Cleaning Brew Kettle after using for cooking

[Rootski]

So I've been brewing for 6 months or so and have learned a lot. I'm doing extract brews, but will be switching to BIAB soon. I have an 8 gallon aluminum kettle with a basket inside. A family tradition of mine is to do fish boils over an open fire so I said let's use my big kettle. I was not concerned with the charring of the outside of my pot (I have a nice trick to easily wash that off). The boil had fish, potatoes, and onions, along with a healthy amount of canning salt in the water. Afterwards, to my disappointment, my kettle and basket only got a quick rinse and then it air dried with lots of fish skin and other nasties still on it. So, without much thought I soaked the whole thing overnight in a light PBW mix last night. Probably not the best decision, but that's another topic, I will deal with the oxidation and minor pitting that occurred. My real question is how to deal with any lingering oils from the fish and if anyone thinks that might be a problem for my next brew. This will not be the last time that the kettle is used in such a way. If I got to it right away is soap and water enough? I don't want to impart any fish flavor into my next brew.
Thanks!

 

[rekoob]

Well, I'm not saying I wouldn't use my brew kettles for something other than beer but I would have to give it some thought first.

I won't get into using PBW overnight in your aluminum kettle...

I would think any oils are gone. did you give it a good cleaning after the PBW? can you smell anything inside it?

I would use a bit of dish soap and a green scrubby pad on it, rinse well, let dry and stick your head in.

What's your trick for cleaning the outside of the kettle?

 

[Rootski]

Thanks - I'm not thrilled about my decision to soak with PBW. I think I'll do as you suggest. I rinsed it real well after the PBW and lightly scrubbed the worst of the oxidation with a stainless steel pad, then rinsed again. I'll try soap and water, the stink test, and then report back. My intent is to get another kettle specifically for brewing only, but that might have to wait until Christmas.

To make cleanup of the outside of aluminum kettles much easier after boiling over an outdoor wood fire, I coat the entire outside of the kettle, including handles in as much dish soap is as could be reasonable without dripping. On the fire the kettle will quickly turn black, almost entirely. After the meal the kettle should rinse off much easier with less elbow grease. You'll still have to scrub some of it off, but most should just rinse off with water from the garden hose.

I have plans to do a brew over the wood fire soon. I'll post pics of the success/failure if my plans actually happen.

 

[Keithww]

I converted and old turkey fryer to beers, soaked over night with regular dish soap, scrubbed with a stainless steel scrubber, the filled 9/10th with water and brought to a full boil, lowered to a simmer and filled to the top. Kept at a low bubble for 20 minutes, then covered and left overnight. Next morning I had a great coat of oxide and items good to go.

Use RO or distilled water to get your oxide, that kettle was over 15 years old and still shinny till I did the aluminum oxide boil.


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[hopfool]

Old Boy Scout trick, that soaping of the open fire pots and pans. Forgot all about it, but it does work quite well. We used to rub them down with whatever kind of bar soap we happened to have and it worked great. Now that I think of it... that's probably the only reason we even bothered packing soap in the first place... little pigs that we were.

I have a nice spare 15 gallon aluminum pot that I was thinking of re-purposing as a HLT for 5-6 gallon all grain batches. Picked it up for next to nothing at an auction and used it a couple of times to season some new animal traps. That included boiling the traps for about a half hour in black walnut husks and spruce tips. Scrubbed it out with soap and water after, but just recently started thinking of using for beer, so I'm worried now about what the aluminum might have held onto. I was thinking of a light, quick scrub with PBW, rinse and re-clean with soap and water before boiling or re-heating in the oven. Don't mind the spruce much but the tannins from the walnut would really suck. Guess I'll find out tomorrow.

FWIW, earlier mention about RO water here I think. My RO-DI system (using our irony & lightly sulfurous well water) produces slightly acidic water that we use a calcium carbonate post cartridge on to re-buffer back closer to a neutral (7.2) pH. Makes better coffee, tea and soft drinks so I figured it should also make better beer. The acidic water (I think it was like 5.6 or so) made noticeably crappy tea and coffee and the improvement was immediately obvious.

 

[DurtyChemist]

I used a turkey fryer for a year or two before moving to a keggle. I cooked a turkey one day and made beer the next. I just cleaned it with dish soap and water just like I was going to cook another turkey. No over night soak or anything special. It's a pot just like any other. Do you clean your barbeque that much when you go from chicken to steak to tri tip etc? Don't you worry about flavors carrying over when you use dishes in the kitchen? I didn't think so. Brew a batch of beer and you'll be fine. Heck, have a friend brew using your pot and see if they tasted anything "fishy" in their batch.

 

[dmcman73]

Just as everyone else has said, wash it with soap and water and you'll be fine. The only thing different I would do is follow up with PBW to make sure all the soap is off. I've had soap "taste" wind up in other items besides beer brewing (like coffee) even after I thought I rinsed it really well.