[greatplainsbrewer]

I cleaned beer lines and faucets on my kegerator yesterday.  I mixed warm water and PBW in a bucket and put my brass Perlicks in the solution for around an hour.  The solution turned blue and all the brass was apparently dissolved.  Faucets are now stainless steel.  Any ideas on what happened?  I've cleaned them like this before and not had the issue.  Thanks

[CounterPressure]

I didn't even know Perlick made faucets with brass in them.  All of mine are solid stainless (and were priced accordingly...They're proud of those things)


Five Star does say it's ok on soft metal. I would include copper in that. (Can't imagine brass is different) I've never used it on my chiller that I recall.  I just dunk my chiller in a bucket of star san and that's enough in 15 minutes to clean that right up.  Might work for your brass internals faucet in the future.  I think you're supposed to dilute PBW a little more when using it on copper, but I don't think it's damaging.  I would never let one overnight.  10 minutes in a saucepan at 140F or so and rinse is my method.

[greatplainsbrewer]

The faucets are stainless with a layer of brass on the surface. They are great faucets and Perlick is very proud of them which is why this hurts. 

https://www.perlick.com/products/commercial-products/beverage-dispensing/faucets/630sstf.html

[CounterPressure]

Well, there's no deny'n they're pretty!  Did it totally remove the plating?  I looked on the Five Star site briefly and they say for copper cleanup you just soak in vinegar or citric acid and move on.  They do say Aluminum is a no-go with PBW, but no mention of copper or brass other than to say don't use the normal concentration.

I have 4 of these on my kegerator, but I bought those back when they were only $70 each. https://www.perlick.com/650ss.html
My other faucets, I call em picnic taps since I hook em on a ball lock fitting and dispense from kegs.  They are either plated inside or are chromed brass, I'm not sure which.  Dirt cheap faucets, but still operate nice. I clean them with saniclean that I heat in a pan and just use a plastic cleaning brush.  I never let those sit in cleaner, though maybe I could.  They don't often get used long term so they're never hard to clean.

That will suck if you ate through all the finish on those.   Try the acid and just gently polish them up, the finish might come through again.

[greatplainsbrewer]

Plating is completely gone.  In 5 star's FAQ section they recommend PBW on brass.  Going to be an interesting look- stainless steel faucets on a brass tower

[CounterPressure]

I did a web search to see what they cost and I see they're about the same as mine, $73 ea, though that's not incl shipping. At this point, I'd be thankful the finish is all gone, and not just partially gone.  Pretty sad though that the plating is so thin as to have this happen.

Honestly, the $70ea wouldn't stop me from just replacing them with new ones.  But the plating disappearing would. 


Around the beginning of the year mine were around $100ea on Morebeer (where I bought them originally).  Now they're $90 there (with free shipping).

[brewthru]

Egad! Brass. AFAIK, we don't want brass touching our beer!

[greatplainsbrewer]

Egad! Brass. AFAIK, we don't want brass touching our beer!

They are stainless steel that used to be plated on the outside with brass

[CounterPressure]

Egad! Brass. AFAIK, we don't want brass touching our beer!

They've been making brass faucets for a zillion years. About the only side effect I can think of is that the copper will remove sulfur if it exists. And it's not as easy to clean as stainless, but it's a whole lot easier to work with.

[Drewch]

Aren't brass and other copper alloys inherently antimicrobial? Seems like they'd be ideal for food & bev applications.

I remember this being a point of discussion during COVID — how recent regulations had biased everything towards stainless when brass actually has some advantages over it.