Moving to All Grain - Equipment List

[Setesh]

I'm pretty sure brass is food safe, as it is used in residential plumbing systems regularly. Brass itself doesn't contain any lead, as it is a mixture of copper and zinc.

Depends on the brass. The yellow brass that you can buy at home depot/lowes contains 5% lead. The vinegar/hydrogen peroxide treatment will dissolve the surface lead but ONLY if you do it for the proper amount of time. Too long and you will dissolve brass too exposing more lead. Keep in mind that 5% lead is for the entire weight of the piece of brass. The surface area is a small portion of the weight. Lead also gets expelled from the body fairly quickly.

Still, it's lead, and stainless isn't that expensive and sooooo pretty!

Take a look on Bobby's site and see if you can get what you want there. Bobby is great to deal with and has awesome service. He is a HBT member.

http://brewhardware.com/fittings

 

[MaxStout]

I went to Home Depot and bought the brass equipment but will still need to order some online. I'm not sure what the advantage would be to try and do the work to get all the SS parts together, so I will probably stick with brass unless anyone has some specific reasons not to.

Thanks for the help.

Just don't attach anything brass to aluminum. The two metals will create a galvanic junction and you'll have a corrosion problem. However, if you attach it to stainless, you shouldn't have any problems.

 

[Setesh]

Just don't attach anything brass to aluminum. The two metals will create a galvanic junction and you'll have a corrosion problem. However, if you attach it to stainless, you shouldn't have any problems.

Good point, very true. Leave them long enough and they will become one piece.

 

[insanim8er]

Depends on the brass.

You beat me to it.. Good info here.

 

[estricklin]

Depends on the brass. The yellow brass that you can buy at home depot/lowes contains 5% lead. The vinegar/hydrogen peroxide treatment will dissolve the surface lead but ONLY if you do it for the proper amount of time. Too long and you will dissolve brass too exposing more lead. Keep in mind that 5% lead is for the entire weight of the piece of brass. The surface area is a small portion of the weight. Lead also gets expelled from the body fairly quickly.

Still, it's lead, and stainless isn't that expensive and sooooo pretty!

Take a look on Bobby's site and see if you can get what you want there. Bobby is great to deal with and has awesome service. He is a HBT member.

http://brewhardware.com/fittings

Good information. Still seems like that the amount of lead would be almost too small to measure.

I do prefer stainless as well though. All my fittings are except for a hose barb, which I always meant to replace but never got around to it. It's so easy to wreck the threads on brass fittings too.