Did I just ruin my kettle?

[Ironbike1]

I had a bad burn mark on the bottom of my kettle. Not thinking about the consequences of using steel wool I grabbed an SOS steel wool pad and scrubbed the burn mark off. Now I'm wondering if I screwed up my kettle? There isn't any visible marks though.
Thanks

 

[SnakeRidge]

What's the kettle made of? Aluminum or Stainless? Are you talking about the outside bottom of the kettle?

 

[Psylocide]

Inside or outside?

Either way it'll probably be fine, if it's aluminum, you may just need to boil a small amount water to get the oxide layer back on the bottom.

 

[kh54s10]

Rinse it out well to get rid of the soap... If it is aluminum, boil a pot full of water in it to re-establish an oxidation layer. Other than that, I don't see anything of concern at all.....

 

[Ironbike1]

I used it Inside the kettle. Stainless steel kettle

 

[Ironbike1]

I just read all these things about never using steel wool on a stainless steel kettle so I got nervous

 

[poptarts]

I use steel wool on my kettle every brew day to scrub hop gunk. unless you are wanting to fry eggs in you kettle outside of brew days it wont hurt a single thing.

 

[kh54s10]

I just read all these things about never using steel wool on a stainless steel kettle so I got nervous

Got a link to this? I have never seen a warning against cleaning with steel wool.

 

[flars]

Go over the bottom of the kettle with a paste of Barkeepers Friend and a damp paper towel. Work in a circular motion to mimic the production marks. The BF scrub will restore the stainless steel. Rinse well and let air dry. If there are no visible scratches, you're okay.

 

[Ironbike1]

Where can I get that stuff?

 

[Rockn_M]

I just read all these things about never using steel wool on a stainless steel kettle so I got nervous

I think your thinking of fermentation kettles\containers. Anything pre-boil doesn't really matter. You'll kill anything during the boiling process. Once the wort has been boiled and cooled enough to add yeast you'll want to make sure that there aren't any deep scratches in the container you're fermenting in because that can harbor bad stuff to start an infection.

 

[Gameface]

Where can I get that stuff?

Walmart

 

[Howhownow]

Bar Keepers Friend is, well, your friend. Like, your best friend when getting that kind of junk off of stainless pots.

 

[Ironbike1]

Thanks guys I almost bought another kettle

 

[RufusBrewer]

RDWHABK

Relax, Don't Worry, Have A Barkeeper's Friend.

 

[flars]

Where can I get that stuff?

Grocery stores carry it.

 

[Ironbike1]

http://byo.com/malt/item/1144-metallurgy-for-homebrewers

 

[Ironbike1]

Link for those asking about the link saying not to use Steel wool. I've talked with people who are dead set against it saying I should toss the kettle and get a new one and others saying it's completely fine like mentioned here, it's for boiling and mash so it really doesn't matter as long as there is no visible rust. Going from everyone's responses here I'd say the latter is true.

 

[aprichman]

Link for those asking about the link saying not to use Steel wool. I've talked with people who are dead set against it saying I should toss the kettle and get a new one and others saying it's completely fine like mentioned here, it's for boiling and mash so it really doesn't matter as long as there is no visible rust. Going from everyone's responses here I'd say the latter is true.

Nope, it's totally ruined. Send it to me and I'll recycle it for you

 

[kh54s10]

I saw that article a long time ago. I guess I would stay away from using steel wool on a regular basis, but think that an occasional use should be no problem. At least I hope so since I used an SOS pad to scrub my SS pot a couple weeks ago.

Rinse well......

As long as it's not a fermenter I don't see any concern. Unless suddenly the bottom rusts out of the pot.

 

[cyberbrew]

You might want to passivate the areas you scrubbed in the kettle. This can be done with some starsan, see:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=6850071&postcount=5

Cheers!