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Has anyone used aluminum for their mash tun? Thoughts?

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  • Has anyone used aluminum for their mash tun? Thoughts?

    Hello all,

    First I want to start by saying thanks a ton for the useful information that has been provided by the community on this site -- It has been an enormous help getting things going. I've got my building picked out and should be in there in the next 30-45 days (waiting for a prior tenant to vacate). After that it's the waiting game for the brewers notice....

    ANYWAY....

    I want to build a pilot system and was wondering if anyone had used aluminum in their commercial equipment? The reason I ask is that a restaurant supply business here has some HUGE aluminum pots that I could use for this. They already have hardware on them and run about $200 for a 1.5 BBL pot. They are NSF approved so I'm thinking I shouldn't have any issues with that.

    I want to use them specifically for my MT and HLT since they are significantly less expensive than their stainless counterparts. I will still be using stainless for the brew kettle only because they don't have the size that I will need for that after losses and such.

    Has anyone used aluminum for their Mash Tun with success? Are there flavors imparted by it?


    Thanks in advance

  • #2
    DON'T....

    Brewing vessels including mash tuns are normally cleaned with caustic based detergents due to the heavy soil loading.

    Caustic eats aluminium for breakfast.

    So it won't be very long before you have holes in the mash tun.

    New aluminium kegs & cask have been banned in the UK at least because of the perceived or real risk of exacerbating / causing alzheimers. I know of some aluminium alloy maturation tanks which have not been cleaned effectively and have scale build up because they have to use acid detergents (phosphoric based) as these are less agressive than caustic detergents.

    Stainless only then
    dick

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    • #3
      Oh boy, I could see lots of bad in that.

      I did a little more research on it and came to the same conclusion as your post.

      Looks like aluminum is out of the equation!


      Thanks!

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      • #4
        Aluminum

        Another thing that is not widely recognized is the toxicity of aluminum. It is actually not a suitable material for any kind of cooking.
        Warren Turner
        Industrial Engineering Technician
        HVACR-Electrical Systems Specialist
        Moab Brewery
        The Thought Police are Attempting to Suppress Free Speech and Sugar coat everything. This is both Cowardice and Treason given to their own kind.

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