I really enjoy my copper chiller. Chill time is down to less than 5 minutes for a 3 gallon wort, and I don’t worry about burning myself moving the pot to the cooler. I sanitize it by placing in the wort for the last 15 minutes of the boil.
Since I started using it I’ve noticed a change in taste of my brews - something like a slight tang in the back of the mouth. Has anyone else experienced this? Is it possible the chiller is causing this problem? I’ve tried to control other variables but have not been able to reproduce the smooth brews I was getting previously.
Extract. Tap water, which is from a deep well in our subdivision. They recently increased the chlorine content, so on my last brew I let the water sit for a couple of days and used camden tablets. I have also read that boiling the water removes the chlorine, so I don’t think that is the problem. Had the same problem.
I would suspect that something else changed in the brewing water that coincided with your use of the copper chiller. I’d suggest brewing a batch with distilled or RO water and see if that improves your final product. Even with extract, water chemistry plays a role. My water has high bicarbonate, and I would sometimes get a plasticky/twangy aftertaste back when I was doing extract batches.
FYI boiling removes chlorine but your other worry are chloramines because they don’t boil off. If you use the campden tabs though you should be set.
I am really skeptical of using copper. I have an easy siphon that is just a hose attached to a copper piece with a marble in it. When I clean it with starsan, the rinseate smells of metal and it is pretty strong. Copper is probably being dissolved into copper sulfate plus what ever the oxidized copper does since it makes it nice and bright (strips the oxidation layer off). Copper is fairly reactive in comparison to stainless steel.
Besides the flavor concern…how many people are using food grade copper? Even if it is certified, I highly doubt it is certified for boiling temps. Stuff leaches out of copper so I am with you on your skepticism about it adding flavors but I have brewed beer that tastes just fine with a copper chiller so I don’t know.
Let me ask you this…does the wort chiller seem polished or brighter after chilling your brew? If so, there very well could be copper oxides dissolved in the wort.
On the fip side, yeast is apparently supposed to take that stuff in and filter it out. I think that there is research about yeast absorbing metals but I have only heard about it, not actually read it so I have no idea if it is true.
I think that you should go with stainless steel equipment if you can. It is well know to have hardly anything leach out of it. When I can afford it, I want to upgrade to a SS chiller but daaaaayum, they are $$$. Chilling your pot in an ice bath doesn’t take too much longer if you constantly stir both ice bath and wort…it’s a pain but if you think you have a copper issue…it is prob the safer road.
Interesting thoughts - thanks! I haven’t paid attention to the chiller to notice if it is brighter after use - I’ll do that on the next brew. I did use camden tablets on my last effort and still had the same ‘tang’ at the back of the mouth.
