copperbin keggle??

Make grain beers with the absolute minimum of equipment. Discuss here.
Post Reply
marv

copperbin keggle??

Post by marv » Mon Nov 12, 2012 5:39 pm

hey clever peeps ,can someone clarify something ive recently made a keggle and have a little bit of copper on the tap,now my father in law saw this and said the acidity in the beer will attack the cooper and therefore give me copper poisoning??is this true......if so hop strainers are copper? help !

crafty john

Re: copperbin keggle??

Post by crafty john » Mon Nov 12, 2012 5:42 pm

No you won't get copper poisoning, lot's of copper is used through the whole brewing process at my house and I am still alive.

marv

Re: copperbin keggle??

Post by marv » Mon Nov 12, 2012 10:33 pm

lol whats he on about then?

crafty john

Re: copperbin keggle??

Post by crafty john » Tue Nov 13, 2012 10:56 am

marv wrote:lol whats he on about then?
Father in law trying to make you think that he knows everything, after all you stole his daughter :D

marv

Re: copperbin keggle??

Post by marv » Wed Nov 14, 2012 11:42 am

hes seriously worried me now the c@@@ im worried i have 5gallons of poisoned old speckled hen lol

Manx Guy

Re: copperbin keggle??

Post by Manx Guy » Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:00 pm

Hi!

Relax Plumbling is copper, although admittedly water is not as acidic as wort...

However back in the day boilers for brewing beer were made from copper (as its easy to shape and plentiful)
people used to drink ale like it was water (literally in pre- 1854 Broad Street Cholera epidemic times) and didnt come to any harm

Thats where brweing boilers get the name 'coppers' from

:D
Tell pops to put that in his pipe...

:lol:

:wall

Guy
8)

marv

Re: copperbin keggle??

Post by marv » Wed Nov 14, 2012 4:11 pm

got a little brass coupling too that ok?

Spikesdad

Re: copperbin keggle??

Post by Spikesdad » Wed Nov 14, 2012 4:14 pm

marv wrote:got a little brass coupling too that ok?

Yes, thats no prob either. just two bits of advice from me...

1) stop worrying.

2) get brewing.

Cheers, Dave

User avatar
Horden Hillbilly
Moderator
Posts: 2150
Joined: Mon May 08, 2006 1:00 pm
Location: Horden, Co. Durham
Contact:

Re: copperbin keggle??

Post by Horden Hillbilly » Thu Nov 15, 2012 12:58 pm

I've used copper strainers in my boiler & mash tun since the mid 1990's & I'm still here to tell the tale. :wink:

Spikesdad

Re: copperbin keggle??

Post by Spikesdad » Thu Nov 15, 2012 2:07 pm

marv wrote:...ive recently made a keggle and have a little bit of copper on the tap,now my father in law saw this and said the acidity in the beer will attack the cooper and therefore give me copper poisoning??
Im personally more wore worried about alcohol poisoning :D :D :D

marv

Re: copperbin keggle??

Post by marv » Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:56 pm

cheers for the advice

cyberbackpacker

Re: copperbin keggle??

Post by cyberbackpacker » Sat Dec 22, 2012 1:42 am

Before fermentation copper is great, however once fermentation begins your FIL is right, the acidity will cause a break down of the copper and will lead to poisoning.

So, hot side- copper good
Cold side- copper BAD

art.b

Re: copperbin keggle??

Post by art.b » Sat Dec 22, 2012 12:41 pm

sounds like good advice ...

User avatar
Kev888
So far gone I'm on the way back again!
Posts: 7701
Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:22 pm
Location: Derbyshire, UK

Re: copperbin keggle??

Post by Kev888 » Sat Dec 22, 2012 2:05 pm

I heard there was an attempt to get some of the old fashioned breweries to upgrade to stainless on health and safety grounds, but it fell through because the amount of copper getting dissolved wasn't much anyway but they found that the yeast actually deal with any dissolved copper during the fermentation.

I believe that verdigris isn't great though, so if you see your copper parts starting to go green, probably safest to clean it off. It won't be a problem if you keep stuff dry between use but I have a few problems with it on stuff kept out in the unheated, damp garage.

Cheers
Kev
Kev

Post Reply