diecast aluminium box - ok inside kettle?

[buckerooni]

As a temporary measure I dropped a couple of diecast aluminium boxes inside my kettle to elevate my grain basket off by elements, dropped a bit of sodium perc and met in the water at about 70c, rinsed then did a brew.

when I finally took out the basket, I noticed the alu boxes had changed colour - a dark grey with these white bits on it.

Is this bad - can I continue to use these or will it impact anything (wort producfion)?
2. will it affect the brew I just did?

Thanks,

 

[barls]

most probably you have just oxidised the aluminium. don't know if thats good or not. theres a reason why its all stainless thats used.

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

Actually a combination of etching* and oxidation. The grey is etching, the white spots are oxide. You have probably extracted a fair bit of aluminium into the brew but most of it should come out in the trub; aluminium salts are generally poorly soluble.



*An alkaline peroxide etch is one of the few things that will actively attack titanium alloys: I use it as a pre-bonding treatment for Ti bits.

 

[buckerooni]

Actually a combination of etching* and oxidation. The grey is etching, the white spots are oxide. You have probably extracted a fair bit of aluminium into the brew but most of it should come out in the trub; aluminium salts are generally poorly soluble.



*An alkaline peroxide etch is one of the few things that will actively attack titanium alloys: I use it as a pre-bonding treatment for Ti bits.

thanks, doesn't sound like the end of the world, nor something I should repeat! Will this continue to happen the more these boxes are used it in this manner?