conditioning the copper

[brakspears]

Dear fellow brewers, I seek information about the conditioning of my copper, yes real copper not stainless steel, used for the boiling of my wort, last weekend I went to it with a "mean greeny" Scotchbrite scourer, and succeeded in removing a fair old amount of clagg, so my thoughts turned to a caustic wash, to really bring it up smart, so my question now is, what % caustic solution, given that the brim capacity is approx 16 imperial gallons, and after the caustic solution is run from the vessel do I need to perform any naturalising or conditioning of the copper surface, other than rinsing the solution from surfaces, I hope this isn't causing to much trouble to you, I only wish to learn, thankyou for your time in replying, best bitter regards Nigel, in New Zealand

[Brewer2001]

During my brewing apprenticeship all of the brewers that I talked with use caustic to clean (I use the newer brewery wash at home) followed by a light 'scrub' with phosphoric acid. If you want to keep the outside shinney use some metal polish. I don't think you need to passivate the internal seams.

Good brewing.