Old dirty/nasty growlers...

A coworker gave me five growlers that appear to have sat in his basement for a few years with the tops off and beer left in the bottom of them.

It looks like mold in the bottom and they are friggin nasty.

Should I just toss them or is there a solution to this?

I've got one soaking in clorox and hot water right now just to see what happens, but I'm afraid the naked eye will not be able to detect the funk that could be leftover after cleaning and sanitizing.

Glass is non-pourous.

Remove the crap, sanitize, sanitize, sanitize, wash again for peace-of-mind, sanitize and then use them!

Somewhere in there, replace the rubber on them, since those can get rank... It'll also mean fresher beer.

I would bet they clean up pretty well. Bleach is not the best cleaner though, I think I would have used something else like PBW or Oxiclean first.

dump out the bleach and put in hot water and oxyclean. The oxyclean will clean out everything overnight and you wont be able to see anything left.

Then sanitize them and you're golden

John

Thanks y'all.

I let one sit in bleach and hot water for about 30 minutes and then i filled it about halfway and shook the hell out of it and it appears to be very clean.

Looks like it's a go!

I might bottle today.:rockin:

If these are flippies, you really need new rubber gaskets. Screw-tops would require new caps.

bottling in 1/2 gallon growlers? I thought you could only keep beer in them for a short period of time. Do those caps maintain a good seal?

killian said:

bottling in 1/2 gallon growlers? I thought you could only keep beer in them for a short period of time. Do those caps maintain a good seal?

Click to expand...

You're correct. You can hold beer that's been perfectly carb'd for a little over a month in a growler if you run tape around the cap, once it's sealed.


Also, I'd use hot PBW and make sure the bottles are completely submerged. PBW will remove all organic material and then heat sanitze in the dishwasher, no soap.

PBW will also take labels and foil necks off. No scrubbing. It cleans and rinses ten times better when it's hot.

what is PBW?

It's a cleaner not a sanitizer. Short for powdered brewery wash. It's available at pretty much all of the homebrew shops.

Cascade dishwasher detergent!!!:rockin:

It appears the oxyclean has really cleaned them up well.

it went to work immediately after putting it in the bottles.