Is my Mash Tun ruined?

So I was doing my first all grain batch, which didn't go well but that is another story, and at the end day, consumed with frustration, I did something so completely stupid. I left the grain in the mash tun. For a long time.

When I opened it I almost lost it. It was something I had never smelled before. Like spoiled vegetables mixed with gasoline. I cleaned out the mash tun and then gave it a 24 hour bath in very hot water and OxyClean. That got rid of all the stains but the faint smell still lingers. I have it soaking again now, but I am starting to wonder if I should just throw in the towel and rebuild this thing. My fittings should still be fine.

What do you guys think? Its a coleman 72 quart, but not the extreme so I think it loses a lot of heat, but I don't have anything to compare it to. When I calibrated it with Beer Tools Pro, it lost 5 degrees after 5 minutes and 14 degrees after 65.

If it were me, I'd do two or three more long soaks with Oxyclean before I threw in the towel.

Your description of the smell is quite vivid, by the way. I feel like I'm there, smelling it along with you!

you are fine try PBW and starsan or if you want it to throw some beach in there and continue to soak a couple more times but all in all you should be fine

Heck with the smell, I would start over if you're losing that much heat. That sounds really excessive for heat loss unless you're able to re-heat and maintain temp with a degree or two.

three or four degrees within a mash can make a big difference... never mind 14.

Cape Brewing said:

Heck with the smell, I would start over if you're losing that much heat. That sounds really excessive for heat loss unless you're able to re-heat and maintain temp with a degree or two.

three or four degrees within a mash can make a big difference... never mind 14.

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Plus that cooler is way to big. Try to use a better fitting cooler. I got both a 10gl and a 15gl. If your cooler is too big for the amount of grain you'll lose more heat.

If it still stinks after a couple more soakings with oxy, fill it up with hot tap water and dump at least 1 but more likely 2 boxes of baking soda into it and seal it up for a couple days. Or you could try the fridge trick and just pierce the boxes and stick them dry into the cooler, seal it up and see if it pulls all the odors into the soda.

Welcome to the world of lactobasillus.

shamrockdoc said:

you are fine try PBW and starsan or if you want it to throw some beach in there and continue to soak a couple more times but all in all you should be fine

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Does it matter what beach he throws in? Being from Indiana he'll have to get some beach shipped in. Should it be from the East, west, or South?

Could he substitute artificial beach from something inland?

Cape Brewing said:

Heck with the smell, I would start over if you're losing that much heat. That sounds really excessive for heat loss unless you're able to re-heat and maintain temp with a degree or two.

three or four degrees within a mash can make a big difference... never mind 14.

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Yeah, I would totally toss it. But I am super sensitive about smells, and that's a smell that I could consistently convince myself through paranoia is always there to some degree (even if it's not). Then I would convince myself that I can smell it in my beers, and blame any off-flavors in my beers on that smell, completely missing the real cause - it's a vicious cycle to say the least!

I do the same thing with iodophor; I used it once to sanitize some bottles, and I swear I can still smell it on some of the bottles months later, even after sanitizing in starsan!

Just weird I guess!

GilaMinumBeer said:

Does it matter what beach he throws in? Being from Indiana he'll have to get some beach shipped in. Should it be from the East, west, or South?

Could he substitute artificial beach from something inland?

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There's always the dunes in northern Indiana!

I've done this before too. The smell I got was more bubble gum/banana though. What I did was clean it out really well with hot water, and drain it to clean out the fittings. Then I just left it out in the sun with the lid off for a few days. It still has a little smell to it, but now it just smells like barley. I def wouldn't toss it.

I dunno... like I was saying... Anything that drops 14 degrees in an hour shouldn't be used as a MT to begin with.

mine will drop that too, if you include preheating it. but after its heated up, only a degree an hour.

I have a fishing cooler and I forgot had bait in it (cut mullet which stinks FRESH)... in JULY, in SC! wow now that was a FUNK!!!

A few oxy clean soaks, a bleach soak, baking soda, and some vinegar... no more smell, took some work though! I think it was the worst thing I've ever smelled!

GilaMinumBeer said:

Does it matter what beach he throws in? Being from Indiana he'll have to get some beach shipped in. Should it be from the East, west, or South?

Could he substitute artificial beach from something inland?

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I would go with Cherokee Lake in Madison WI. That sand is finely ground and usually high in PBR urine content. What I suggest Gila is that I ship about 2lbs to you and you pack it for about a week and see if you feel fresher. If you do I think we could have an effective cleaner for rotten smelling containers.

Cape Brewing said:

I dunno... like I was saying... Anything that drops 14 degrees in an hour shouldn't be used as a MT to begin with.

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I have been worried about that too. It also has more dead space than I would like. It doesn't have the channel like the Xtreme does where it goes down. Maybe I can donate this one to a friend and build a new one.

A question about some of the cleaning methods mentioned. I have a copper manifold in side that feeds into stainless fittings. Do I need to worry about either of those with bleach or vinegar? Thanks for all the replies.

beerrepository said:

Maybe I can donate this one to a friend and build a new one.

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Way to set up your buddy for efficiency problems...your a good friend:rockin:

beerrepository said:

A question about some of the cleaning methods mentioned. I have a copper manifold in side that feeds into stainless fittings. Do I need to worry about either of those with bleach or vinegar? Thanks for all the replies.

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The bleach will ruin the stainless for sure.

shamrockdoc said:

Way to set up your buddy for efficiency problems...your a good friend:rockin:

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haha, good point. Maybe it just needs to be retired.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Does it matter what beach he throws in? Being from Indiana he'll have to get some beach shipped in. Should it be from the East, west, or South?

Could he substitute artificial beach from something inland?

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Nonsense, Indiana Dunes has some of the finest, if not most prolific, sand in the midwest.

I know that smell... its amazing how nice it is when brewing, and then the next morning its awful. I think your Tun will be fine, I forgot about mine the first time I brewed AG, got the horrible smell, emptied it out, and let it sit open outside for a couple of days, spraying it periodically with Iodophor. Its worked fine since then.

So I bit the bullet and got a 36 quart Coleman Xtreme. Already I can tell it has a lot more insulation than my previous one. Also there should be much less dead space. Now my only concern is whether to build a copper manifold again or just put a stainless steel braided hose in there.

Revvy said:

If it still stinks after a couple more soakings with oxy, fill it up with hot tap water and dump at least 1 but more likely 2 boxes of baking soda into it and seal it up for a couple days. Or you could try the fridge trick and just pierce the boxes and stick them dry into the cooler, seal it up and see if it pulls all the odors into the soda.

Welcome to the world of lactobasillus.

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Revvy's right on; base (high pH) will eat up biological crap. That's why dish washer detergent and PBW are basic. I've never used Oxy, but if a cleaner makes your fingers feel slick and oily and it's not a soap or detergent, that's the base reacting with the fats in your skin to make soap. That's what strips off bio-crud.

Acid can strip biofilms too, but base won't hurt your copper or stainless.

I'd also suggest washing soda if you can find it (laundry aisles); it's creates a higher pH than baking soda and it's cheap (pH around 10 vs around 8). Dish washer detergent would rock if it wasn't lemon scented.