Found Galvanized Washer in brew setup- am I going to die?

[TW2009]

I disassembled my mash tun today to rejigger things a little bit. I've used this mash tun for about 2 years, after receiving it from a friend, and done about 20 - 5 gallon batches in it.

My manifold is all copper/brass, but during disassembly, I found a washer that is in contact with the mash that looked blackened and rusty. I'm guessing it's galvanized, and has been stripping/stripped of the zinc coating.

Now, I haven't gotten sick from my beer, and neither has anyone else, so I'm not concerned about Zinc poisoning.

But should I be concerned about lead leaching from the steel? How about other potential heavy metals that might have been in the zinc galvanization- I've read cadmium and other stuff can present as impurities in zinc coatings.

I've got some OCD and can't stop thinking about potentially killing myself/ my family with heavy metals, just because I was too lazy to tear the tun apart earlier.

 

[Ben58]

NO! The bit of zinc is beneficial to the yeast as part of their nutrient requirements. Your body also needs small amounts of zinc. You'll live.

 

[blizz81]

I'm going to lay something heavy down on you:


Yes. You are going to die.

 

[TW2009]

I guess I've got myself freaked out from the Flint, MI thing going on.

On a side note- I never got any off-flavors (metallic, iron-y) from any of my batches.

 

[lumpher]

You'd be surprised what your insides can stand. I've been beating mine up with beer for over 30 years, and my doctor says i'm still healthy You'll be fine. We all get a little rust every now and then

 

[TW2009]

Yeah, I'm ok with the zinc aspect of it. Mostly concerned about leaching lead or cadmium from the washer. If it helps, my friend build the tun in 2012 from parts from Ace hardware, so hopefully that means it's a non-leaded galvanization washer. I'm pretty sure it looked stainless to begin with, so hopefully that eliminates the possibility of a cadmium washer, which look yellow-ish. However, it's all blackened and corroded right now, so unable to tell for sure.

 

[Stillraining]

Most all house/building plumbing was galvanized in years past.

 

[CJ-3]

If you have been using it for 2 years and you're not dead yet, you should be fine.

If it killed you already, it's too late to worry about it anyway......

 

[ultravista]

****, yes, it's going to creep on you. I would do something about it now. Galvanized washer, hell no.

 

[TW2009]

For the record, I;m going to be building a brand new mash tun with all stainless. And yes, i realize it can creep up on you, that's why I'm concerned. What I'm hoping is that between the action of the mash, and the action of the yeast, the vast majority of any harmful elements will be gone or at. I would also hope since my friend bought new stuff in 2012, any galvanized stuff would have been manufactured using the new regs stating it had to be lead/cadmium free.

 

[RM-MN]

I guess I've got myself freaked out from the Flint, MI thing going on.

On a side note- I never got any off-flavors (metallic, iron-y) from any of my batches.

The Flint, MI thing is mostly a media frenzy over something that is easily solved. The Twin Cities in Minnesota has lead pipes too but their water is treated to make it less acidic so the lead doesn't leach out into the tap water. That treatment can cause slight scale on the pipes but that protects the people. Flint could solve their problem just as easily but it is necessary that the media has something horrible to report on to keep people scared so they will continue to buy newspapers.:rockin: