cleaning fermenter

After I bottled the other night, I had a God aweful mess in my fermenting bucket. I took it to the bathtub and washed it out with just hot water and scrubbed it with a soft cloth to get the gunk out. I didnt use anything to clean it other than the water...is this going to be a problem? It still smells of beer...does this really matter?

If there is anything that I should have used to clean it with, I would appreciate some advice on it.

I don't know the answer but I know you should be careful not to use anything rough enough to scratch the inside of the pail. Scratches can harbor bacteria and make it very hard to disinfect in the future.

yeah...definitely careful not to scratch it..which is why I didnt use anything but hot water. Nothing abrasive.

Get some PBW, fill up your bucket with some warm water and leave it soaking with the PBW for a day or two, then rinse out with warm water again. I've noticed pending what was in the bucket fermenting either it'll clean off fairly or its a pain.

I usually just clean mine with unscented dish soap and use my hand to scrub it, then sanitize it before fermentation. This hasn't caused any infections for me (so far). In microbiology lab, we did an experiment with hand washing with and without soap, and there actually wasn't much of a difference. As long as you get rid of all visible particles, and then sanitize it well, I don't think you will have a problem. In fact, I only clean my bottles by rinsing them with hot water a couple times after pouring my beer, and then sanitizing before refilling them. That being said, better safe than sorry. Invest in some cleaner.

pretty much only use food grade, plastic buckets, or Mr. beer LBKs, myself.

very often I just rinse out a couple of times with hot tap water, get the majority of the krausen gunk off there, then fill to the top with hot tap water and leave for a while. Hand wipe/clean, so that I can feel if there are any bits of debris still stuck anywhere, then sanitize.

Every now and again I'll do an oxyclean soak for a day or two and then a couple of good, thorough, rinses. Even then there's still a funky, hoppy, beery smell in the buckets but it doesn't seem to make any difference to the next brew.

Let me ask...do glass carboys retain that funky beery smell like the buckets?

I have noticed that if I spray some starsan on the sides and bottom is the bucket it gets rid of the smell

I have read here that the smell will not harm your next batch

GeorgiaTiger said:

Let me ask...do glass carboys retain that funky beery smell like the buckets?

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Glass generally won't retain odor. Use plain 'ol soap and water or OxyClean if you have it around. The odor in the fermentor pail really won't have any impact on your beer.

not sure about anybody else, but i use oxy to wash everything the first time... and then sanitize after that.

bottles, carboys, pretty much everything

dadshomebrewing said:

not sure about anybody else, but i use oxy to wash everything the first time... and then sanitize after that.

bottles, carboys, pretty much everything

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Again, yep. Everything should be thoroughly washed. I'm especially careful with hoses, spigots and auto siphons.

Rick

Dish soap and a sponge for everything. Fermenter, carboy's, tubing, racking cane, tri-clamp fittings, i mean everything. Store away clean and rinse and sanitize before next use.

F250 said:

Again, yep. Everything should be thoroughly washed. I'm especially careful with hoses, spigots and auto siphons.

Rick

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particularly hoses... they can get nasty, really fast