelbak brush which is so so.

Incidentally, I used this yesterday, it was fricking awesome but I used a shed load of coolant (about 90ltrs) but I didn't have a way to regulate flow so I've just brought a gate valve to put on the coolant out port to regulate it so I expect efficiency to improve considerably

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[StrontiumDog]

Where did you guys get a goat brush (?) from in the UK? Are they expensive? I've been using a camelbak brush which is so so.

Incidentally, I used this yesterday, it was fricking awesome but I used a shed load of coolant (about 90ltrs) but I didn't have a way to regulate flow so I've just brought a gate valve to put on the coolant out port to regulate it so I expect efficiency to improve considerably

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[jaroporter]

The trouble with cleaning copper until it's shiny is it can then dissolve into your beer - until the copper builds up another passivation layer. I doubt a (tiny) bit of copper is harmful? It's toxic to bugs which isn't going to cause lost sleep.

something I've considered too. thing is that wort is acidic and the patina will disappear into the beer anyways. more or less than shiney copper I have no idea, have you read something on this?
my issue with CFCs is getting them dry enough inside to prevent Verdigris n stuff like that I don't want in the beer so with them cleaning would seem to be important. so i'm a big goat fan here too (when I bother to chill!). nice looking goat you got there OP.. .. ....

my understanding is that too much copper is harmful to yeast which is why we only use it prefermentation to avoid extended contact and perhaps the alcohol affecting the copper in some way too? exactly how and the levels required I haven't felt the need to question yet

[PeeBee]

... my issue with CFCs is getting them dry enough inside to prevent Verdigris n stuff like that ...

That's why I don't attempt to dry the CFC, I fill it with water instead. Verdigris don't form underwater.

... my understanding is that too much copper is harmful to yeast which is why we only use it prefermentation to avoid extended contact and perhaps the alcohol affecting the copper in some way too? exactly how and the levels required I haven't felt the need to question yet

Aye, but not enough copper is harmful to yeast too. I hear suggestions of putting a short length of copper pipe into the boiler for brewery designs that are 100% stainless steel.

As for acidic beer dissolving the patina off the copper pipe: Perhaps, but I have a solution for that too ... I don't look!