Cleaning help

[banks741938]

Hi guys!

I just bought a 5 gallon upgrade off Craigslist at a really great deal it had 35 flip tops with it.

My question is it looks like the last owner stores it in his basement and didn't clean it well after his last batch. The bottles look dirty and kinda musty. Plastic fermenters have dried wort in them. Hope I didn't get burned and buy something that was beyond repair.

Is there any way to clean it up without risking infection. I paln on soaking everything with water overnight. Then hitting it with some pbw cleaner and scrubbing the crap out of it. Let it soak overnight again. Then hit it wait ha star San soak and scrub. With lots of flushing inbetween.

I'll post pics later

 

[kh54s10]

The PBW should do the trick. Do not use anything abrasive on plastic.

Don't waste any Starsan for cleaning. Clean well then use the Starsan (keep things wet) on brew day only. Sanitize anything that will touch the beer after the boil..

 

[banks741938]

Actually I think I have one step. Is that the same as pbw?

 

[kh54s10]

Actually I think I have one step. Is that the same as pbw?

It is not the same but should work well for cleaning. Although it says you can clean and sanitize with it, I would not recommend it for sanitizing.

I use Oxyclean for my cleaning and Starsan for sanitizing.

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

I'd probably bleach bomb anything plastic then rinse very well and then use the one step cleaner...

 

[banks741938]

Just realized I'm out of star San. How much bleach should I use per gallon.

 

[banks741938]

Just got done giving everything a good once over with some cold water. I rubbed everything down then filled the buckets and bottles and rest of equip with water to give it a good day soak. I sprinkled some one step in just help get things working. Also some of the bottles still had labels so hope that helps. It already is stating to look better. Next step is to scrub the crap out of it with bottles brush and soft sponges and one step . Then gonna let them soak again. Should I take the rubber seals off the flip tops and run them through the dishwasher with the bottles with no soap just to try to get everything the best I can. Would it be okay to leave the cages on them as well

 

[JohnSand]

You might replace the rubber seals, they are not expensive. I use paper towels and clear unscented dish soap or PBW to clean fermenters. Glass is very hard, brushes are fine for them.
There are ways to test fermenters for infection. I bought an old glass carboy from a defunct winery. After some soaking and rinsing, I tested it by filling with a mix of sugar and warm water. After a week, the gravity had not changed, there were no blooms or pellicles, no change in appearance, odor or flavor. If anything had been living in there, something would have changed.

 

[madscientist451]

I had some red wine in a better bottle carboy for 2+ years and I couldn't get the red film off the inside of it. I filled with water/PBW mix and let it sit for a few days and it came right off. If you don't have star san, you should get some, I've never had any problems since started using it.