sanke keg

[ptpeter]

just a quick quetsion, I thought you were not supposed to use aluminum pots when you make beer. Wouldnt this apply for sanke kegs? I have a milwaukees best keg that I plan on using soon. Any info would be great.

Peter

 

[Jim Karr]

Are you sure it's aluminum? Most Sanke kegs are stainless

 

[ptpeter]

my friend told me that they were aluminum. Is there a way i can tell if its stainless?

 

[Jim Karr]

Stainless would polish up with a brighter lustre than aluminum if you use some metal polish.

Stainless would also be heavier than aluminum (but if you've only got the one keg, what would you compare it with?).

If you were to hit the upper handle ring with a grinding wheel, the sparks given off would be another way to tell if it's aluminum or not.

Some stainless steels (with a lower nickel content) would also be mildly magnetic. Try a magnet on it, and see what happens.

 

[david_42]

I thought you were not supposed to use aluminum pots when you make beer.

Much discussed garbage science.

Most kegs are stainless, aluminum is too soft to survive much rough handling & breweries can't use caustic cleaning chemicals on it.

 

[cnapierala]

just curious.. How do you plan to clean and fill the keg?

 

[ptpeter]

I'm not, I'm going to cut the top off and use it as a pot.

 

[gnef]

then don't worry about it either way. aluminum isn't bad as a pot, just be careful with the way you clean it.

most likely it is steel though. you could call the brewery and ask them if you wanted to though...

 

[runhard]

I thought you were not supposed to use aluminum pots when you make beer. Wouldnt this apply for sanke kegs?
Peter

On http://www.basicbrewing.com/radio/ John Palmer talks about the use of stainless in brewing much as he discussed in his book. If I can quickly find which podcast I'll post a link to it but aluminum is now not as frowned upon as it once was, at least according to those who seem to know. Who knows, 10 years from now someone may do a study and say that the chromium oxide layer in stainless is bad for us..... Palmer's book has a nice section about most metals used in brewing and any known toxicity concerns. My worries are with plastics as I've read that certain plastics have compounds similar in structure to estrogens; I don't want that crap in my beer.