Cleaning my HDPE plastic fermenter

So I racked my BGS over to my glass carboy a few days ago for secondary fermentation. But after vigorous scrubbing with soap and water.And A starsan bath. the smell of the trub is still distinct inside my fermenter. I've now decided to go with a mild bleach solution to see if it will get the smell out.

So my questions are will this smell ever come out or should I live with it? If the smell stays in there will it negatively affect the quality of my next batch? And finally will using bleach inside the fermenter harm it at all?

Thanks

Next batch of what? Beer? I ignore the smell and as long as the fermenter is reasonably clean (no gunk stuck to it) and it is sanitized I have had no issues with the little smell of beer in it. Be careful with the vigorous scrubbing as you can scratch the plastic and create a place for bacteria to hide from the sanitizer. I wipe mine with a soft sponge.

RM-MN said:

Next batch of what? Beer? I ignore the smell and as long as the fermenter is reasonably clean (no gunk stuck to it) and it is sanitized I have had no issues with the little smell of beer in it. Be careful with the vigorous scrubbing as you can scratch the plastic and create a place for bacteria to hide from the sanitizer. I wipe mine with a soft sponge.

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Yes next batch of beer which most definitely will not be a BGS. Ok was just curious if it affected or carried over to other batches with obviously different flavors and aromas. As far as my scrubbing went it was with a soft sponge no abrasive material was used. Just a lot of elbow grease. Thanks

Note that Star-San is a sanitizer, not a cleaner.

Soak it overnight in a hot PBW or OxyClean solution, it should be good as new.

Unfortunately, PWB or oxy will not ALWAYS take care of the problem of, say, krausen stuck to the fermenter.. not will it remove all odors. Cleanliness is as important as sanitization in my book. If you can reach inside the fermenter, take something like a cotton t-shirt and scrub the insides with fully dissolved oxy and rinse very well. If you can't reach inside, that same t-shirt or a microfiber cloth with a string attached along with a small amount of dissolved oxy will do the trick. Put the cloth in the carboy with just a little solution and shake it back and forth. I hold my carboy sideways and get the cloth swirling around and it removes everything. I have a Mikes Carboy Cleaner that usually works, but when the krausen is stuck.. I could leave it on the MCC and it would probably never get well cleaned without that added help. I'd avoid using a carboy brush if at all possible due to potential scratching.

Dave37 said:

So I racked my BGS over to my glass carboy a few days ago for secondary fermentation. But after vigorous scrubbing with soap and water.And A starsan bath. the smell of the trub is still distinct inside my fermenter. I've now decided to go with a mild bleach solution to see if it will get the smell out.

So my questions are will this smell ever come out or should I live with it? If the smell stays in there will it negatively affect the quality of my next batch? And finally will using bleach inside the fermenter harm it at all?

Thanks

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Mine seemed to smell a bit too but by the same token the smell seemed to dissipate within a day or two of cleaning.

whoaru99 said:

Mine seemed to smell a bit too but by the same token the smell seemed to dissipate within a day or two of cleaning.

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If your fermenter is empty long enough for the smell to dissipate, doesn't that suggest you aren't brewing often enough?

Yeah, probably, but I can't drink two cases of beer every week or two to keep up with y'all. The majority of my posse drinks liquor, or doesn't like much beyond Bud Light, so that doesn't help either.

I noticed on my glass carboy that a short soak with B-Brite and hot water made cleaning it up quite easy. I've bought a second fermenter which is a plastic bucket, it'll be interesting to see if it cleans as easy as the glass. If I have issues I think I'll just buck up for more glass.

Rick