Cleaning Aluminum Kettle

[bfulin19]

I am planning to brew this Saturday. I was getting my stuff together when I found my brother had used my brew kettle to fry in and the oil is still in it. I have separate pots to avoid this but I guess he didn't know that. Does anyone know of a good way to get it good and clean so it doesn't ruin my batch? I have no Idea how long its been sitting like this for. I'm assuming at least a month.

 

[afro_lou]

Really hot water and dish soap. It may take a couple of washes, but the oil will come out.
If you want to be extra careful, give it a good soak in PBW. You may have to re-oxidize the pot, but that's easy enough.
It'll be fine.

 

[bfulin19]

Thanks, for the info. How do I re-oxidize it? Heat it up with nothing in it? A guy at work told me to do that before I clean it because it will bring more of the oil out of the metal.

 

[mabrungard]

Put a few gallons of PBW solution in the kettle and raise the temp to around 160F and swish that frequently around the entire kettle for about an hour. That has proven to be very effective in removing brewing varnish and I'm sure it would also remove oil since PBW has a surfactant. Stop when the metal is somewhat bright.

If you have hard tap water, reoxidizing is easy. Just fill the kettle to the level you normally work with and give the water a short boil. That will oxidize and plate the kettle with a little calcium. The metal will be much darker after the treatment.

 

[bfulin19]

Thanks, I just used some dawn and boiling water and it seemed to come out fine. I dropped off at my friends catering business before I went into work and he was going to run it through his dishwasher for me just to be safe.

As for oxidizing it I actually do that every time I brew I just never knew that's what I was doing. Hahah thanks for the information though.