Will a stainless steel screw in my fermenter rust?

[Mogie]

So my brew day went without a hitch until I noticed one of the plastic blades from my wort aerator is floating in my carboy. The stainless nut that came loose must in in there as well. It is advertised as stainless, but if I leave it in there for a week before racking to secondary, will it rust?

I'm going to try to fish out the plastic blade, and thought about sanitizing a magnet and attaching it to something to fish out the nut.

But if I cant get them out is my fresh new batch ruined?

 

[billl]

That is kinda the whole point of stainless, right? If it rusted in wort, no professional brewer would ever use it as a fermenter.

 

[Epimetheus]

The usual cause for rust on stainless steel is a small amount of regular steel that rubbed off on it. If you happened to forcefully scrape the screw across plain steel, a bit may have been deposited. Since I do not think you did that, you should be fine.

No rust. No worries. Brew on.

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

I'm going to try to fish out the plastic blade, and thought about sanitizing a magnet and attaching it to something to fish out the nut. But if I cant get them out is my fresh new batch ruined?

Just run a high strength magnet across the bottom of the fermenter from the outside. If it's strong enough you should be able to drag the screw up the side and out the top without fishing around in your wort if you're truely concerned of it rusting.

 

[neo71665]

Depends on what type of stainless if it rusts or the magnet trick will work. If a magnet attracts it then it will rust.

 

[mblanks2]

if a magnet attracts it then it will rust.

+1

 

[NewJersey]

Depends on what type of stainless if it rusts or the magnet trick will work. If a magnet attracts it then it will rust.

that is not exactly true.
some ss is magnetic and some is not.

 

[TopherM]

All stainless steel will rust given enough time, it just takes a longgg time under normal conditions.

Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stainless_steel

 

[neo71665]

that is not exactly true.
some ss is magnetic and some is not.

If its low enough grade stainless that its magnetic then it will always rust.

 

[Cyclman]

Totally off topic, but after the first couple of days, your beer will have little oxygen in it. Rust is an oxidative process. I wondder if there's enough oxygen in fermenting beer to rust something?

Stainless, even lower grades, rust more slowly, so for the time of fermentation I think you'll be just fine.

 

[neo71665]

Totally off topic, but after the first couple of days, your beer will have little oxygen in it. Rust is an oxidative process. I wondder if there's enough oxygen in fermenting beer to rust something?

Stainless, even lower grades, rust more slowly, so for the time of fermentation I think you'll be just fine.

In all honestly I doubt consumption of any rust that would happen to form on a stir bar would hurt anybody. I'd be more worried about funky flavors cause I know first hand rust tastes bad.

 

[Mogie]

So! After racking to secondary, dumping the trub and yeast cake I retrieved the little rascal. And as we predicted no rust. And no it was not magnetic either. I actually pinged one of my engineer friends I used to work with and he said stainless steel is non-ferrous, meaning not containing high amounts of iron. (I guess that's why it isn't magnetic and also won't oxidize like a piece of iron) He also said that depending on the quality of the stainless, stainless steel typically contains chromium. When the chromium in the steel is oxidized it forms a thin layer only a few atoms thick, which is the "stainless" coating. Basically its a kind of oxidation or "rust" but instead of being a flaky orange nasty rust, its the shiny stainless layer that protects the steel. He said if the nut was scratched, another layer would form over it quickly, self healing steel...kinda like the T-1000! Pretty friggin cool. I'm sure I missed some important details somewhere. But my beer is safe, and after only 10 days in primary, tastes pretty darn good

 

[jpalarchio]

1. What kind of beer?

2. How are you going to incorporate the the word "screw", "stainless", "thread" or "phillips" into the name?

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

1. What kind of beer? 2. How are you going to incorporate the the word "screw", "stainless", "thread" or "phillips" into the name?

Go screw brew?