Kegs and weed killer

Just acquired three kegs that the previous owner said he held weed killer in. I'm cleaning them today and it smells like glyphosate. My thought is to clean the hell out of them and replace all the plastic and rubber parts and they will be ok. Does anybody have any knowledge on the issue. Bad idea? FYI, they were free and I cannot afford to buy others right now.

 

I work in landscaping spraying various pesticides and use glysophate all the time, this is a bad idea. While it may be possible to totally clean out the kegs any mistake will leave some herbicide behind. Since this is a keg that will have beer in it for some time the risk is just to great in my opinion. You have no idea what herbicides have been in those kegs, while Glyphosate may not be that bad other herbicides are very dangerous.

 

Personally I think its bad juju. did it get slopped onto/under the rubber cap on top? will you ever really be able to get them completely clean??

 

To risky, not worth it. You can still use them to advance your home brewing equipment inventory. Sell them on Ebay advertised as Weed Killer vessels. Might get enough from the sale to buy a beer corny.

 

yeah...I wouldn't drink anything from a keg that once held that kind of poison - yes stainless should be able to be cleaned completely but i think this is too big a risk.

 

I would not use them.

 

What is the risk of using them?
What is the reward of using them?
What is the risk of not using them?
What is the reward of not using them?

 

Nice call Butcher

 

yeah don't use it.. pretty sure it would be technically illegal for your friend to knowingly let you use these containers for brewing

 

Is Butcher Agnostic?

 

I wouldent use them. Just my oppinion.

 

That would scare me away.

 

Who knows?

 

I would use them.... to store other chemicals in, not beer.

 

Hit them with a caustic wash(drain cleaner) and an acid wash (star san acid #5) and you should be good to go. Most of the cleaners and washes used in production facilities are worse than most lawncare chemicals. Change your seals and poppets and get some beer in them.

 

^^^^^^agreed^^^^^^

 

If it were me, I'd use them after a very good cleaning. But, ONLY if you are sure it was only glysophate. This is the chemical used in Roundup. It breaks down in the environment in only a few days and it is one of the least harmful of any of the herbicides.

Just my opinion.

 

If you do decide to use them:
1. soak in water for 24 hours then drain.
2. Soak in muriatic acid solution 24 hrs. Drain and rinse at least 5 times.
3. Soak in oxiclean overnight and rinse thouroughly.
We get carboys from a drug company and a scientist in our club told us to do this.
Good luck if you try it...

 

No way, absolutely not. No way I'm using anything that's been used for lawn chemicals to produce or store something I plan on eating or drinking. It's just bad, bad practice and asking for serious trouble.

 

Threads like this (and the washing machine brewer on YouTube) make me glad I'm not a BJCP judge.

 

Even if I could get them clean I would always think "what if they weren't completely clean?". It would mess up my thinking about each pint I had.

 

Wow, I just watched that. I'm not sure how I'd feel about drinking beer made in a used washing machine.

 

After the first batch in the keg you'll be fine. Just invite people you're not fond of over to drain the keg. And be sure to buy some beer at the store for yourself that day.

On a more serious note. They should be cleanable. But I'd get even more medieval and anal about cleaning those suckers than you could ever imagine.

Stainless is cleanable. But I'd get the heebejeebies if I drank for them.

But even then, I'd use them. Only after cleaning them like no keg has ever ever been cleaned before.

 

Your talking about the same chemicals they spray on our food right?

 

There ya go.

Is stainless steel porous and will it absorb liquids it is in contact with? I'm no metallurgist but I am guessing "no" as it is a standard in the food industry.

A super good cleaning and replacement of all gaskets seems reasonable to me. After all, how many of us "used" corny keg owners really know what was in them before we got our hands on them? Maybe we would have done a much more thorough cleaning if we did.

 

I can't imagine bottling being a big enough PITA to use kegs that had been used to hold herbicides. Glyphosate may be one of the relatively safer herbicides to have been housed in there, but ones like 2,4-D and paraquat are not. Not to mention the possible use of insecticides which can attack the central nervous system.

I wouldn't use them to water my dog. I definitely wouldn't put beer in them.

 

Stainless steel is an absorbent similar to a sponge. Once it comes in contact with anything non beer it will immediately absorb the chemical and will not release it under any cleaning until it makes contact with your beer.

 

Sorry to tell you this, but they are forever contaminated. Please send them to me and I will dispose of them properly.

 

You can probably clean it out well enough.

But are you willing to risk it if you didn't?

 

Yes... don't you think Pepsi and Coke got a few kegs back over the years that had been used to spray chemicals? You clean them... where do you think it would be a problem?

 

If you are going that route are you sure everything you wasn't at some in a container containing containing chemicals. I am pretty sure it's against FDA regulations. But you never know I guess.

 

1. Stainless doesn't absorb anything. It may have substances adsorbed to it, but depending on the behaviour of the substance in question, that should be relatively easy to take care of.
2. The dose makes the poison. You probably ingest more herbicide from eating improperly washed fruits and veg than you will from using these kegs that you will probably wash the ass out of. If you can't taste it or smell it, its probably not a huge concern.
3. Whoever said it will absorb things and then not release it until it releases into your beer, this is absolutely ridiculous. What about beer do you think is so magical that it can dissolve chemicals that nothing else would touch. If that is the case with your homebrew, please don't ever ask me to do a bottle swap :cross:

 

What?

Take it easy francis, the poster was using sarcasm.





The kegs may very well be fine after you clean the sh!t out of them. I'd be happy with the use of caustics but, then again, I have them on hand. Anything less and I'd not even consider the use of those kegs.

Not like you are out any cost since they were given to you.

 

So was I Marge

 

I never swap bottles with people that can't see sarcasm anyway...

 

"Just when I thought I was getting the hang of sarcasm." ---Sheldon

 

that guy is a jerk, why ruin kegs?!

 

there are products made to neutralize pesticide residue and clean them out of sprayer tanks. i tend to agree with the crowd that says it's possible to use these for beer, if you do a very thorough job of cleaning, the amount leftover to possibly harm you is probably negligible. here is an example of one of the products i mentioned:

http://beckerunderwood.com/en/products/NTC

 

The FDA has a cleaning procedure. Do you think the tanker truck that is going from Washington to New York with your kids apple juice is returning with maple sirup? Do you think for a tanker to be 'food grade' it can only haul food?

Your a homebrewer, you have a 10 gallon brewpot. I would poor in 5 gallons of boiling water. Let it set a spell. Repeat. Replace o-rings. Boiling water with a scoop of ozi-clean. Starsan. Use.

 

i'm no scientologist, but if i was a weed, i would definitely stay away from weed killer.