Alum pot?

[mavrick1903]

What's the oven method to make the aluminum pot ok?

 

[Nateo]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/faq-aluminum-pots-boil-kettles-49449/

"or by putting it in your oven for 10 mins at 350 F."

 

[broadbill]

"or by putting it in your oven for 10 mins at 350 F."

I'm not sure this is even necessary, and I'd be interested to hear where this idea came from exactly (I do know it is often cited around here)....

IIRC, Aluminum develops an oxide layer all by itself, just by being exposed to air. I've brewed in Aluminum without "building up a passive layer" and never had any problems...

To the OP, I say go and use it...don't bother with the pre-treatment...

 

[BigTerp]

I just conditioned my new 32 quart aluminum pot over the weekend by boiling a full volume of water for about an hour. It definitely produced a nice dull looking oxide layer on the inside of the pot. Weither necessary or not at least now I know it has a nice oxide layer.

 

[Revvy]

I just conditioned my new 32 quart aluminum pot over the weekend by boiling a full volume of water for about an hour. It definitely produced a nice dull looking oxide layer on the inside of the pot. Weither necessary or not at least now I know it has a nice oxide layer.

That's all I've ever done as well. Just boil water.

 

[ArcaneXor]

Either method works. When I lost my oxide layer due to PBW eating through it (and creating nice alumina crystals all over the pot), I did both, and succeeded in saving the pot.

 

[wildwest450]

Hows it going to matter when you can't even remember your own name from the Alzheimers you're going to get from using aluminum?



I kid.



_

 

[mavrick1903]

Thanks all. I knew there was a thread. Sorry for asking about a booked mark thread. duh.

 

[BigTerp]

Either method works. When I lost my oxide layer due to PBW eating through it (and creating nice alumina crystals all over the pot), I did both, and succeeded in saving the pot.

I noticed this with my pot as well. I thought it was some mineral deposits from my hard water, but I guess it was a ton of alumina crystals. Would have been pretty nasty to have been boiling some wort with all that crap in there!!

 

[tnshurtm]

I just got a new aluminum pot and it came with instructions on how to season it. When I saw them, I though for sure it would be the standard 1hr boil that I always read about here. Instead, it says:

Wash pot with mild soap and water
Rinse and dry
Spread a small amount of light cooking oil inside the pot
"Slowly heat until quite hot, but before smoke is visible" (Love the quite part)
Repeat 3 times
Empty and clean with cold water

Anyone ever heard this before? It actually warns that if you boil plain water, it may cause discoloration or staining (that can be removed by cooking acidic foods such as tomatoes or rhubarb)

I still plan on just boiling for an hour but wanted to know if anyone else had seasoned with oil.

 

[Vance71975]

What's the oven method to make the aluminum pot ok?

I never did any sort of pretreatment on mine and have never had a problem

 

[ChrisS68]

Either method works. When I lost my oxide layer due to PBW eating through it (and creating nice alumina crystals all over the pot), I did both, and succeeded in saving the pot.

what makes you say they were alumina crystals?

 

[ChrisS68]

I just got a new aluminum pot and it came with instructions on how to season it. When I saw them, I though for sure it would be the standard 1hr boil that I always read about here. Instead, it says:

Wash pot with mild soap and water
Rinse and dry
Spread a small amount of light cooking oil inside the pot
"Slowly heat until quite hot, but before smoke is visible" (Love the quite part)
Repeat 3 times
Empty and clean with cold water

Anyone ever heard this before? It actually warns that if you boil plain water, it may cause discoloration or staining (that can be removed by cooking acidic foods such as tomatoes or rhubarb)

I still plan on just boiling for an hour but wanted to know if anyone else had seasoned with oil.

That sort of seasoning would be if you were going to use the pot for typical food preparation. The "discoloration" they warn of is simply a cosmetic issue - the oxide layer, which in our case is desireable.

 

[BigTerp]

what makes you say they were alumina crystals?

I'm also curious about this. After I dumped my boiled water and let the pot sit outside to cool and dry. I had what looked like mineral deposits coating the entire pot. I rinsed it out and it was fine with a nice oxide layer. I figured this was from my hard water and will be using bottled spring water to brew if thats the case. If it is these alumina crystals and not my hard water I'll probably do 50/50 spring water/tap water when I brew my first batch next weekend.

 

[ChrisS68]

I'm also curious about this. After I dumped my boiled water and let the pot sit outside to cool and dry. I had what looked like mineral deposits coating the entire pot. I rinsed it out and it was fine with a nice oxide layer. I figured this was from my hard water and will be using bottled spring water to brew if thats the case. If it is these alumina crystals and not my hard water I'll probably do 50/50 spring water/tap water when I brew my first batch next weekend.

I'm pretty sure we're talking about minerals precipitating out of the water. I have hard water and I get the same thing (worse?) when boiling water in stainless pots. From what I've seen cleaners like OxiClean (and I assume PBW), being oxygen-based, tend to create a heavy oxide layers rather than remove them. There have been numerous posts on here by people asking why their aluminum pot turned black after leaving cleaning solution in it for an extended amount of time.

 

[ArcaneXor]

what makes you say they were alumina crystals?

I am not sure what else it could have been? They were 5-7 mm dull white to dull gray crystals growing out of the interior surface of the brewpot. Removing them left behind a small pit. They formed under wet contact between PBW and the aluminum.

My tap water is only 27 ppm Ca2+.