Black stuff on aluminum pot from oxiclean

[CorneliusAlphonse]

Left my aluminum brew pot soaking in oxyclean on monday after brewing. Today, the top half of the inside of the pot is blackish instead of the aluminum colour it was before. Lots of stuff on the internet about this, lots of useless suggestions on how to fix it (soak in more oxyclean! scrub with a dish scrubby! dont worry about it it won't affect your beer!) but i dont trust them much. has anyone had this happen before and how did you fix it? ill chuck a pic up in a little bit

[mr x]

Don't use strong caustics, and I wouldn't use PBW. Caustic eats aluminum.

[RubberToe]

Ideally I think it's best to have a little of that stuff on your aluminum brew pot as it's an oxidation layer that keeps the aluminum from leeching out. The oxyclean may have overdone it. I've read that you can just boil water for a while to build it up or it can also build up over several brews.

[LiverDance]

NEVER USE OXYCLEAN ON ALUMINUM

[CorneliusAlphonse]

LD yeah i realize this now! ha. any solutions for someone who already has?

planning to buy an OBK pot anyway, just might be happening a bit sooner than planned...

here's a picture

brewpotOxidation.jpg

[pet lion]

Making plum sauce in my aluminum pot removed a lot of similar gunk, so boiling with a bunch of vinegar and water would be my recommendation.

[HbgBill]

As others have suggested.. DON'T use oxyclean/PBW on an aluminum pot. In fact, the only thing you need to do with you kettle is to wash it and remove debris. You don't need a sterile pot as the hot wort you are making kills all the bad stuff.

You don't have to worry about black stuff on your pretty aluminum pot. The black stuff is aluminum oxide.. it's a very good thing. It forms a barrier between the easily reactive aluminum and the contents of the pot. Mine is very black inside.. I don't know if cars today are using aluminum for trim.. but, back in the 50's/60's, the cars had aluminum trim on them. Sometimes they were in colors, blue/red/chrome looking. Well that color was aluminum oxide and they stayed shiny.. why? Because the raw aluminum was protected from the elements by that oxide. We can't do the same thing with our pots easily.. but, the dark buildup is what happens when the oxide is formed in a non-controlled environment.