Stains on Stainless Steel Brew Kettle

Hi

I brewed a porter. After the boil, before cooling the wort, 2 of the muslin sacks holding my hops were stuck ('burned') on the bottom. It was extremely difficult to remove them. Ultimately, I pulled both bags off to remove them.

The bottom of my kettle was burned and there was some clumpy burn/residue left. Questions:
1. Do you think this ruined the beer?
2. Do I need to remove the stain left from the burned on musilin sacks?
3. I had to scratch w/ a vegetable peeler to get all of the burned 'stuff' off the bottom. Do you think the scratches will on the bttom of my brew kettle will cause a problem for me in the futre?

Any help and advice is appreciated.

Thanks!
AP

Sounds like you scorched lme. Hit it with a green scrubbie.

apollner said:

[...]
1. Do you think this ruined the beer?
2. Do I need to remove the stain left from the burned on musilin sacks?
3. I had to scratch w/ a vegetable peeler to get all of the burned 'stuff' off the bottom. Do you think the scratches will on the bttom of my brew kettle will cause a problem for me in the futre?

Click to expand...

1. Scorching wort is rarely a good thing. It probably provided a character you may not enjoy, but I wouldn't bet on it being "ruined".

2. Yes, definitely you want to clean the kettle bright. A strong cleaner applied with a green scrubby would be a good start. Keep working at it until you get it bright again.

3. No, scratched boil kettles aren't problematic. Nothing will live in the scratches through an extended boil...

Cheers!

One method of getting scorched remains off is to burn them off with a propane torch. You have to be careful how you apply the heat as to not over heat the stainless. Once the scorched residue is ash, you can soak the kettle in OxyClean or PBW followed by a green scotch pad and Barkeepers Friend.
Another method is to do like a professional kitchen, place a small amount of water in the kettle and heat it up. You can often lift stuck material by stirring with a whisk (a.k.a. deglazing). Another item used in professional kitchens is salt as an abrasive. It doesn't scratch stainless like cleansers.

I think people have been mislead about stainless.
If stainless steel was as sensitive as a lot of people are leading others to believe then it would not be one of the most used alloys on this planet.
Contamination from iron is something that is to be avoided as well as exposure to chlorine. But even if you inadvertently contaminate stainless steel it doesn't mean you just wasted a good piece of equipment.
Scratches don't mean jack when it comes to stainless steel. All scratches do is affect cleanability, and if you don't already know abrasives come it many different grades.
So if it takes removing scorched material with a grinder than so be it.
With successive grades of abrasives you can restore the surface of your equipment to it's factory or better condition.
Just look at the exterior of kegs that some people have taken the time to polish. You could do the interior also if you were OCD enough. Starting with the scratches caused from a grinder.