If you heat brass to bend it, it will crumble.
Bend brass cold.
If you feel you must anneal it to make yourself happy, heat it dull red and quench in cold water.
NEVER heat brass to bend it.
Most - not all, but most - cast brass contains a percent or three of lead. Helps make a sounder casting. If you heat that brass to bend it, the soft/molten lead moves in between the crystals & you get a casting with all the strength of hot lead as you bend it. It crumbles.
Then you get to buy a new casting.
A good deal of cold rolled brass sheet & plate, and most brass bar, also has lead in it. The lead improves machinability, and most all brass bar is meant to be machined. It helps the sheet be easier to engrave.
Just don't heat brass to bend it.
Yes, I am the P.I.T.A. metallurgist who comments on such matters.