We had an interesting discussion at dinner last night. We were talking about copper and how it's important in a good diet, but too much is toxic.
My husband said that since I don't eat liver, I should consider other sources of food that have minerals in them.
I laughed and said, "Well, my beer should have some copper in it! I mean, I've got a copper HERMS and a copper CFC".
He got very serious and said, "Well, can you actually calculate the amount of copper that would come through in the beer?".
I said that no, I couldn't. But it did get me wondering. Since post-fermentation, copper is readily picked up, we don't use copper vessels for serving or fermenting. Is that is pH issue?
If your wort going through your HERMS coil is at 158 degrees, and a pH of 5.45, how much copper does it pick up? How about in the BK, when I recirculate for 15 minutes through the CFC at boiling temperatures? At boiling, what is the pH of the wort? 5.0- 5.2? At the end of the boil, when the chilled wort goes through the CFC on the way to the fermenter- is that a time when this could happen? The water being heated in the MLT is in contact with the copper HERMS coil the entire time.
Would picking up copper be temperature, time and pH dependent?
I know that this isn't an issue with copper pipes in our house- but water isn't acidic like wort is.
Or am I way out in left field here?
My husband said that since I don't eat liver, I should consider other sources of food that have minerals in them.
I laughed and said, "Well, my beer should have some copper in it! I mean, I've got a copper HERMS and a copper CFC".
He got very serious and said, "Well, can you actually calculate the amount of copper that would come through in the beer?".
I said that no, I couldn't. But it did get me wondering. Since post-fermentation, copper is readily picked up, we don't use copper vessels for serving or fermenting. Is that is pH issue?
If your wort going through your HERMS coil is at 158 degrees, and a pH of 5.45, how much copper does it pick up? How about in the BK, when I recirculate for 15 minutes through the CFC at boiling temperatures? At boiling, what is the pH of the wort? 5.0- 5.2? At the end of the boil, when the chilled wort goes through the CFC on the way to the fermenter- is that a time when this could happen? The water being heated in the MLT is in contact with the copper HERMS coil the entire time.
Would picking up copper be temperature, time and pH dependent?
I know that this isn't an issue with copper pipes in our house- but water isn't acidic like wort is.
Or am I way out in left field here?