fotomatt1

Recipes 

I thought I had thoroughly cleaned my Better Bottle after my last brew, but I noticed a ring of residue where the layer of kreusen was. I know you're not supposed to use a brush, so I was just curious what the best way to get this dirt off the bottle is?

schweaty

Recipes 

I use Oxy Clean and hot water in all of mine and it has never failed. If that doesn't work, put a wash rag inside the Better Bottle with a cleaning solution and shake it up. The rag won't scratch the inside surface and should get it throughly clean.

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earwig

Recipes 

fill it with hot water/oxyclean... shake it, let it sit for a while.. shake it some more... let it sit... do this for a couple hours and it should be clean.

rawlus

Recipes 

warm water, PBW, a solid bung and some combination soaking and giving it a good shake should get rid of stubborn scum.

fotomatt1

Recipes 

Which oxyclean? Is it food grade?

schweaty

Recipes 

OxyClean Free. It doesn't contain any dyes or perfumes. It's the kind with the green lid.

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Spent Grain Dog Treats
My Brewery Build

ajf

Recipes 

All great information, except nobody can spell OxiClean. PBW is a similar to OxiClean, made by Five Star Chemicals (the manufacturers of StarSan). It costs more than OxiClean and doesn't foam as much.

I've never found it necessary to shake the carboy. A one to two hour soak is all that is necessary, or overnight if it's getting late. I use glass carboys, and I'm scared of shaking a slippery wet 6.5g glass carboy.

One thing that hasn't been said yet, is that after the soak, you need to drain the solution and rinse really well with hot water. Failing to do this will leave a residue in the carboy (especially if you have hard water). Some people say you should follow up with an acid rinse of white vinegar or StarSan to completely remove the residue. I have soft water, and find that this does help, but I really don't know if it is necessary or not.

-a.

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Diver165

Recipes 

+1

About 1/2 gallon of hot water and a half scoop of Oxiclean, put a stopper on it and shake like hell. Sometimes I'll let the carboy sit completely filled with Oxiclean and water for a few hrs then drain and start the shake ritual. Never had any issues.

Bottenbrew

Recipes 

+1 on filling it up with PBW and letting it soak for a couple of hours, hasn't failed me yet.

fotomatt1

Recipes 

I think I'll probably order some PBW. I won't need my better bottle for a couple of weeks until I'm racking to secondary, so I have some time.