years ago I was brewing a festbier or a Munich helles and a pro brewer told me that I should put my copper wort chiller in the boil. It as something about the copper doing something in the boil that would create a taste that would be good for the beer.
I have only done it once and forgotten about it until todays shower. I remember the beer was good, not sure if it was because of the copper.
There are two good reasons to boil your copper chiller coil.
- It will sterilize your coil.
- It adds a small amount of soluble copper which will help your yeast stay healthy.
If I’m recalling correctly.
Paul
There’s a reason brew kettles were traditionally called “coppers”. OTOH, there’s a train of thought among some brewers that you don’t want copper in contact with your wort. I don’t think it’s a big deal either way.
The reason that pro brewer made that suggestion is because copper ions react with sulphur to form copper sulfate, and this reduces the amount of H2S (rotten egg smell/taste) that remains in the finished beer. For this reason, it’s common practice to have some “sacrificial copper” in contact with the wort somewhere in the production process. Where I worked, we had a small strip of copper embedded in the lauter tun rake.
Yep, that’s traditional. The LO brewers claim that any copper will not benefit the beer.
RC answer makes sense, especially with a lager. Thank everyone for their answers, all were faster reply’s then I thought I would get.
I used to put some pennies in the bottom of my hop sack to weigh it down in the kettle. The acidic solution really made them shiny! One of my favorite tricks to play on new brewing assistants was to ask them to retrieve all 10 pennies after the boil, when there were only 9 in there to begin with. Now I use a stainless steel plumbing fitting which is a lot easier to retrieve and clean.
I believe the LO theory is that a copper chiller, or any copper equipment whatsoever at any point in your process, can allow the very soluble oxide layer to promote rapid oxidation of the wort.
Using Brewtan B prior to introducing copper is supposed to guard from the oxidation effects.
I add Brewtan B at 16 minutes before adding my copper Hydra at 15 minutes.
Residual copper and iron will induce the Fenton reaction. The copper and iron are catalysts, and are not used up.
But, Jeff, I have been advised that the BTB works a chelation of copper and iron, so is it possible to bind and drop these elements out of wort and beer or to have them skimmed out (pulled out if skimmed) with the hot break?
I think he means that they are catalysts of the Fenton reaction and are not used up in that reaction. Therefore a small amount of copper or iron ions can lead to a lot of free radical production. Gallotannin chelates these ions to so they can no longer catalyze the Fenton reaction.
Wash your new copper component and perhaps even do some sort of passivation before using it in the boil or your beer could turn out tasting like copper pennies.
Actually, this is unlikely since yeast consume and sequester copper ions. However, it doesn’t take much copper to achieve the benefits to brewing, so don’t use too much copper in your brewing system.
And yet it did happen to me. Twice.
Yes.
I have a little copper in my system, and use BTB to drop it out of the wort.
when using btb, do you slso have to ensure that no trub makes its way to the fermenter?
I try and keep as much out as possible, but hard to not get some. The copper should be bound with the BTB. Im not a brewing chemist, so i could be wrong there.
its a question Ive always had re: the usage of btb, if you dont have a meticulous whirlpool and clear wort going into the fermenter, is it all for nothing?
Not in my experience
Me either. Once the copper is bound to the BTB it is no longer free to participate in the oxidation reactions.