OK. Glad I asked. What I was going on was the coloration. Some fresh brass has a margin of slight discoloration at the neck that I always took to be the effect of annealing. Most virgin brass does not. When I wasn't seeing that margin, I figured they were using an alloy that was sufficiently ductile to get through the manufacturing process without needing to be annealed.
StanV: I missed your post earlier. Let me be clear. MD and Yondering both say a quick quench after annealing is unnecessary. I yield to their greater experience and knowledge. Lord knows, I place existential trust in Yondering's advice on powder coating on a regular basis, and I wouldn't be here if I didn't trust Mule Deer. What I will say is this: I use a propane torch and my fingers to anneal. It's just really easy to drop into a pan of water, and that cools the case off quickly before the heat gets to the head. I've gone over a decade doing it that way, and it closely matches a method my friend used years ago-- except I think he used motor oil instead of water. While a fast quench is not necessary, I will also submit that it doesn't seem to hurt. I've been doing it since 2006 and I've yet to see ill effects.
I would also not suggest motor oil for a quench. Jerry was a retired marine armorer. He did a lot of over-the-top things. His idea of a good brass tumbler was a concrete mixer. His excess brass was stored in 30 and 55 gallon drums. I forget what he used to get the motor oil off the cases, but it was probably something you wouldn't want to use in a confined space. It was also probably lifted from someone else's inventory and returned to their recycle drum without their knowledge. Ditto for the motor oil itself.
