Stainless V Brass

[Kai]

Palmer has already been mentioned, but whenever I've worried about brass fittings I've referred back to his section on brewing metallurgy advice:

http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixB.html

I still use brass in my kettle and I haven't married my horse yet. I'm not worried.

One advantage of brass is threaded fittings don't need any tape as brass is soft enough (compared to SS ) to seal up.

 

[Kai]

Palmer has already been mentioned, but whenever I've worried about brass fittings I've referred back to his section on brewing metallurgy advice:

http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixB.html

I still use brass in my kettle and I haven't married my horse yet. I'm not worried.

One advantage of brass is threaded fittings don't need any tape, as brass is soft enough (compared to SS ) to seal up on its own.

 

[tavas]

Brass has natural antibacterial properties.

how can you be sure the brass fittings already in your house don't have lead? If Chinese brass is cheaper, and with the rampant copper prices we saw a few years ago, I bet there is more Chinese brass around than you think.

I figure you have to die of something. If the lead doesn't get me, the alcoholism will

 

[Barley Belly]

brass will leech lead into your beer, don't know how much, but brass wasn't that much cheaper for me to warrant the risk.

So I guess you've changed all the taps in your house to stainless as well?

Being such a risk and all.

 

[sim]

Brass has natural antibacterial properties.

...i thought that was copper that has antibacterial properties.


sim

 

[~MikE]

So I guess you've changed all the taps in your house to stainless as well?

Being such a risk and all.

the taps in the house aren't exposed to boiling acidic solution, more to the point, maybe 0.1% of the water that passes over them is used for drinking, if that.

you do raise a valid point though, lead poisoning isn't an issue for most AHBers

 

[pk.sax]

...i thought that was copper that has antibacterial properties.


sim

I must've breathed in a year's dose of copper dust just then cutting up my manifold.

PS: didn't mean to say brass is bad, but if going brass, might not be such a terrible idea to go to a plumbing shop rather than the green shed and pick up fittings meant for drinking water rather than garden water.... After all, plenty of brewers here say they even avoid the garden hose for brewing water because it gives them a plastic taste.

 

[Cortez The Killer]

And normal garden hoses use lead as a plasticiser...

 

[stux]

Dunno what you two are doing with your kettles, but in my brewery, my kettle is most definitely on the hot side....

If you use an immersion chiller your kettle would also be on the cold side

 

[hsb]

And normal garden hoses use lead as a plasticiser...

I did have to lol when I noticed that the coffee cart I have got my coffee from for years has a plastic garden hose providing the water! That would be a Health and Safety fail for them but, like with people noting that brass is used all over the average household, goes to show that the high standards set in the home brewery often far exceed the pretty average ones found throughout our lives.

It's still good to be aware, and I pickle my brass for the 5 minutes of effort it takes.

I'm off back for a swim in the gaseous sea of hydrocarbon pollutants surrounding us.