Advice needed for a manky keg...

So a buddy of mine does foreclosure cleanouts and found a half barrel keg in back of one of their properties. There's about a 1/2 inch hole drilled into the side of it about an inch off the bottom. It looks as if the person had either set out to put a nozzle or fitting down there, except the valve/spear assembly is still in the top of it. We figure maybe they were already drunk and couldn't figure out how to tap the thing, I don't know.

I was thinking it might make for a decent fermentor or something, once it's all cleaned out, however that seems like it might be a bit of a problem. The bottom of the thing was full up to about the drilled hole with some sort of unholy mess that looked like milkshake mix and smells roughly like diapers and death, condensed. That really doesn't do it justice. There are no words to describe how foul this smells. The recycling center didn't even want it, so he gives it to me

Does anyone have any recommendations on how I would proceed cleaning this thing? I was thinking of shoving a funnel into the drilled hole, and emptying a bottle of bleach or tractor degreaser or maybe kerosene into it and soaking. Is this thing even worth trying to put back into potable liquids production? I did a forum search here as well as hit up google but haven't found anything in the way of specific instructions on how to go about this.

Thankfully he also gave me some sort of quarter barrel keg as well which is still sealed and I'm hoping not quite as nasty once I figure out how to properly remove the fittings.

Well, I think you should be able to clean just about anything off stainless steel.

Granted, I haven't seen or smelled it myself, but it seems like you should give it a shot if you're so inclined.

Do a search on sanke dip tube removal. I believe there is even something on wikipedia. I believe yuri rage did a write up, but of course I can't find it now. Since you know that the keg with the fitting is depressured, I would pull the dip tube out of it. I would take it to a car wash, put it on high pressure soap and stick the nozzle into the keg, wrap a towel around it to keep it from blowing back out of the hole into your face, then squeeze the trigger. I would blast a couple of gallons out, the dump it and repeat until all of the sludge is gone. Next, stop by Wally World and get some of the store brand oxyclean. Then, I would plug the fitting hole, even if its just with a rubber stopper and heat enough water to about 160* to fill the keg about half way. Dump the water into the keg and put about twice as much oxyclean in as it calls for and shake the bejeesus out of it. Let it sit for a day. Dump the water out and wash it out with a garden hose with a spray nozzle. then, look in there and check it out. This will tell you what you need to do to get it clean enough. Hopefully it will be there. I wouldn't use chlorine on stainless. A debate rages on here, but don't do it. Also, if you use a degreaser, use simple green. Finally, make sure you remove all of the pressure on the other keg before you start messing with it. There are several posts that deal with this. I know this seems like a lot of work, but it really isn't too bad. Plus, I just can't stand to see a keg go to a recycler when there are so many homebrewers in need! Let us know how this turns out. Good Luck - Dwain

That was a great idea, thanks! I got the spears out of both of them without any problems, the sealed one was out of pressure as it had been sitting in a back yard in Florida over a year, I suppose I'll want to get all new plastic parts/o-rings for the spear anyway no matter what I do. The stinky one had a bacterial colony living all the way to the tippy top of the spear, I dumped about 12oz of odor-ban in there to get it to the car wash, it still stunk Anyway after 2$ worth of hot soap and another $2 hot rinse with the pressure hose it's not smelly at all, also took care of most of the labeling and a good portion of the stickum. It still looks a little brown on the inside though, I'll do thing with the oxyclean once I figure out how to best seal the hole. Maybe just drive in a rubber stopper from the home improvement big box store and call it good for now.

The only thing I'd add to the carwash recommendation is maybe an organic vapors mask if you encounter a nightmare keg. I don't want to sound like I'm telling tall tales here, but I haven't thrown up in decades and I was dangerously close with this one.

Great! Sounds like it's going to clean up well. Yeah, a rubber stopper from Home Sleepo should work just fine. One other thing, you might get a carboy brush or one similar to help persuade anything else out of there. Luck - Dwain