Nosybear said:
If I let the stick dry long enough, I'd deem it minimal.
Nosy, I completely agree with you. For me it comes back to a personal preference, in general I try to avoid anything that can leach chemicals into what I consume. At times my cheapness does get in the way, take for instance my aluminum brew pot. Yes, boiling acidic wort will cause leaching of the aluminum into my wort, and aluminum acts on the nervous system the same way lead does. On the other hand you would have to consume the entire pot in order to get the same effect as full on lead poisoning, but it is still there. Also anyone notice how nice their copper wort chiller looks after using it? The hot acidic wort is dissolving a small amount of copper into your wort. To be fair stainless steel is not immune to this either (can anyone say chromium/nickel), it just resist it a lot better. The only sure bet is glass because the grain structure effectively traps everything in its makeup, rendering it virtually inert. In my personal opinion plastics are the worst and I try to avoid using any type of plastic with anything hot, or for long term exposure.
One thing I have been concerned about is my wort chiller, because it has solder joints that I am sure are being affected by the boiling wort. I built it myself and used plumbing grade solder, but I never realized how acidic wort was until I used my chiller for the first time and it went from dull to all most polished. On the other hand it works so well I am reluctant to give it up (it has two 25' 1/4 sections that follow water simultaneously in opposite directions for even cooling of the entire pot).
I am a little odd when it comes to what I consider safe, but its more of personal preference than anything. Its all relatively safe unless you are in California, then it will cause cancer
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All in all the less chemicals I expose any of my food products to the better, which is why I use glass when ever practical, especially iv the contents are hot or the exposure time is lengthy