Aluminum Question (No, not THAT aluminum question.)

I've been poking around the forums for quite a while looking for a reference to this, and haven't seen it.

I have an 8 gallon aluminum pot I bought to boil in. I installed one of the weldless spigots yesterday, and decided to take it for a test boil to check for leaks and to get the protective oxide layer built up in my pot. After a rolling boil for about 30 minutes, I decided to turn it off and pop in the wort chiller I had also fabricated, to see how it worked.

When I was done, there was a very thin strange white powder coating the copper tubing on the wort chiller... a real fine powder. When I wiped my finger around the inside of the pot, I also got the powder residue. I had a decent layer of oxidation formed... but I'm confused and slightly concerned about the powder.

Is this normal? If not, what to do? Boil again and see if it goes away?

If this has been asked and answered, kick me in the butt and point me to the thread I missed...

Thanks

Eric

Do you have mineral deposits in your water..I.E. Limestone? Calcium? are you on a well? If so, add a sediment filter inline to catch that stuff.

Hmm... no, I don't think so. I'm on city water, and I've never had a problem with the household plumbing. That would, however, be a sensible possibility.

Perhaps I'll boil a few gallons of filtered water this morning and see what happens.

Thanks for the insight.

If it was a mineral deposit, then boiling filtered water would yield the same result. Check the pH of your water if you can, or try boiling distilled, de-ionized, or reverse osmosis filtered water and see if the deposits form again.

OK. Problem solved... I boiled three gallons of distilled water without any of the strange sediment appearing at all, so apparently it was something in my city water.

I'm glad to know I can brew my first "big batch" tomorrow without having to worry about strange white powdery residue... but I'm a little freaked out wondering what the hell my family and I have been drinking all these years!! (I think I'll have my water tested next week.)

thanks for the advice.

Calcium carbonate is one of the compounds that precipitates from boiled water. Generally not a problem in brewing or drinking.

If you've been drinking that water all along, and it hasn't killed you, it's not going to kill you through your beer either.

david_42 said:

Calcium carbonate is one of the compounds that precipitates from boiled water. Generally not a problem in brewing or drinking.

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True, if you are going to do all-grain with your water you may want to get a water report so you can tweak it to match the styles you do. Otherwise you may have your darker beers turn out better than your lighter beers. Generally when you boil water with bicarbonate and calcium you can get calcium bicarbonate (chalk) come out of solution.

conpewter said:

True, if you are going to do all-grain with your water you may want to get a water report so you can tweak it to match the styles you do. Otherwise you may have your darker beers turn out better than your lighter beers. Generally when you boil water with bicarbonate and calcium you can get calcium bicarbonate (chalk) come out of solution.

Click to expand...

Well, heck. Ya'll r' so smart! "Chalk." That's exactly what this stuff was like... chalk dust.

And I prefer darker ales and porters... so I'm happy to hear those will come out ok.

Thanks again, everyone!

Meh. Don't worry about it. Our immune systems are like muscles. We need to exercise them to keep them fit. That funny feeling gassy feeling you have in your stomach? Think of it like a BowFlex for your white blood cells. And the water in Mexico will REALLY make your immune system "feel the burn" (out your a** for about a month).