Blackish/Grey Residue on My Aluminum Stock Pot

[randallr]

I scored a 7.5 gallon aluminum turkey freyer pot from my parents. I have spent a couple hours cleaning the thing and removed all the grime. It appears to be pretty clean, but when it's wet and I wipe it with a white cloth it leaves a dark colored spot on the towel. Is this normal? Is there something I can do to get rid of it? Should I be worried?

Thanks,
Richard

 

[Golddiggie]

Fill it as far as you can with water and boil it for 30-60 minutes to condition it. You actually WANT a dark coating on the inside of the pot. In a nut-shell, it's an aluminum oxide coating that will prevent the aluminum from coming in direct contact with the wort. I have the coating on my own aluminum brew kettle...

See it here

Each time you use that pot moving forward, just wash it out with a soapy spong/towel... IF you need to scrub some crud off of it, use a very gently synthetic scrubber (a scrubbing sponge that's been used enough so that it's not going to be harsh works well).

Just looking at the picture makes me want to brew so much...

 

[randallr]

Fill it as far as you can with water and boil it for 30-60 minutes to condition it. You actually WANT a dark coating on the inside of the pot. In a nut-shell, it's an aluminum oxide coating that will prevent the aluminum from coming in direct contact with the wort. I have the coating on my own aluminum brew kettle...

See it here

Each time you use that pot moving forward, just wash it out with a soapy spong/towel... IF you need to scrub some crud off of it, use a very gently synthetic scrubber (a scrubbing sponge that's been used enough so that it's not going to be harsh works well).

Just looking at the picture makes me want to brew so much...

If you wipe it with a white napkin will black stuff come off?

 

[Golddiggie]

If you wipe it with a white napkin will black stuff come off?

Not once the oxide coating is on there... Then again, I got my stock pot brand new just a couple of months back. Your pot might be made of a different alloy than mine.. I got mine from a restaurant supplier, and it's made for heavy use...

Look at it this way, aluminum oxide is very HARD... They use it for sandpaper all the time. That hard coating isn't coming off anytime soon, unless you scrub the hell out of it... Give it a decent amount of time to build up (if you don't get a solid coating the first time you condition the pot) and it will last for ages.

BTW, I just tried wiping mine with a white napkin... NOTHING went onto it. Didn't matter if I wiped the dark area or what looks like bare aluminum. :rockin:

 

[randallr]

It just has we worried because I don't want to ruin my beer with a bunch of black crap in the wort. Thanks a lot for looking into this. When I first got it from my parents it looked a lot like that....now you can still see where the darker oxidized area is but it isn't nearly as dark.

Am I just being paranoid?

 

[Golddiggie]

Probably just being paranoid, but I would boil water in it for a solid 30-60 minutes before using it for the first time. Put as much as you can fit and boil it up... Then see how it reacts one it's cooled back down again.