Smelly keg

i have a top floating keg that i got from e-bay,when i first got it,it had an overpowering smell of maggots ....i have soaked 5 times in bleach water for varying lengths of time(1-4 days)...the smell is not so bad now but a few days after rinsing i can smell MAGGOTS again .
Can i get a cheap extract kit(heavy tasting one) and use it as a brew bin(replace the lid with one from my main fermentor),and try to brew the smell out???
Could this work?

Top floating keg? What do you mean? Maggots? It smells like rotten meat? The smell is probably trapped in the rubber o-rings. I dont think any ting can get rid of rot.

Rotting meat (roadkill) smell in a keg - that's just scary!!!


My local brew store advised me:

1) Avoid used Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper kegs and to find one that smells like Sprite. I'm guessing Sprite and 7-Up odors are more "neutral". Every keg I've purchased has had old soft drink residue in them.

2) Replace ALL O-rings. The top O-ring and the valve rebuild kits are cheap.


After replacing the above, maybe a long soak with a box of baking soda dissolved in some hot water???



Hopsnort

I would guess that this is a plastic keg, and that the plastic has got scratched and infected. Such infections are virtually impossible to remove. I certainly would not enjoy a beer with the subtle aroma of maggots, and would not try to keep beer in a container that smells after repeated cleaning.

Actually, I have never smelled maggots. Do they smell good?

-a.

AHammer16 said:

Top floating keg? What do you mean? Maggots? It smells like rotten meat? The smell is probably trapped in the rubber o-rings. I dont think any ting can get rid of rot.

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The keg is a plastic round style with the tap half way up the keg,inside is a float system and tubing to the tap(the float allows beer to be drawn from the top of the keg rather than the bottom).
I can only explain the smell as ....maggots....I have replaced the lid,float system and tap.
The smell seems to be ingrained in the plastic....

oxford brewer said:

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The keg is a plastic round style with the tap half way up the keg,inside is a float system and tubing to the tap(the float allows beer to be drawn from the top of the keg rather than the bottom).
I can only explain the smell as ....maggots....I have replaced the lid,float system and tap.
The smell seems to be ingrained in the plastic....

Click to expand...

The smell is probably permanently ingrained into the plastic. If it was metal, you could eventually get rid of the smell. What does the seller know about the smell? Will he/she take the keg back?

If the terms of sale permit and/or if the item was misrepresented, I'd try to return it.

Otherwise I'd toss it. No way would I put a beer or any other liquid I intend to drink into it.

Lounge Lizard said:

The smell is probably permanently ingrained into the plastic. If it was metal, you could eventually get rid of the smell. What does the seller know about the smell? Will he/she take the keg back?

Click to expand...

I got a few bits on ebay(2 bottling buckets,2 beer kegs,t 2 wine fermenting barrels and a co2 cylinder all for about £20)so i could write of the keg but the smell must go,surely?).
I think the seller didnt clean the keg out when he drank the last one,got left in a shed or something....I will not give up on my keg .

Perhaps a nice maggot IPA..full of body and texture and a nice gold/amber visual impact

Soak it for a week in a strong VWP solution, if that doesnt work burn it.

A perfect vessel for my Buggy Belgium Wit! Ship it over aye?! FYI - It's buggy as I had weavels crawling all over the grain but to hell with it, I mashed them as well . Not a bad batch after all either.

I once had maggots crawling all over my spent grain in the trash bin on a hot summers day. Man, if your keg smells like that <gag>.

You might try the pigeon dropping brew currently being disgust in the recipe section.

-a.

Try a baking soda solution for a few days.

Nothing will get the smell out. Plastic bonds with fats at the molecular level and no amount of scrubbing will remove rancid fats from that plastic. Return it or BURN it.
I will bet you my left one you can not save it.