Bar Keepers Friend Not Getting It All

I recently was gifted a keggle and noticed it had some rust spots on the inside. I did some digging around and after reading dozens of threads the recommended method seems to be Bar Keepers Friend and a green scotch brite pad. So I applied a decent amount of the stuff to the wet pad and went to town scrubbing the inside of the keggle then left it to soak for 20 mins before rinsing.
While most of the rust came off and the rest of the keg looks nicely polished there is still a few spots I couldn't get rid of. So this is where I look to HBT for advice...

Should I give it another round with the BKF and scotch brite?
Will it go away as the SS passivates(I could be waaaay off on thinking this but metallurgy isn't something Im knowledgable about)?
Should I use something more abrasive on those spots then polish with BKF?
Other options?

Pics below, thanks...

Interested to know as well. That seam can be hard to keep clean.

It appears you know what you are doing. My opinion is that your not getting into those areas with your cleaning pad. I would get a rotating wire brush that will fit on your drill and go to town. You could also try the wire brush for cleaning a BBQ, but that would be a lot of work. Either way, you don't want rust on seams, which could lead to leaks.


Good Luck,

Do NOT use a steel wire brush to clean your stainless keg, you'll cause rust.

Do use a STAINLESS steel brush to clean it, then make a paste of BKF and coat the area, let it sit overnight and rinse off in the morning.

I use this guy on a cordless drill, works well.

wilconrad said:

Do NOT use a steel wire brush to clean your stainless keg, you'll cause rust.

Do use a STAINLESS steel brush to clean it, then make a paste of BKF and coat the area, let it sit overnight and rinse off in the morning.

I use this guy on a cordless drill, works well.

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They didnt have one that attached to my drill at home depot so I had to get a hand held SS brush. Just gave the spots a good scrub and another round with BKF and it looks to be doing the trick. Thanks!!

Can I ask which BKF product you bought? I have the same problem in my keggle.

KeyWestBrewing said:

They didnt have one that attached to my drill at home depot so I had to get a hand held SS brush. Just gave the spots a good scrub and another round with BKF and it looks to be doing the trick. Thanks!!

Click to expand...

De nada, my friend, happy (rust-free) brewing!

finsfan said:

Can I ask which BKF product you bought? I have the same problem in my keggle.

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Just the standard BKF powder available at most hardware stores. The liquid would probably work, too, but I've never tried it.

Thanks!

finsfan said:

Can I ask which BKF product you bought? I have the same problem in my keggle.

Click to expand...

Yep that's the stuff I used. Worked great.

I found that Bar Keepers Friend and a green scrub pad wouldn't do much against some beerstone deposits. Using a copper scrubber instead of the green pad did the trick.

Ugh. Scrubbed the heck out of two keggles today with BKF and stainless scrubby thanks to you guys! They sure look nice now though.

I also just finished about 30 minutes of scrubbing the bottom of my keggle. Cleaner then when I got it though

I was so impressed with the job this stuff did to my boil kettle I wanted to post a follow up. First picture is what the kettle looked like a few minutes after scrubbing it with BKF. The second pic is what it looked like after cleaning the whole thing.




I honestly didnt put much elbow grease into it when I was scrubbing. I think if I gave it one more round it would literally look brand new again.