Poor mans copper boiler

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I've been reading about the benefits of copper. I of course will not be purchasing copper boiler any time soon. Would tossing a piece of leftover 1/2" copper pipe into my kettle during the boil make any difference?

Benefits: Yeast Health, and increased sulpher disapation during the boil.
 
I've seen photos in commercial breweries of copper boil kettles, but not copper fermenters. What are the benefits claimed by use of copper? I assumed copper was used sometimes in commercial kettles because of the heat conductivity, the same issues that make copper a good choice for some cookware, not about copper's reaction with the beer.
 
I think Palmer says there are benifits to the yeast when boiling in copper. Copper fermeters or post fermentation contact is a big no-no.
 
The benefit might be yeast health. I think I heard something about it on a Brewing Network show, but I don't remember which one. Whoever it was said that the benefit, if any, comes from having copper in the boil, not in the fermentation.
 
Sorry. I mis-spoke. I meant boiler not fermenter. Let me organize my thoughts and ill update the post with specific benefits.
 
Updated the original post to clarify. The question is if a 1' peice of 1/2" pipe will transfer enough copper to a 3-5 gal wort boil. Any metallurgists out there?
 
I say do it and see what happens. Or better yet, do two identical brews, one with the copper and one without.
 
This is a stretch, but it might help hot break formation. If one is whipping egg whites, this supposedly works better if you do it in a copper bowl. Presumably some copper ions are doing something in the whites to help foam formation and stabilization. It could possibly do the same for wort proteins.
 
The only benefit i could see of adding copper to the boil is that some of the copper would go into the beer which will provide a better source of copper to the yeast. I know yeast use copper in the production of certain enzymes however i dont know if they are normaly starved of this in a normal beer. Adding more copper coudlnt hurt i guess though.

Let us know if you do an experiment
 
I don't believe copper serves any purpose to yeast, however, copper is a good sterilizing source. What i mean by this is that copper will not grow bacteria on it and will actually inhibit any bacterial growth.
 

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