Brass or Stainless

Somewhere i remember reading not to use brass fittings in a mash/lauter tun. Does this really matter whether I use a brass ball valve instead of a stainless steel ball valve in my mash/lauter tun?

I am in the process of converting a coleman exreme rectangular cooler into an all-grain brewing machine:rockin: and I don't want to make a critical error by installing the brass valve if it will cause harm.

You're not going to get a conclusive answer. There's only one person who can choose and that's you.

If I were you I'd ask the stainless vs Aluminium question along with glass vs. plastic and dry vs liquid stuff as well and get it over with.

I use nickel plated brass.
Some say it's bad.
Others pickle it.

Some say alcohol is more poisonous than anything else in brewing.

I say RDWHAHB.

orfy said:

I say RDWHAHB.

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I second the motion!

And I AM having a homebrew!

Lil' Sparky said:

I second the motion!

And I AM having a homebrew!

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+1 :rockin:

Me hav brass n minee adn I'z oK.

Brass or stainless?

Yes.

I used wooden washers and wax grommets. Is that wrong?

Ok, Ok, Ok,

got the point

I figured so, but it makes me feel better once several people tell me to RDWHAHB.

Brass it is. Cost conservation is a key concern right now, otherwise I would go stainless. Just wanted to make sure i wasn't committing a big no-no.

Couple of weeks will be my first all grain. I'll post my success story once I've done it. I'm making Austin Homebrew's Northwest Pale Ale All-grain kit using Safale-04 dry yeast.

it will also be my first time with dry yeast! So I'm excited about that as well.

Brass is just copper and zinc. Copper is good for beer, as evidenced by all the copper fermenters in the breweries. Zinc is one of the neccessities fro yeast, and is the onlu thing some brewers add to their water. So, if some zinc leachs out, that's a good thing. You will be able to tell if the brass turns copper color.

Now some will say that the brass has some lead in it. It makes non-ferrous metals easier to machine. I don't think they do that any more, folks are so paranoid about it. But, then, stainless can be so hard to machine that they also put lead into some stainless. So I'd say the lead hazard is a moot point re: plumbing fittings.

So, to agree with Faber above, Yes.