I've been beat by Dr. Pepper

I picked up some cornies from CHI and did as suggested. The insides were very clean but good lord did they reek of soda pop. I dismantled them, filled them up with very hot water and Oxyclean and scrubbed them with a long brush. I let these soak for 24 hours before rinsing them and filled them up with a heavy idophor solution. This solution sat in the kegs for 2 weeks and I rotated the keg regularly to be sure both the top and bottom got sanitized.

I went to open up the kegs today and they smell no different now than they did the day I got them...Dr. Pepper and 7-Up. I'm not sure what else I can do over and above what I've already done here.

At what point do I give up this madness? Should I just say screw it and keg my beer or will this heavy odor work its way into the beer solution as it sits in the keg?

Thoughts?

Did you replace all the orings in the entire setup.. poppit rings and all?

I don't think the idophor is going to help the smell at all, but I bet more soaking in fresh oxyclean and HOT HOT water will help.

Did you replace every single O-ring and open up the connection posts and clean those out as well?

Check the o-rings. Often times, these are the culprit of the soda smell (the metal keg cannot absorb the soda). It's probably a good idea to replace the o-rings. Also, make sure you run your cleaning solution through the liquid out. You could have some syrup residue still in there that you could have missed.

I dunno man, my first kegs smelled like Pepsi even after all the jazz, but you know I kegged the batch and it didn't have any hint of Pepsi to it. *shrug*

Yikes, I've got 4 kegs from CHI being delivered today. I would try soaking them for an extended period (say a couple weeks) in PBW or Oxy.

All the o-rings were replaced prior to this and I used a spare racking cane to manually pump oxyclean and idophor through the out tube for several minutes. I must've spent an hour on each keg.

Somehow that SS is holding the smell since it's NOT the rings.

Trust me as far as I can tell I left nothing to chance.

I had a pesky root beer keg that even after replacing all the rubbers and Oxy soaking the container seemed to still harbor that aroma. I opted to hit it with boiling hot water and PBW ( dismantled the fittings and placed them insoide the keg) I let the whole thing cool down open and rinsed with warm water.

Odor eliminated. (shrug)

PBW and Oxyclean are good for a lot of things, but for tough soda (or other) odors, do as your grandma would have done 50 years ago and mix a cup of Clorox bleach with your 5 gallons of hot water and let it soak over night. Don't get it on your cloths, and don't breathe too much of the fumes, but it works every time.

Don't let Chlorine Bleach sit in your Stainless for an extended period of time though. I am not sure how long a dilute solution can stay in it without corroding it.

I believe it's impossible for stainless steel to retain odors. Their coming from somewhere else(o-rings, poppits,gunk in posts).

Putting new O-rings on a keg before thoroughly cleaning is defeating the purpose. They should be swapped out only after cleaning the keg.

EdWort said:

Putting new O-rings on a keg before thoroughly cleaning is defeating the purpose. They should be swapped out only after cleaning the keg.

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I fully agree with this. Whenever I get a new keg (from any source) I disassemble it, throw out the O-rings, soak in oxyclean, first ~1/2 full for an hour, then flip over in a bucket so the rubber on top gets a soak too, clean out with hot hot water, install NEW o-rings, and flush with one-step. Seems to work really well for me.

ColoradoXJ13 said:

I fully agree with this. Whenever I get a new keg (from any source) I disassemble it, throw out the O-rings, soak in oxyclean, first ~1/2 full for an hour, then flip over in a bucket so the rubber on top gets a soak too, clean out with hot hot water, install NEW o-rings, and flush with one-step. Seems to work really well for me.

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While it may not be clear from my orginal language (because I tried to be concise) this is _exactly_ what I did.

Are you SURE SS will not hold odor? I have my doubts, seriously, there is no difference in the odor and _everything_ was soaked in oxyclean for 24 hours, except the NEW o-rings.

I guess the bigger question at this point is "should I care" and just go ahead and rack my beer to it anyways or suck it up and do this again?

I know it has been mentioned here, but try some PBW and hot (as hot as you can get it) water.

I have had some equipment that oxyclen would not touch but the PBW cleaned with ease (after all, they are not the same thing). Your other option would be to use a caustic, but I would probably buy another keg before messing with that.

They don't give away P.H.D.s... think about it!

John Beere said:

They don't give away P.H.D.s... think about it!

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I beg your pardon?

duskb said:

I beg your pardon?

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He's a Doctor, and Doctors are smart. So OF COURSE he got outsmarted by him... duh!

Baking soda, baking soda. Fill the thing up with hot water and then put in a cup or so of baking soda, let it sit for a night. If you still have a hint of odor remaining, repeat, and it should be juts perfect.

Who is CHI?? Do they have cornies for cheap??

duffman2 said:

Who is CHI?? Do they have cornies for cheap??

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Google works wonders
http://www.chicompany.net/

I get all my kegs from there, very reputable.

BLEACH mixture for sure, overnight. Nothing kills smells better. Then rinse like mad. I would try an open box of baking soda for a week if the bleach does not kill 100% of the smell. If that does not work, make a huge IED out of it and blow up some old tree trunks!

ohh great John Homeland security is going to monitor the site ... IED






And if any guberment official is reading this I only brewed 199.98 gallons of beer last year

Hot water and PBW, and final rinse with starsan has always worked for me. I dont know if it is the pbw or starsan that kills the odor , but it works. Since you're using Iodohor, perhaps you should try starsan.

Great replies today, but did anyone happen to notice the original post date??

I wonder if the kegs still smell after a year

Also, CHI has raised the prices on their kegs, and no longer sells them in multi-packs. I got my last 4 pack from insco2, who is a vendor here.

Every time I price out kegs, plus shipping to MD, CHI doesn't do it for me. I've mostly gone with Midwest as I can basically add a halfway decently priced keg to my other random orders there with low overall shipping, at least that's how the economics work out for me.

I found eBay to be the best place to get kegs for cheap. YMMV

The Caustic cleaner that Pepsi (PBG) uses smells sweet in its' own right. Dangerous stuff though.....
Also, TSP is a great cleaner (Tri-Sodium-Phosphate). Available at most hardware stores. Make sure it is the "has phosphate" version.
For parts; put them in your dishwasher with soap, add a cup of two of TSP and run the dishes. I garuantee that your dishes and parts will come out the cleanest you've ever seen. Great for clothing too (phosphate was phased out of Tide, etc. back in the '80s).

I had a horrible smell coming out of my sink trap in the bathroom. I tried everything bleach, oxyclean and could not get rid of the smell. Finally I poured some baking soda and then vinegar down the drain and no smell. Try that then rinse it a couple times with hot water.

It is funny how with all the fancy cleaners and deodorizers out there how often using the stuff great grandma used will solve the problem toot sweet.

Long term soaking of stainless steel in bleach causes chloride stress corrosion. AKA tiny little holes that go all the way through the walls. 5-10 minutes is okay.

vinegar always worked to get rid of odors on stainless for me

Bleach got the root beer smell out of mine. Give it a try

Holy necro post...