Cleaning heavily soiled brewing equipment

[will4009]

Hello

I have been given a friends old equipment, most of it I have been able to clean (glass demijons etc). But I have 6 fermenting bins and a few decent bottling buckets, which are obviously plastic. When I have gone to give them a clean it appears that they were not washed out after the last brew which was done in them, so there is lots of left over residue stuck inside. Is it possible to clean and use them? I was worried that because they are plastic, being left in a mess for a good while would ruin any future batches that I would brew in them. Would seem a shame if they could not be used as they are not cheap £10 buckets.

Thanks

 

[Dynachrome]

I would start with A good oxyclean soak.

Others have mentioned real good results from PBW. I've never had opportunity to try it.

The latest I heard for sterilizing (it's a separate process from cleaning) is to use hydrogen peroxide to kill any remaining badness.

I use a bleach wash with a hot rinse and drip/evaporation dry.

 

[abeasst]

I'd clean with dish soap and paper towel, then leave hot water and oxy clean in them for a week, then rinse and see what you have. If that doesn't get them clean ditch them.

 

[Dynachrome]

I would probably get new hoses and things you can't visually inspect.

 

[will4009]

Yep. Will give it a go with them. Hopefully a good soak withy oxyclean will sort them out.

 

[TonyG]

Here's another vote for some hot water and oxyclean, let is soak for a day or so and wipe any remaining residue, then rinse really well. If you still have residual material, soak again with fresh oxyclean.

 

[unionrdr]

I prefer PBW myself. I put 3-4 TBSP in the fermenter,filling it to the top of the dried krausen crud ring with water. Warm water works fine here. You don't want really hot water in plastic. Set the lid loosely on top of the fermenter & let it sit a couple days. This should re-hydrate the dried stuff so it can be gently scrubbed of with a soft cloth or long brush. I use the bottling brush at this point. If the fermenter has a spigot,then use another bucket to drain the cleaner through the spigot. This will get any loose crud out of it. For draining,I use either a home depot orange bucket,or even one of those 5 quart ice cream pales. Once drained,take it to the sink & rinse thoroughly with warm water. I even rinse it out with Starsan after that & before storage to keep any remaining moisture from breeding nasties.

 

[santoni]

It is good oxy cleaners but some time it not work on glass..

 

[surffisher2a]

When using Oxyclean, get the water as hot as the plastic will stand. Let it soak giving it a shake every so often to knock the stuff off the sides. Its amazing what that stuff can do.

 

[LongEZBrew]

Just getting back into brewing after a long haitus. One of my carboys had not been touched since at least 2003 and still had a crud ring around it from the last use. One quarter cup Oxy Clean and fill with water from the hose. Let sit for 24 hours and when I came out to check on it - clean. All I had to do was rinse a couple of times.

I'll rinse again before use (and maybe brush it just for the heck of it) but I am amazed at the results.

 

[Fletcher21]

My vote would be to replace any old unclean plastic as it's not worth the risk of losing a entire batch of beer because of a cheap to replace bucket. I would use them for premixed StarSan containers, grain and preboil supplies, etc...


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