Aluminum brew pot question - oxide

[RedL]

Hello everyone! I picked up one of these turkey fryers today from Menards to use for smaller brew in bag batches.

https://www.menards.com/main/outdoo...78035987.htm?tid=-1871453103005708384&ipos=17
I gave the aluminum pot a quick clean out with PBW and a rinse and took it outside to see how quickly it can boil 3 gallons. 14 minutes, I was pretty pleased! Despite what the website says it’s 58,000 btus by the way.

My question is about aluminum oxide. I heard to boil some water in a new aluminum pot to build up a layer of oxide, well mine turned the water brown. It also had a metallic odor to it. Is that normal? Surely this will affect the beer.

 

[MaxStout]

PBW is alkaline. It probably reacted with the aluminum, causing the brown water and metallic smell. Rinse out (this time, no PBW), refill with water, boil again.

 

[RedL]

PBW is alkaline. It probably reacted with the aluminum, causing the brown water and metallic smell. Rinse out (this time, no PBW), refill with water, boil again.

Thanks! Should I get some purified water from the grocery store like I brew with? My tap water is treated and very hard.

 

[MaxStout]

You could try with purified water. Perhaps the hard water contributed to the reaction. Boil for 20 minutes or so. The inside should have a light grey coating, and the water shouldn't become discolored.

 

[bkboiler]

Just my paranoid self...but should @RedL boil some apple juice in it and cool then taste to confirm no metallic flavor?
I had a horrible metallic taste in my first ever batch of beer I eventually (I think) traced to my aluminum pot. The second batch did not taste metallic (even tho I used the same pot...must've passivated).

 

[RedL]

A picture for reference of the pot after I rinsed it. The water was so discolored you couldn’t see through it.

 

[RedL]

I'm going to buy some purified water today at the store and try again. I suspect that's the problem as I have very hard water. Here is a report I found from my water provider. I'm new to brewing, but the alkalinity and PH don't look right to me.

 

[odie]

just do a few boils to season the pot. No soap or hard scrubbers (SOS, copper, SS, etc).

 

[newwolf1977]

I brewed for a few years and am looking on getting back into it. I used a aluminum pot I got off Amazon and cured it by boiling it full of water for an hour. Never had any issues with taste or color. Also I used jugs of mineral water (store brand) to brew my beer without issues. I was told you needed the mineral in the water. Hopefully that gives you more confidence.

 

[RedL]

It was the water! I did another boil with 5 gallons of purified water from the store. The water sort of started to turn dark again right at boil, then went clear. I let it boil 30 minutes, then shut it off and left it to cool for a couple hours. When I came back the water was clear and the stain in the picture above was completely gone. It just has a nice light gray oxide to it now. Thanks for the help everyone, I've a got a lot to learn.

On another note, I'm going to do a write up of this burner in another thread. It really worked well and was a great bargain.

 

[mabrungard]

I recommend using the hard water to pretreat the kettle. It will help coat the metal.