The ionic liquid choline acetate was used as a cyanide-free electrolyte for the electrodeposition of copper–zinc alloy (α-brass) thin films on a steel substrate. In comparison with the more commonly used choline chloride based deep-eutectic solvents, choline acetate enables the electrodeposition in absence of chloride ions, in order to avoid their accelerating effect. With 0.1moldm−3 Cu(OAc)2·H2O and 0.1moldm−3 Zn(OAc)2·2H2O dissolved in choline acetate, the reduction potentials of copper and zinc were separated by 500mV. Using potentiostatic deposition, only coatings of a negligible thickness could be obtained. Upon addition of triethanolamine, the deposition rates of both copper and zinc increased substantially and the reduction potential of copper shifted 300mV toward more cathodic potentials. Bright layers with a thickness of up to 200nm could be obtained. With a 1:2 molar ratio of metal-to-triethanolamine, well-adherent mirror-bright deposits with a composition of 90wt% Cu and 10wt% Zn were deposited at −1.5V versus Ag|AgCl (3M KCl), with a cathodic current efficiency of around 75%. For longer deposition times, morphological instabilities occurred. Addition of polyvinyl alcohol in concentrations between 8 and 20mgdm−3 enabled the deposition of mirror-bright brass layers with a thickness up to 1μm. Variation of the deposition potential between −1.3 and −1.5V had no marked influence on the composition of the alloy. However, the cathodic current efficiency dropped to 25% when potentials more negative than −1.5V were applied. A decrease in the copper concentration in the electrodeposition bath resulted in dark-red powdery deposits while an increase of the zinc concentration in the bath, resulted in mirror-bright, well-adherent brass layers, with a copper content as high as 90wt%. SEM images showed a grain size of 150nm. XRD analyses indicated that the depositions consisted only of α-brass.