Brass vs. Stainless Steel vs. Copper

[Rob Martin]

Wes, Megan and I are building a new 10 gal set up. I was wondering if I could get some commments about brass vs. stainless steel fittings and stainless steel braids vs. copper pipe manifolds.


Thanks

[meisel]

IMO SS fittings are nice but unnecessary. If you are like me and use brass quick-connects for all of your hoses, it seems a little illogical to pay the extra money for SS. I pickle my brass a la John Palmer's technique but I don't think it's necessary either.

I've used both SS braids and copper manifolds and have tried both batch and fly sparging. My conclusion is whether you choose to batch or fly sparge, go with a copper manifold. They are cheap, easy to make and you can use them in a square or cylindrical vessel. Again, I reference John Palmer's mash tun geometry and have been happily fly sparging ever since

[Rob Martin]

Currently my plan is to use my old brew pot for a non-piped hot liquor tank. Convert cooler for a mash tun, and am in the process of building a keggle. As time goes on, we may convert another keggle into a piped hot liquor tank, but not initially.

In the bottom of your brew pot, do you use a manifold or braid mesh screen?

[Bill]

I've used the SS braid in my boil kettle but had a lot of problems with the hop and break material clogging up the braid making it a huge PITA to empty the kettle.
I've since switched to using a copper dip tube that goes through the center of the false bottom. I use whole hops and no hop bag so this way the hops settle to the bottom and create a filter bed, similar to how your mash bed does in your tun.

Similar false bottom for my boil kettle:



I also used to use a double SS braid in my mash tun and once I made my copper manifold I found that my efficiency increased from the low 70s to the mid 80s. I never had problems with a stuck mash using either way, but I don't think I would go back to the SS braid again.

old setup:


new setup:


What you get is up to you, but I would suggest going with copper for your tun and boil kettle. As for your fittings, again, its up to you, but using brass for your quick connects is fine, and you can pickle them like Lee stated.

I would suggest you use SS for anything that would be in contact with fermenting wort like a thermo-well or if it will be in contact with the wort for an extended amount of time as wort will eat away the copper, but it's fine for your boil and mash.

Read up on the metallurgy section in How to Brew if you want specifics.
How to Brew metallurgy