Boiling with copper wool?

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Recently, I read an article on the traditional Norwegian home brew technics Heimabrygg, Vossaøl, Hardangerøl and Sognøl – The Farmhouse Homebrews of Western Norway - Brewing Nordic. The author describes the long open-fire boiling in a copper pot. As it claims, copper drives Maillard reaction, caramelisation and other goodness.

And now I'm kinda obsessed with the idea to add copper wool during boiling in my stainless steel kettle. But I also read that copper may provide poisonous copper oxides. So I'm in doubt if boiling with copper is a good idea or not at all, and how to reduce copper hazards.

What do you think, any related experience?

 

[slayer021175666]

It won't hurt a bit. Myself and countless others brew with all kinds of copper of varying amounts in our systems. Its a great metal for breweries to use.

 

[Vale71]

IMHO you'd just be wasting your time going after some "magic metal" superstition. What really drives the Maillard reactions is the long boil time and the very strong boil that you'll get with an unregulated wood fire.

 

[slayer021175666]

Still. It won't hurt anything. What I always heard was that copper gives off some mineral or something that is a yeast nutrient. I'm not a sciency guy and I don't know that to be true. But, I do know it to be true that it WILL NOT do any harm. In some breweries, their kettles, tuns and everything else are comprised %100 of it. Specifically to speak of the copper wool scrubbers, many brewers use them as filters on their dip tubes and countless moonshiners use them in there stills to create better reflux. Its no magic metal in my book either and who knows about the Norway sentiment but, it has been used for centuries in brewing and it won't hurt a thing.
You wanna use copper wool pot scrubbers in your system? Go for it!

 

[Vale71]

Brewing while wearing a feather headress won't hurt a bit either, unless it somehow catches fire while you're wearing it, that is.


For most people that's not reason enough to wear one though...

 

[Taket_al_Tauro]

But, I do know it to be true that it WILL NOT do any harm.

...the LODO-crew have a somewhat different opinion on copper if I am not mistaken.
Apparently it can trigger some oxidative reactions that can increase oxidation of beer down the line.
I do not know how much there is to it myself, though.
And it is certainly true that many traditional breweries have hell of a lot of copper in their equipment and that
does not seem to detract them from making great beer.

 

[OldDogBrewing]

Recently, I read an article on the traditional Norwegian home brew technics Heimabrygg, Vossaøl, Hardangerøl and Sognøl – The Farmhouse Homebrews of Western Norway - Brewing Nordic. The author describes the long open-fire boiling in a copper pot. As it claims, copper drives Maillard reaction, caramelisation and other goodness.

And now I'm kinda obsessed with the idea to add copper wool during boiling in my stainless steel kettle. But I also read that copper may provide poisonous copper oxides. So I'm in doubt if boiling with copper is a good idea or not at all, and how to reduce copper hazards.

What do you think, any related experience?

You can try and get a kettle made of copper, I want to brew with open fire and if I ever do it, I will be using a copper kettle, I think they are used to cook certain sweets as caramel doesn't stick to it

And in Mexico they cook carnitas in giant copper pans

 

[MrFancyPlants]

I used too much campden once and my brew was a little sulfurous, so I shined up an old penny with starsan and put it in the hop bag in the serving keg. The stink was gone, however there was a slight yet persistent flavor that could only be described as “harsh metallic.”
I think my mistake was prolonged exposure on the cold side (low ph). But I wouldn’t go too crazy with the copper.

 

[slayer021175666]

Great. There goes my headress now, too huh?! @$#&!