Aluminum pot OK for sanitizing water before addition?

My first batch of beer (usually do wine).
I'm using a kit.
I boiled up two pots of water.
made the wort in the stainless pot.
about 8 hours later when all was cool,
I racked the wort into a primary fermenter.
I added 2-1/2 gallons of sanitized water from the aluminum pot.
I know materials utensils are made of can be an issue.
Afterwards, was wondering if I introduced something into the brewing process,
by sanitizing water to be added in an aluminum pot.
(Would prefer not to poison myself (or anyone else for that matter) with my very first batch of beer).

aluminum is find for brewing if you get a passive oxide layer on the kettle first. there's a sticky in one of the forums about the myths of aluminum kettles being unsafe.

I've boiled over 20+beers with a aluminum pot with absolutely zero issues. I can't see why sanitizing in a alu. pot would be an issue. It could remove the oxidized layer on the pot therefore, you would want to build that up if you ever planned to brew with it.

Was no oxide layer - is a kitchen pot we polish with steel wool

you can build up an oxide layer by boiling water for 30 mins then dumping that water. or by baking it in the over at 350 for ten or 20 mins. don't scrub with anything after you build the layer. read the stickies on aluminum kettles, or steel vs. aluminum, they'll teach you how to very safely use an aluminum kettle for brewing.

I guess what I'm asking is, now that I have added water sanitized in a bright aluminum pot - should I discard this batch?

i think the worst case scenario would be your brew may have a metallic taste. the amount of aluminum that got in your batch by itself wouldn't be harmful. it's longterm exposure to ingested aluminum that can be hazardous. i wouldn't recommend trying to get aluminum in every batch, but one batch of beer with it will be more harmful to your palate than your brain.

I have brewed at least 10 batches in my aluminum turkey fryer pot over the past year and fried 3 turkeys with zero problems. Yo have to put the oxide layer back after you fry and clean your pot. I scrub purdy hard after frying.

The bigger issue is letting it sit 8 hours to cool off. Not good. Long periods of warm wort is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria, mold and wild yeast spores to take hold.

Its risky...invest in a wort chiller. Even if you don't get an infection, hot wort can still produce DMS which won't evaporate since its not boiling (and is covered with a lid for 8 hours too I assume). Excess DMS yields a cooked vegetable flavor to the beer, which will not age out. Some say it resembles creamed corn.

malkore said:

The bigger issue is letting it sit 8 hours to cool off. Not good. Long periods of warm wort is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria, mold and wild yeast spores to take hold.

Its risky...invest in a wort chiller. Even if you don't get an infection, hot wort can still produce DMS which won't evaporate since its not boiling (and is covered with a lid for 8 hours too I assume). Excess DMS yields a cooked vegetable flavor to the beer, which will not age out. Some say it resembles creamed corn.

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people do no chill brewing all the time. i've heard they're pretty successful too. i personally chill my wort fast, but no chill brewing isn't a guaranteed infection.

Yea, bare aluminum is fine. I boild mine that way for months before I got a new burner and boiled some water in it just to see how long it would take. No metallic tastes at all.