How bad is patina on copper in the mash tun????????????

[TimCA]

After what was the perfect brew day I was cleaning out the mash tun (a cooler with SS braided hose in it.) and noticed that the copper "T" that connects the bulk head to the braided hose was green with patina. I had just conducted a 60 min mash. I did not notice it till after boil and the wort is now in fermenters. Any how needless to say I will replace it but should I through the batch out? I thought I had heard that green on copper is a health hazard... Will this be enough to contaminate 10 G? Maybe I herd this from Collen???
Thanks
tim

[BrewerJ]

I am no expert but that small of piece of copper and since its still on there, i think you will be fine. I am sure people use counter flow chillers with patina on the copper all of the time without knowing it. However if you are super worried you can always throw it out or have the beer tested which would cost more than rebrewing a new batch

[dmtaylor]

If it touches your wort, it could give off a tinny flavor in the finished beer. If it's only on the exterior, who cares.

[Grizz]

I would not stress to much about it. It was only one fitting. I have a ton of copper in my system. I am sure that there is patina hiding in places that I cant see (inside HLT coils). I have never had any metallic off flavors. A good soak and scrub in star sani will clean up you copper.

[ajdelange]

Nothing to worry about. It's probably copper carbonate but could be any of several other copper salts depending on what was in the mash. We still refer to the kettle in brewing as 'the copper' and that's because the whole shooting match used to be made of copper. While modern regulations prohibit contact between foods at below a certain pH and copper the amount dissolved into a batch of beer at mash pH will certainly not either poison you or ruin the beer. My beer is boiled by steam passing through a copper coil so there is prolonged contact at higher temperature and lower pH than in the mash tun. Those coils are always nice and clean at the end of the boil (the verdigris forms between brews) which means that the verdigris is dissolved away in the boil. Analysis does not show excessive copper content in the beer and there is certainly no copper taste to it.

[cornhole]

Nothing to worry about.

+1 Thanks AJ!!!
TimCA, a few more mashes and your copper fittings will be nice and shiny. BTW, your yeast enjoy a little taste of copper while they do their work.

[TimCA]

Thanks all, as I thought common sence tells me that it is not a problem, but there was smoething in the back of my head that I should check....

Thanks
TimCA