Getting a Better Bottle clean?

I have soaked my BB and vigorously shook the BB with a cleaning solution, but cannot get every bit of the sediment off of the side. I don't want to use a brush and run the risk of scratching the BB, so what should I do about that....just keep repeating the process or is there a better way?

Thanks
Slappy

Fill up with water and put in about a quarter cup of oxyclean and let soak for a day or two. Empty all but a gallon (maybe less) water out and insert a dish rag into the BB. Cover with your hand, turn upside down and swirl like a B@@ch trying to get the rag to rub the area where the crud is. This should do the trick.

If not you could do this. Warning: I'll probably get flamed for this method but I haven't had issues yet.

Take your carboy brush. Cover with a thick sock and tie the sock above the brush to keep it on. Soak using oxyclean as describe above. Gently insert sock condomed brush into BB and using gentle pressure remove scum ring.

Thanks McKBrew....hopefully this will get it done.

Oxyclean

Soak for day or two

Spray out

Nuff said

(did this with glass carboys and corny kegs I purchased that had 2 year old crap stuck to em... The cornys ended up needing an overnight soak of light BKF, but no scrubbing on either)

I do the Oxy-Clean and rag shake thing like McKBrew, always works for me. A good soak in Oxy-Clean or PBW will remove almost anything.

I've found that the brown crud above the beer level can be difficult to get off.
I fill the bottle up with a gallon of hot water (too hot will deform the BB), add a couple of teaspoons of PBW & then invert the bottle into a small bucket. This works on the same principle as the water cooler at work, it won't leak. Usually an hour of this takes everything off.

gxm said:

I've found that the brown crud above the beer level can be difficult to get off.
I fill the bottle up with a gallon of hot water (too hot will deform the BB), add a couple of teaspoons of PBW & then invert the bottle into a small bucket. This works on the same principle as the water cooler at work, it won't leak. Usually an hour of this takes everything off.

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+1 on inverting the bottle like this... works great and you only need a relatively small amount of water too.

You can take a spong, use a new one (this is only an example) and attached it to a dowel.



With a straight dowel, the problem is that you cannot reach every part, but the bottom should be able to cleaned without any problem.

i use one of those brass caryboy cleaning attachments for the sink. works pretty awesome at cleaning the sides and bottom, and the heavy flow usually cleans the gunk from the top too. never had to scrub

oxyclean soak for 2 days and shake vigorously with another gallon of hot water and oxyclean again and all crud is off

1. use the oxyclean for a couple days..
2. if there are any residual crap on it.. put a little water and a wet rag inside, swish it all around.. you can even work on one spot with it..

thats what i do..

why not just use a bottle brush. It is just a beer bottle. M

M&M said:

why not just use a bottle brush. It is just a beer bottle. M

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It is a plastic carboy so you don't want to scratch it. BetterBottle Carboys (Better-Bottle Carboys): Bisphenol-A free (BPA-free), Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate free (DEHP-free), plasticizer-free home winemaking equipment

I am glad I only use glass.

Brew-boy said:

I am glad I only use glass.

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You should put your blood type in your profile. When your carboy finally decides to break, your HBT pals will know if they're eligible to donate blood!

I'm soooo glad to be glass free, I'm just about to sell off my two remaining glass carboys. If I haven't used them for the past year, I figure I'll never use them.

Cleaning better bottles is substantially easier, because you can handle them so easily and not worry about them slipping out of your hands or bumping the sink or floor. I just put in 2-3 small scoops of oxi-clean, add a gallon of hot tap water, shake it up, and top up with more hot water. Next time I check, it's spotlessly clean...sometimes in as little as an hour. No brush, no sponge, no sock...no scrubbing of any kind.

BlindLemonLars said:

You should put your blood type in your profile. When your carboy finally decides to break, your HBT pals will know if they're eligible to donate blood!

I'm soooo glad to be glass free, I'm just about to sell off my two remaining glass carboys. If I haven't used them for the past year, I figure I'll never use them.

Cleaning better bottles is substantially easier, because you can handle them so easily and not worry about them slipping out of your hands or bumping the sink or floor. I just put in 2-3 small scoops of oxi-clean, add a gallon of hot tap water, shake it up, and top up with more hot water. Next time I check, it's spotlessly clean...sometimes in as little as an hour. No brush, no sponge, no sock...no scrubbing of any kind.

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Wont be needed as I am very careful more than most I guess. I have brew Haulers and never handle a wet carboy. I only rack out of it with a hose and never try to pour. 9 years and never a problem for me at least. I just could never see me using a water bottle to ferment in with the worries of scratches.

Brew-boy said:

I just could never see me using a water bottle to ferment in with the worries of scratches.

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A better bottle is hardly a "water bottle." And how is it going to get scratched, when you never put anything sharper than a yeast cell inside?!? I used to be a glass snob, but I had a plastic epiphany and saw the light.

I'm type O negative (universal donor,) so you can count on me for a pint when the need arises.

McKBrew said:

Empty all but a gallon (maybe less) water out and insert a dish rag into the BB. Cover with your hand, turn upside down and swirl like a B@@ch trying to get the rag to rub the area where the crud is. This should do the trick.

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I've done this and it works rather good plus no scratches. Generally however, crud comes right off after a little oxyclean soak.

Me, I like buckets. (I know nobody asked ) They won't break like glass, they're way easier to clean than a BB (I sponge mine down in the sink), have less light permeability, have a REALLY handy spigot just above the trub, they're cheaper, and have a handle for carrying up the stairs. The list goes on. Oxygen permeability and scratching are really non-issues, if the bucket is used/stored properly.

Why not go with a bucket?

ScubaSteve said:

have a REALLY handy spigot just above the trub, they're cheaper, and have a handle for carrying up the stairs.

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I used to like buckets with spigots, until I had a spigot come loose while carrying a bucket of fermented stout. I had to plunge my unsanitized hand & arm through the beer in order to tighten the plastic nut. The plastic threads were stripped, to the point that it would give way if you tightened it too much. (Still drinking that batch, it came out fine!)

My fermenting takes place in the dark sanctuary of a chest freezer, so I like having a transparent vessel which allows me to visually inspect the beer's progress. And I can't imagine anything easier to clean than a better bottle, they are literally self-cleaning! There is something about the composition of the plastic, krausen just doesn't stick as tightly as it does to glass. I used to scrub my glass carboys, these I just let em' soak!

Obviously people should use whatever they like and prefer.

ScubaSteve said:

Why not go with a bucket?

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I admit that I'm a snob about plastics. I prefer not to use plastics that I can smell. The buckets at my LHBS store are plastic smelly. The BB, not so much.

And, like BlindLemonLars, I really like to watch the beer. I like to let the beer sit in the primary until it is clear, which is simple to do with the BB.