Dead mouse in carboy, would you use it?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

JRems

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2010
Messages
2,185
Reaction score
67
Location
Mahopac
Just got another free Carboy, 5 gallon. It was free but it did come with what appears to be 3 dead mice inside. One is so old it's unrecogniseable, one is fairly decomposed and one is pretty new. They are stuck to the bottom and smell aweful. how would I get them out? Would you even use it? It smelled so bad I just put a cup of bleach in and a gallon of water. I'm hoping they come unstuck. Anything else that will dissolve them? Maybe drain cleaner?
 
I'd start with some type of acid to dissolve the mice.
from there I'd do a hot bleach and water treatment let it sit for a while
then do oxyclean and hot water.

possibly bake that ****er in the oven to make sure all nasties are gone.

call your first brew in it "three blind mice"

-=jason=-
 
I like Flomaster's plan. After all that is done I would not have any problems with using it. Its glass, that gunk isn't going to survive that concoction of cleaners.

I like the name of the beer. How about "Of Mice and Men Lager" or "Mouse in the Haus Ale" In fact I think you can take it a bit further. After you make a few awesome brews in that carboy you should add mouse or mice into your brewery name.
 
The only problem is that some people will probably freak out if you tell them about the mice. Then that means more beer for you!
 
I LOL'ed (ugh, I am that guy that used 'LOL'ed'....) at the idea of drain cleaner, but it might actually work. Not sure if you could get that flavor out. Another idea is some muratic acid from a pool supply store. That is just watered down hydrochloric acid without all the other stuff in drain cleaner that might give off scents and/or flavors. A gallon of the stuff is usually a couple of bucks, just ask for their shock acid. Obviously which ever way you go, make sure and rinse the Hades out of it once you get all the juicy bits out.

The way I see it, if whatever is eating the mice can live through acid and a heavy bleach treatment, you are probably already doomed. The biggest concern is smells and flavors, and you should be able to clean up glass pretty easy. Buy a cheap carboy cleaner brush that you don't mind throwing away and use it to clean the bottom.

BTW, if the carboy is plastic, disregard everything above and just burn it.
 
Just rack on top of them!

Or, because I'm assuming its a glass carboy, just clean it out very good and use it. If it's plastic, I'm not so sure....
 
Take it to Elsinore Brewery. I hear they give you free beer for that sort of thing.




I don't know how to clean it, but if it doesn't come completely, squeaky, sparking, shiny clean, it's time for a new carboy.
 
I had a carboy like that a few years ago, just one mouse. I considered cursed and got rid of it. To this day, I don't miss it. Fermenters are easy enough to get. Now if it was a keg fermenter, I would clean the hell out of it!
 
No, I would not use the mouse. It's clearly past its prime and a new one can be acquired relatively cheaply.
 
Man, glass is completely non-pourous but, I don't know... I know that smell and I'm pretty sure I would be self-conscience of it every time I brought my glass of beer to my face... blech....
 
I know the smell too. Had rats in the attic. Used poison. That's a mistake. In August. In Florida.

:off:The smell hit us with a few days. I had to crawl through the attic/blown insulation with a bucket and a trowel and remove them. They were festering maggotty meatpies. I found all but one of them:(. It is sweltering in an attic in summer here. If you think your warm-fermented hefe is cloying, try that attic that summer. BTW, for attics, use traps not poison.:off:

Meh, I'd still use the carboy.
 
You guys are funny. Thanks for the replies. It was actually a carboy from my grandparents that they used to make wine in. When I had dinner there and brought some beer, they asked what I made it in and then said, I have one of those big jugs in the basement! So I kinda want to keep it. I have both muriatic acid and pure lye drain cleaner. I think I'm going to try the lye first. Bases work better than acids to dissolve meat and bone( don't ask how I know). If it works, then bleach bomb it for a couple days. Then pbw for a couple days. Then I'll leave it full of star-San, Sound good?

I also kinda like the name blind mice brewery. The next beer that could possibly go in the carboy( if it cleans up) would be when I dry hop the apa I made yesterday. It has warrior, simcoe, and Amarillo hops. So Three Hopped Mice Ale it is.
 
nope not me. Carboys are cheap, chuck it IMO. Muriatic acid...holy crap, definitely would not do that. Soooo not safe.
 
Throw a dead cat in there to clean it out.

Fixed it for you! :tank:

Just clean it. 20 yrs ago, larger carboys were not easy to find. So I got a 6 gal used acid glass and just rinsed it many times. I still have and use it, and it makes great beer. I currently have my Scottish ale fermenting away in there.
 
Finally proof that carboys can be deadly. I'd switch to Better Bottles, which no self respecting mouse would hang out in.
 
haha, I don't know. I know from a scientific viewpoint that it would be fine with good cleaning and sanitizing. But from remembering that smell, I would probably have a hard time using it.
 
So, today I was going to transfer my first sour beer into a carboy for a year+ aging. I grab a glass carboy from the basement, and see a little mold in the bottom. I assume its no biggie, must not have been fully dry last time I put it away. So I put a little vinegar in to loose the mold so I can poor it out... and suddenly notice that the mold has a goddamn tail. Then I noticed the smell.

Like I said, its a sour beer going into the carboy, but I wasn't thinking it was going to be that funky. After prying the slightly mushy mouse out of the mouth of the jug, and rinsing it for several hours, i have it filled to the top with oxyclean. I figure tomorrow I'll switch to PBW, then Star San...
 
So, today I was going to transfer my first sour beer into a carboy for a year+ aging. I grab a glass carboy from the basement, and see a little mold in the bottom. I assume its no biggie, must not have been fully dry last time I put it away. So I put a little vinegar in to loose the mold so I can poor it out... and suddenly notice that the mold has a goddamn tail. Then I noticed the smell.

Like I said, its a sour beer going into the carboy, but I wasn't thinking it was going to be that funky. After prying the slightly mushy mouse out of the mouth of the jug, and rinsing it for several hours, i have it filled to the top with oxyclean. I figure tomorrow I'll switch to PBW, then Star San...

Just clean and sanitize very well and you should be fine if it's a glass carboy. Plastic, I'm not so sure about. It's hard for anything to penetrate through glass and become a permanent threat to your beer. For the most part, I don't even wash my carboys. Just a quick rinse to get the gunk out, then sanitize before use, and it's all set to go.
 
There's not many situations in homebrewing i'd say this but.......

Dude, get some bleach in there!
 
if it's glass, the pressure washer at the car-wash is your friend

DING! DING! WINNER!!!! good idea!

Now you can tell everyone that your brewery is just a Mickey Mouse operation.

Ba-Dump-ish.......

Tom & Jerry ale?

An American Tail ale?

Feivel lager?
 
Yeah, you can clean that out and use it. I would. Flowmasters suggestions are great and I "love" the brew name.
 
When I trashpicked my 6-1/2 gallon it had at least 50 dead mice in it before I shook them out washed ,stored for ten years, now I use it 2 times a month!It's glass !!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top