picnic cooler plastic taste

I made a mash tun out of a 60qt ice cube. Today I heated up 15 gal. Of water to a boil and put it in the mash tun and let it sit for 45min. I am trying to soak out the plastic flavor. The first filling had lots of plastic taste to it. I did it a 2nd time and that water even seemed to have some sheen to the top. I am heating some more water now. Will I ever get rid of the plastic taste?

I always worried about that. I will keep watching this thread and hopefully someone with some expertise in this area can answer both our questions.

I get some smell off my rubbermaid round cooler when its full of hot water and has the top on for a while. But I can never taste anything wired in the water. One of these days I'll dig out the conductivity meter and see if anything is being picked up.

squiggy said:

I made a mash tun out of a 60qt ice cube. Today I heated up 15 gal. Of water to a boil and put it in the mash tun and let it sit for 45min. I am trying to soak out the plastic flavor. The first filling had lots of plastic taste to it. I did it a 2nd time and that water even seemed to have some sheen to the top. I am heating some more water now. Will I ever get rid of the plastic taste?

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It's not meant to hold boiling water. You don't need to get the water hotter than 180'. Most likely you melted the sides or severely compromised their integrity with boiling water.

From igloocoolers.com FAQs:

"5. What materials are used in making coolers?

The exterior of Igloo hard-sided coolers is made of high-density polyethylene, while the interior liner is made of polypropylene."

Polypropylene has a melting point of about 165 Celsius, or 330 F. The liner won't melt at 212 F but will expand so much it pulls away from the foam insulation and distorts.

I didn't see if the PP Igloo uses is food grade or not, but I bet it is, because most makers of equipment that comes into contact with food or beverages will use it to minimize liability.

I work for a supplier of processing additives for polyethylene, and without exception our customers, whether they are resin suppliers or processors, insist that our products have to be FDA Indirect Food Contact compliant. Their reason for this is that they never know what the resin with our additives will be used for. It might be sandwich bags or trash bags. and they play it safe by mandating nothing but food grade materials in their plants.

So, does that mean that the cooler liner is food grade? No 100% certainties, but I'm not concerned about mine poisoning me.

Mash away, or email the manufacturer and ask, they will tell you, usually happily.

Cheesefood said:

It's not meant to hold boiling water. You don't need to get the water hotter than 180'. Most likely you melted the sides or severely compromised their integrity with boiling water.

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I agree with Cheese. You mash at 150*F-170*F + or - a few * putting boiling water in a cooler is not a good idea and all you are going to accomplish is F***ing up your cooler.

But if you're concerned about it Buy a keggle and insulate it.

Don't add boiling water, like someone else said it is not made for that. I never go over 150F for my pre-heat water in the tun. I have the same cooler as you and I do not ever get a plastic taste.

well I soaked with boiling water twice and it did for mess anything up. on another forum I was told to wash it with simple green. now it smells like simple green. I am soaking it with baking soda and 175 F water now.
I used mash in a keg, but maintaining a temp was too much of a PITA.

I bet the baking soda gets the smell out. Never use simple green on anything you don't want to smell like simple green, lol. You can also try leaving it set with 3oz (3 tbsp) pure bleach, fill halfway with water then 3oz (3 tbsp) distilled white vinegar, fill remainder of 15 gallons. This has taken smells out for me before and you can even use it as a no-rinse sanitizer. Caution!!!!! use exactly as I stated or you can get chlorine gas in your lungs which is not good . Always have that much water between bleach and vinegar additions and always use on a 1oz/5 gallon/1oz scale. I have heard putting the bleach in last is ok, since it is such a diluted mixture at that point. I am interested to hear more about your issue as I am thinking of going bigger than that when I make the move from kegs. I have to refill my HLT right now and it is a b!tch.

Where are you getting your 1oz/5gallon/1oz ratio from? I have used 1oz/1gal/1oz based on the following info, which calls this ratio a no-rinse sanitizer. If you are using only 1/5 that concentration I doubt it's as effective a sanitizer as it could be.

From another forum, but listing info from a sanitizing expert:

Did anyone here hear the interview that James from Basic Brewing did with Charlie Talley (the inventor of Star San) about using bleach to sanitize.

Then, if you heard the interview, I would love to know if anyone has tried what Charlie suggested as the correct way to use bleach for sanitization.

It seems that Charlie spent the early part of his career working for a company that produced sodium hypochlorite and selling it to Purex. According to him, bleach is used at one ounce to the gallon, followed by one ounce per gallon of white vinegar to neutralize the excess caustic in the bleach. Again, according to the interview, this should give you 20 ppm active chlorine, and that is the killing species that you are looking for. And at that level, once you have poured out the sanitizer solution and let it drain for a few seconds, there is no need to rinse, because there is not enough remaining to taste.

For those who are concerned about adding acid to bleach, the vinegar is added after the bleach is diluted to one ounce per gallon. Unless you add vinegar directly to the bleach, no chlorine gas will be produced.

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Well, I looked at Realbeer.com where you got that post. If you read a little further down, as well as in another post, you will see it is 1oz/5gal/1oz.

From Realbeer.com a few posts after you quoting them.


I've downloaded a couple of the Australian podcasts, but haven't listened to them yet.

I took a gravity reading tonight both as an excuse to taste the brew and to give this sanitizer a try. I filled a cup with the mixture and let it sit 'till I was done taking the gravity reading. Then I dumped the cup of sanitizer out, gave it a couple of shakes, and filled it with tap water. At the same time I filled another cup that never came in contact with the bleach and vinegar water with the same tap water. I couldn't taste or smell any difference. As far as sanitizing...we'll see.
I hate being that guy that makes corrections, but for anyone else who wants to try this out, you want to mix 1 oz of bleach to 5 gallons of water and then add 1 oz of vinegar to that.

I had to look this up, thought I might save someone else the trouble.
1 fl. oz. = 2 tablespoons = 1/8 cup

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and here is one from craftkb.com

jw - 09 Jul 2007 02:24 GMT
I was listening to a podcast (can't remember which one now), but the guy
who invented Star San (I believe it was) was discussing his sanitizers.
Rather that completely shilling for his own products, he gave quite an in
depth talk about the benefits of a homemade concoction (can't remember if
he went as far as to say it was as good as his own product).

Anyway, he said to take 5 gallons of cool water, add 1 oz. of bleach. Mix
well, and then add 1 oz. of vinegar (Obviously, he warned strongly against
mixing the vinegar and bleach together!). He said that in two minutes of
contact, that this would do as good of a job of sanitizing as most
commercial no-rinse products.

My question is this, do any of you use this method? I think it sounds
outstanding from a cost perspective, but am hesitant to try it out. I'd
love your thoughts/experiences.

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I haven't heard the podcast, but I think with the correction on the same page you got your info and the other site saying what they say I am thinking I am right. If I am wrong, someone please completely correct me.

You're right, I went back and listened to the podcast and it is 1oz/5gal/1oz.

I only use the bleach/water/vinegar solution as basically a secondary sanitizer when I want to really go overkill and soak something overnight to make sure there's nothing living on it, and I always rinse thoroughly and follow with starsan - so I guess the stronger solution I use is fine for what I do, but not okay if you're using it as a primary no-rinse sanitizer.

LOL, FJ
I am listening now to the podcast right now. I really like it as a no-rinse. Doesn't have any smell or any taste.

As far as cleaning and removing smells I'm a big fan of Oxy-Clean Free.

The Oxy-Clean Free has no added scent.

Yep, have to use the regular old oxyclean. I actualy got my bucket because it was so old and the lady was using regular detergent now. I'm really happy with it.

BTW, the podcast for the bleach and vinegar no-rinse sanitizer wasn't on the Brewing Network it was on Basic Brewing Radio here on the March 29th, 2007 Show.