Cleaning a Mouse Out of a Carboy

[chrisedjohn]

Hello all. I'm a beginner home brewer. Engineer by trade, thrifty at heart. I'm making or borrowing what I can to brew beer. Just borrowed (3) 5 gallon glass carboys, one of which a mouse had climbed in and died. I can get over the gross factor as long as I'd be able to get that thing sanitized afterwards and it would have zero effect on the fermentation.

Do you guys have suggestions for economically getting that vessel "good as new" after a mouse has died in it? Or do you think it's hopeless?

 

[Evan!]

Glass is eminently cleanable. If you can get the mouse out (use a coat hook if you haven't already), I would start with a bleach solution for a day. Dump that, rinse, then an oxyclean solution, with brushing, let that sit for another 12 hours min. Rinse, make sure the smell is gone (there's almost no chance that it's not), and sanitize as usual.

One of those dudes on TBN had this happen to them, but I forget which one it was. JP?

 

[ohrinet]

Certainly no expert, but being it's glass I'd say...
Soak in Bleach...
Rinse...
Soak in OxyClean...
Rinse...
Smell it...

I wouldn't be able to get over the gross factor...

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Use the bag trick! and video tape it.

 

[shoebag22]

helluva first post... congrats.

 

[conpewter]

Isn't there someone on here with something like "mouse bones brewing" as their brewery name for the same reason?

 

[Skins_Brew]

dude get some acid and dissolve that sucker!

 

[ChshreCat]

The first thing to do about a dead mouse in your carboy is to carefully rack the beer off of the mouse to a secondary.

 

[Elfmaze]

Time to make some mouse wine!

 

[ReeseAllen]

Uh, turn the carboy upside down? If the mouse has been dead in there for long enough, it'll be dried out and thus somewhat shrunken. If it fit through the top when it was alive, it should be even easier to get out now that it's dead.

 

[Zul'jin]

Use top fermenting yeast.

The serious answers have already been given.

 

[ChshreCat]

Budweiser... doormouse aged...

 

[FireNightFly]

Sounds like a good beer ... dead mouse ale.

 

[ChshreCat]

Little Furry Dead Guy

 

[homebrewer_99]

The first thing to do about a dead mouse in your carboy is to carefully rack the beer off of the mouse to a secondary.

I bet that mouse could "rock the cat box, rack the cat box"...(sung to the tune of "Rock the Casbah"...)

 

[stevea1210]

My vote is brew: hickery dickery bock

 

[homebrewer_99]

My vote is brew: hickery dickery bock

ROTFLMAO!!!

 

[Clayton]

this happons all the time
it has happoned to me too
just look at all the like treads al the bottom of the page

in a word bleach

 

[SmallFloorBrewing]

Hey welcome

 

[homebrewer_99]

Brew a Belgium Blonde and call it One Blind Mouse or One Blonde Mouse...

 

[beerbuzz]

good stuff like this is exactly why I joined this site!

 

[homebrewer_99]

good stuff like this is exactly why I joined this site!

Why? Sarcasm.com wouldn't let you join? HAHAHAHA!!!! j/k

 

[markcubed]

Too bad it wasn't a rat, you could have made some Guinness!

 

[beer-monger]

ReeseAllen Said- "Uh, turn the carboy upside down? If the mouse has been dead in there for long enough, it'll be dried out and thus somewhat shrunken. If it fit through the top when it was alive, it should be even easier to get out now that it's dead."

Wouldn't that depend on how much of the beer the mouse drank before he kicked it?

1 vote for dead mouse Ale.