Smelly MLT

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ReeseAllen

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Location
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I left a batch of spent grains in my cooler MLT for a week. They started to rot/ferment as would be expected.

In the past when this happened, I did a 30 minute oxyclean soak after cleaning, and the rotting smell was gone after rinsing. This time it's lingering. I'm doing a second, higher-concentration soak now.

Any tips?
 
Leave the cooler open outside in the sun for about a week and let those UV rays do some work on it.
 
Leave the cooler open outside in the sun for about a week and let those UV rays do some work on it.
Hahaha, the sun, that's a good one.

I live in Seattle and it's mid-November. We have two kinds of weather six months of the year: Rain and overcast.

I'm hoping I can get this thing clean this afternoon so I can brew tonight.
 
Second soak didn't have much effect. Next attempt: 5 gallons of boiling water into the MLT, plus a cup or two of bleach. Close the lid and let the bleach and steam work on it.

It's starting to rain now, looking less likely that I'll be brewing tonight :(
 
I bleach mine all the time...mostly recycle the bleach water from carboys to MLT and back again until it's too contaminated or discolored...no problems yet.

I didn't leave the grains in there for a week, but it didn't take long to stink up my garage and basement...just a few days.

Good luck.
 
Rather than bleach, fill your mashtun with hot water and dissolve a box of baking soda in it....and leave that over night, or for a day or two to absorb the odor, to pull it out of the plastic. Just like you do with a box of baking soda in a fridge.
 
Bleach didn't do anything but cause a nice black layer of corrosion to appear on the inner side of the copper manifold bulkhead. Guess it's time to try baking soda.

No brewing for me this weekend :(
 
I ended up rinsing it out with a lot of hot water and using it anyway. It still had a smell to it but it wasn't a really rotten smell like when I first cleaned it out. I'll hit it with baking soda after I dump out the newest spent grain today.
 
+1 on the baking soda ... I made an MLT from a cooler that i got for free from my sister. It didn't smell so great when I picked it up, but I did pretty much what Revvy said to do and after about 24 hours it smelled fresh and new. Like a field of poppies on a sunny spring day.
 
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