What is this crud in my keggle?

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fuzzybee

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or, more importantly, how do I get rid of it?

Newly-cut keggle. I had my machinist friend weld in couplings for the drain valve and thermometer. He cut out the top with a plasma cutter.

I noticed it was reddish inside, so I applied Barkeeper's friend, rubbed it in with a hard nylon(?) grout brush, and let it sit. After I rinsed it, it was still red. It sat overnight with lukewarm OxyClean in it (had trouble with my burner setup), and I heated up the solution this morning to 150. It sat all afternoon, and I rinsed it tonight. Here's what it looks like now:

3769-img043.jpg


Should I try another go with BKF? Any suggestions?
 
it doesn't make much sense that it's so high up from the welds... It almost looks like caramelization from a boil!

Use a plastic scrubby thingie, see what it does.

M_C
fuzzybee said:
or, more importantly, how do I get rid of it?

Newly-cut keggle. I had my machinist friend weld in couplings for the drain valve and thermometer. He cut out the top with a plasma cutter.

I noticed it was reddish inside, so I applied Barkeeper's friend, rubbed it in with a hard nylon(?) grout brush, and let it sit. After I rinsed it, it was still red. It sat overnight with lukewarm OxyClean in it (had trouble with my burner setup), and I heated up the solution this morning to 150. It sat all afternoon, and I rinsed it tonight. Here's what it looks like now:

3769-img043.jpg


Should I try another go with BKF? Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
 
Wow that looks gross. I don't understand what could have done that during the keg's life as a normal keg. I just got a keg that had a completely dented in a top and the bung removed...it was full or rainwater and even had a cigarette in it. but just a rinse and it look fresh as a daisy. not saying i'll be fermenting in it anytime soon....anyways good luck with that mess! Did your welder pal not notice the nastiness when he cut the top out?
 
Simple way would be acid as it sure looks like beer stone. I had much less of it and still spent a long time on it without the acid. If you have a buffer wheel of some kind you could use BKF on it, still a lot of work to get it all. There are a bunch of products designed to get it out, some more or less dangerous to work with than others. Just google "acid beer stone removal".

What brand of beer was that keg? Maintenance was not big with that company.
 
Ah! Looks like some diluted vinegar or StarSan will do it. I'll try to pour some in tonight.

Thanks for the help, everybody!

BTW, it was an Anheuser-Busch keg.
 
The bar keepers friend you used is a way stronger acid than vinegar or a star san solution. If scrubbing with BKF didn't remove it, I doubt vinegar will either. Maybe try the BKF again but use a more aggressive scrubber.
 
It must be an AB thing... I recently cut open a bud lite keg and found similar stains speckled all over. I used several hours of PBW followed by a starsan soak and some more PBW and a heavy scrub with a 3M green scrubbing pad to get it clean.

I hear CLR is also good for beer stone.
 
I have a similar issue with my keggle but I have a white calcium like deposit I can't completely get off. I got the deposit from soaking the keggle for a couple of days in StarSan which is acidic, but not as acidic as Barkeepers friend. An overnight soak in BKF might do more harm than good. I was able to remove most of my deposit with BKF but I had to make a really concentrated thick paste with very little water and scrub it with a green scratchy pad for about an hour. I would try to go that route and do it several times to get it all off.
 
I would try "LOADS OF PBW" 160* F soak over night then rinse and scrub with a green or maybe white scrubby. Should do it. Thats where I would start anyway.
Cheers
Jay
 
How about using a stainless steel scrubbie and some elbow grease? That should do the trick.
 
you can use bleach as long as you counter it with an acid...

i think it was palmer said you can do no more then 45 mins of bleach as long as you counter it with a acid soak like white vinegar to neutralize.

ive been looking every where for Five Stars Acid Cleaner #6

Made Specifically for beerstone... but no luck...

i sent an email to brewmasters warehouse to ask if they could special order .. haven't heard back yet.
 
Has anyone tried using a caustic cleaning agent for this type of thing? Oven cleaner would be a place to start. You can buy lye (sodium hydroxide) at hardware stores.
 
After a week of upper-back pain, I finally could get back to it today. Where the BKF had set for a couple of days, i wipe with the scrubbie took of the crud. I spent the next hour with powdered BKF and two green scrubbies, and it looks a lot better now:

3827-img053.jpg


Thanks for the help, everybody!
 
Just a note...Star San is a sanitizer not a cleaner. It should be used for organic material and PBW should be used for the inorganic. PBW does not damage SS and could be left for a day or two for a good soak.
But I am glad to hear and see that it is much better.
 
Star San is 50% phosphoric acid, which aggressively attacks beer stone. One of the side benefits of it's regular use is that it prevents the build up of the nasty stuff. I can see it working well on beer stone in a more concentrated form. Has anybody tried it?

The right application of chemicals would take almost all of the elbow grease out of this kind of job.
 
The FB post is what led me here. Glad you solved the problem. Still can't believe an AB keg had that much build-up.
 

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