Kevin K

Recipes 

My father in law loaned his carboy to his moron neighbour. He made wine with it and didn't rinse it after racking/bottling. There is a thin layer of purple **** at the bottom, and soaking in Iodaphor for a few hours won't loosen it all up. (I know iodophor isn't for cleaning gunk, but I wanted to sanitize the carboy before racking, and noticed it was full of crap after filling it with iodaphor solution.)

I have some "sparkle brite", should I try that?

I'd like to get this gunk out of there tonite, as I'd like to get my first brew into the secondary.

My brush doesn't reach the bottom of the carboy. Any ideas?

Kevin

rod

Recipes 

i have heard oxyclean works well - just rinse really well after.
i have had good luck with a strong bleach solution - agian rinse very well

__________________
simplified signature:
beer, wine, cheese in various stages of production

Sasquatch

Recipes 

Depending on your time frame, a little dishwasher soap in some hot water will take it off in a few hours. Then make sure you wash the carboy with some tsp to get rid of any soap residue. My dad's wine-use carboys all needed this chemical treatment and a scrub when they came here.

__________________
Primary: Lager

Secondary: Sangiovese, Honey Nut Brown, some Pilsner/ale kinda thing that just won't quit...

Bottled:
Tar Sands Porter, Special Dark Bitter,Oaky Red ale, Hammer & Tongs Black Ale, Black Draught, Cooper's Bitter, Baron's Pilsner
Super Saazy Saaz Pilsner Saaz (It's a little green, yet)

RichBrewer

Recipes 

I bet PBW would work to clean that carboy.

__________________
Cheers,
Rich

McCall St. Brewer

Recipes 

B-Brite will probably do the trick if you can get it. Do you have a LHBS near you?

Kevin K

Recipes 

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'm currently soaking it in the sparkle brite solution. Might have to rinse a bunch of times, but I think it's working.

I don't have any PBW or any of the other chemicals at this time. Will have to see what I can find next time. Hopefully I can rack tonite.

Kevin

david_42

Recipes 

TSP or any good floor cleaner. Rinse well, Rinse well, Rinse well, sanitize.

__________________
Remember one unassailable statistic, as explained by the late, great George Carlin: "Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider!"

DyerNeedOfBeer

Recipes 

If I'm not too late to chime in here... I have used PBW for the first time in the past couple of days cleaning the corny's I am about to put into my 'home brew service'. I am really impressed with this stuff. I don't have experience with a wide variety like the san star or others since I have always used bleach and Iodophor so I can't compare them. I wanted something for stainless and bleach is a 'no no' there so I ordered this stuff. The cornys had the 'gunk' in the bottom which is probably similar to what you are describing. I didn't even have to scrub a bit! 30 mins in PBW / warm water and it was whistling clean. Of course being paranoid, I did scrub afterwards even though they were clean...

__________________
Beer lovers make better drinkers.

Kevin K

Recipes 

The sparkle brite worked ok. Got it all out, but took longer than I'd hoped.

Caplan

Recipes 

Assuming you haven't forbid the carboy loan scheme soak with your 'to hand' cleaner as above and get a long piece of wire and secure a kitchen scourer to to it scrub 'stuborn' spots. Or next time put pressure on the FIL to get the wino to clean the bloody thing properly before returning!