Lead In Brass Fittings

[damonc]

I know this might be covering old territory butt Last night I realised that I had a lead test kit from the Master Painters Australia (http://www.masterpainters.com.au/) and it might be a bit of a laugh to see if the new brass fittings I brought had lead on them. So I put the three fittings into a little vinegar and let them sit for five minutes. I was pretty sure that the amount of lead would be within the parts per billion and not the parts per million that the kit can detect. As we can see from the pictures I was very wrong. Weighing in at almost 25 ppm according to the eye-o-meter I as shocked. The other picture is of the control case. I thought that after I did this I better do a control case with the same vinegar, water and container. I was a little worried that I might get a false high reading because of inadequately cleaning the plastic container but this does not seem to have been the case. So I think that it is all stainless for me from now on for anything that comes into contact with the beer.

I have attached and put the images of the results in the gallery here http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?autocom=gallery&req=user&user=5679&op=view_album&album=243 .

 

[geoffi]

What was the brand of the brass fittings?

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Mr Palmer is a metallurgist by trade and talks about how to pickle brass somewhere towards the end of his book:

http://www.howtobrew.com/

 

[SJW]

I think this test would be more accurate if it could be done on beer sample at the end of the brewing process as its going into the fermenter or some beer already bottled, as thats the stuff we are injesting.
Interesting all the same.
I got brass everywhere.

Steve

 

[mfdes]

Looks more impressive than it is, though.

To be relevant, you'd need to use some pH 5.2 wort to do the test, not vinegar. Vinegar is much more acidic. Also ideally you'd warm it up to ~70 degrees to replicate the conditions in your mash-tun, and you'd use the same ratio of brass surface to wort volume. a few brass fittings in 25L of wort will leach out a much smaller concentration into the wort than a brass fitting in a few mL of vinegar.

I'd be surprised if you get similar results using wort.

MFS

 

[SJW]

I would of thought that with all the lab rats on this site that some final product beer that has been brewed in a brass fitting system would of been looked at before?
Grab for the flasks!

 

[warrenlw63]

Was thinking the exact same thing mfdes.

In reality we're really only talking about one to two small brass parts in any setup. I used to follow the regimen of Palmer's vinegar and peroxide. These days if there's any new brass parts I just put them in untreated. They seem to dull and get coated with wort residue over time.

Besides all that it's a reassuring thought that all the lead probably just goes to one's pencil anyway.

Warren -

 

[mfdes]

My thought is any lead near enough to the surface to get leached would do so in the first couple of brews anyway. You can down it then and be done with it!

:super:

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Doesn't everyone invite all their mates around to sample the first batch of beer from the new brass brewery?