Aluminum kettle discoloration

[andersonimes]

I was a little leery of buying an aluminum kettle. I'd always heard it would make your dick shrivel up and fall off and kill your dog, but after reading a bit in How to Brew I figured it would be ok.

I bought a turkey fryer. I decided to boil some water in there before I used it just in case they put some oil in there to keep it from rusting. I washed it out and then boiled 6 gallons of just water. After just coming to a boil, I noticed the water had turned yellowish. I poured it out and found this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24262860@N00/4222299062/

Now I know this is the lowest of the low in terms of quality, but I did not expect anything like that. Can anyone explain this to me? Is that yellow shit going to make my skin slough off and make me get a demotion at work or what?

[DannyW]

That looks just like my aluminum kettles did after I first boiled plain water in them, and since have used them for many many batches. MY guess is that is a nice later of aluminum oxide below the water line and less so above.

Turning the water yellow is strange though. Likely you were right and there was a coating of wax or oil from manufacturing. Might want to boil water again and make sure it comes out as clean as it went in before you cook or brew with it.

[Travisty]

You want that to happen with aluminum kettles. That's the passive aluminum oxide layer that will keep any metallic flavor out of your beer.

[Neuron_Theory]

And after you get that layer, I believe you are supposed to clean gently and not scrub it off.

[andersonimes]

I got nervous and took it back and bought a 30 qt stainless turkey fryer on craigslist for the same price. I hope you don't think less of me.

That makes sense about the oxidation. And I should be clear also that the water in the pot *looked* yellow, but only because it was in the pot that now had a yellow background to it. The water seemed to pour clear.

[Travisty]

It would have been fine, but if you were able to get stainless at the same price then I think you made the right call. At least now you don't have to worry about which cleaner is safe to use on your kettle (as long as you don't use bleach ).

[andersonimes]

Yeah, I think I got lucky. It's a really nice pot... 1.2 mm thick sides and what looks to be a fairly thick bottom. Little worried about hotspots, but not overly so.

The burner looks to be a little more efficient... 30% more BTUs than the other one I took back.

KBar is sending me a ball valve for free (frickin awesome) so I'm going to look into affixing it to this thing. Really stoked.