should i re-use my fermenter bucket if it has been sitting uncleaned for a few weeks?

i unfortunately slacked after my last (and second) brew, and let the yeasty sedimentation lie fallow in the bottom of the bucket for a couple weeks, and it was nasty to clean out. after reading that you shouldn't reuse a bucket that has been infected, would the same hold true for my situation? How stupid was that?????

thanks for the help,
ben thomas, montpelier vt

in other words, what is the concern here? off flavors for the life of the bucket, higher risk of infection for each batch, or both? thanks for the help,

newbie who just spent 45 bucks on batch, big ipa, and hoping (hopping) it will turn out great despite whatever blunders i have made (including not cooling the wort fast enough even though i used 5lbs of ice but cooled the beer in the fermenter instead of the kettle LOL!)

Do you own Oxy-clean and Star-San?

Clean it, sanitize it, don't worry, have a homebrew.

I have had some of the funckiest crap sit for 2-3 weeks in my brew pot, hops and all once. Not bragging, but I have never had an infection and am pretty lax when it comes to cleaning after brewing. I usually let them set at least 3 days before cleaning.

As long as you pay good detail to the cleaning and sanitation, it is no problem.

Morkin said:

I have had some of the funckiest crap sit for 2-3 weeks in my brew pot, hops and all once. Not bragging, but I have never had an infection and am pretty lax when it comes to cleaning after brewing. I usually let them set at least 3 days before cleaning.

As long as you pay good detail to the cleaning and sanitation, it is no problem.

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so my only concern was that this is a plastic fermenter, and i had read about the fact that once you have something nasty growing in one of these things, that you really shouldn't use it for fermentaion again.

no, i only have used some sort of powdered brew wash and idiophor

clean it and re use it. You will be fine.

Don's scrub your plastic with anything but soft cotton/fabric and then give it a soak in PBW or Oxy-Clean (the unscented kind) and then Sanitize with a good sanitizer. There are not any worries here.

bthomas78 said:

so my only concern was that this is a plastic fermenter, and i had read about the fact that once you have something nasty growing in one of these things, that you really shouldn't use it for fermentaion again.

Click to expand...

I have heard Brett is hard to get out of plastic, but unlikely you contracted anything like that. Probably just garden variety stuff that's in the air you breath every day, just in much higher concentrations. Clean well and sanitize.

thank you all so much for your help. i'm stoked to see how this brew turns out.