Can you get all the smell out of a plastic fermenter?

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Rev2010

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I have two Cooper's plastic fermenters, and so far love them. My Cooper's Lager kit, first ever brew, cleaned out from the fermenter nicely, no left over smell. The hefeweizen I did recently left a lot more smell in the fermenter, and it was a brand new fermenter (the second one I'd bought), so it's the first beer in it.

Everything was sanitized perfectly and all that and after fermentation was done and I bottled I cleaned it out immediately. Though I must admit... for the first cleaning I used hot water and sponged the insides clean. Then I filled to the top with water and added 5 tablespoons of Oxyclean and stirred it up and let it soak overnight. Well, the smell was still there after rinsing it out and drying it. Not as bad of course but I could still smell the traces.

So tonight I filled it with a small pool of water at the bottom plus Oxyclean and this time used the sponge and water/Oxyclean solution to sponge the entire insides. After that I filled to the top with very hot water and added more Oxyclean and let it soak a few hours and rinsed it all out. It's a lot better now but I still detect a faint trace of the scent.

With plastic of course you can't scrub or you'll create bacteria pockets. So what's the deal here... do all plastic fermenters leave some slight faint trace of smell or do I need to clean differently? If so, how and with what?


Rev.
 
Wait till you ferment a hop-bomb IPA.

Don't worry about it. It won't affect any of your future brews flavor or aroma.

You won't totally get the smell out, but if you leave it open for about a week, it will lighten up some.
 
Wait till you ferment a hop-bomb IPA.

Don't worry about it. It won't affect any of your future brews flavor or aroma.

You won't totally get the smell out, but if you leave it open for about a week, it will lighten up some.

Ha, I can imagine how a strong IBU IPA would smell after. :) I took a wiff of the fermenter since it's air drying about an hour now and the smell is indeed mostly gone, but still a faint trace. Good to hear though that this is common and not a point to worry. I definitely don't mind, and actually expect there'd be, a subtle smell but this was stronger than I thought normal and got a bit irked. I definitely would next time start straight off with the Oxyclean wipedown then the Oxyclean soak. I kinda thought maybe a clean wipedown with water then the soak would be adequate but I guess that was wrong.


Rev.
 
nothing to worry about, but i found an outstanding de-smeller is about 2 oz of clorox and a fillup of water, then a 45 minute soak, and a couple quick rinses. cures what ills ya
 
nothing to worry about, but i found an outstanding de-smeller is about 2 oz of clorox and a fillup of water, then a 45 minute soak, and a couple quick rinses. cures what ills ya

Good to know as I have a bunch of Clorox that I bought when I first got my kit to sanitize with. Used it once to sanitize for my first batch then just got some Star San for simplicity and have almost two bottles sitting around I'd never use otherwise :mug:


Rev.
 
1/4 cup clorox to 5 gallons is one rinse, followed by a hot water bath, then an oxy clean free (2 scoops soak for 30 min) in warm water, takes even the hoppiest smell from the plastic. YES OVERKILL! but will do the job!
 
When my primary is empty, I like to walk by and smell it...but hey, I'm a weirdo

You're not alone. My..my name is RC...and...I'm a bucket sniffer! There--it's out.:drunk:

Love that hoppy aroma after some monster c-hop brew is finished.

I actually leave my bucket on the dining room table for a few days after bottling to let it air out and to stick my head in it every time I walk by it.
 
You're not alone. My..my name is RC...and...I'm a bucket sniffer! There--it's out.:drunk:

Love that hoppy aroma after some monster c-hop brew is finished.

I actually leave my bucket on the dining room table for a few days after bottling to let it air out and to stick my head in it every time I walk by it.

hahahaha, same here, I leave mine in the dining room.

SWMBO: "would you PLEASE put that damn bucket away?"
ME: "if i put it away, i can't smell the delicious brew i just made."
SWMBO: "it stinks."
ME: "i'm not sorry."
 
SWMBO: "would you PLEASE put that damn bucket away?"
ME: "if i put it away, i can't smell the delicious brew i just made."
SWMBO: "it stinks."
ME: "i'm not sorry."

Heh, not to go off track but on a similar SWMBO note:

I mentioned to her I wanted to get two Ale Pail's plus a bottling bucket from Midwest and she went off, "Why don't you slow down!! You're spending so much money so soon!". Total cost of what I mentioned is a mere $52. Of course, with all the accessories (airlocks, stick on thermometers, autosiphon, etc) my cart came out to about $100. Well, $100 for me is nothing, not to brag honestly! I turned to her and pointed out how crazy it is that she's freaking out being I'm a musician and have spent waaaay more on *single* pieces of music gear. She didn't care to hear the point.

She got me started with homebrewing with the Cooper's kit. We later bought a second one that she was totally supportive with (even suggestive on). The whole joke to all this is... if I'd mentioned I want to buy another Cooper's kit at $100 I guarantee should wouldn't have complained one bit!!!!!! :rolleyes:


Rev.
 
what would the same amount of crap beer you'd buy off the shelf cost?

Well, at about $1 per 12oz bottle, the equivalent of a 5 gallon batch would cost $53 bucks. Seems like brewing is a much better deal (if you only count the ingredients and assume all equipment is free!).
 
cmon you guys, remember that first time you stuck your finger to your buddies nose and said - smell this :D .. sorry bad analogy :p
that beer smell in the fermenter is a pain in the ass to get out.
if you clean with a good cleanser than sanitize, there's no issue. it's a fermenter, it usually smells like beer even after scrubbing ...
 
You're not alone. My..my name is RC...and...I'm a bucket sniffer! There--it's out.:drunk:

Love that hoppy aroma after some monster c-hop brew is finished.

I actually leave my bucket on the dining room table for a few days after bottling to let it air out and to stick my head in it every time I walk by it.

LOL! I'm Starrfish... & I'm a "equipment" sniffer!:mug:
 
Well, at about $1 per 12oz bottle, the equivalent of a 5 gallon batch would cost $53 bucks. Seems like brewing is a much better deal (if you only count the ingredients and assume all equipment is free!).

yep, so brewing is much cheaper. helps to shut my swmbo up
 
HIJACK:off: SORRY!

thought both were used... mustard was particuraly bad... was it because of the oils. for some reason it was the naplam of wwI sticky & heavy
 
what would the same amount of crap beer you'd buy off the shelf cost?

Ah but there's often no reasoning I'm sure you know :D Don't know what gets into them but sometimes they just go bananaape**** when there's no real reason too. The funny thing to all this is before I even mentioned it what do you think she was doing? Yes, SHOPPING online for clothes and she had a $177 necklace/earing set in the cart. I mentioned it but she fought back with, "But I didn't buy it! It's still just in the cart and has been a while, I haven't purchased the necklace yet".

LMAO, the silly little things the Mrs can flip out about. This is the same women that told me, "Look... just go ahead and get the Mesa Triple Rectifier amp head for $1899 and be done with it so you're happy". I'll admit though, for a very very long time I've had the philosophy of "Get the better and *right* thing first and be done with it rather than cheap out and eventually wind up spending more in the long run to get it eventually anyway".


Rev.
 
lucky bastards! my ex commisioned my brewery to the garage as a spider trap!!!!.. she was a southern baptist! (WHAT WAS I THINKING!) I only came back to the "dark side" after our split! WAAAAAY to long!
 
if my swmbo commissioned my brewery as a spider trap, she'd find herself in a web somewhere. she knows no messing with the "Brown Brick Haus Brewery"
 
if my swmbo commissioned my brewery as a spider trap, she'd find herself in a web somewhere. she knows no messing with the "Brown Brick Haus Brewery"

SHe's now an ...EX... still have "Fargo" wood chipper dreams! :cross: and that's a good thing... she was a nitemare!
 
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