Equipment

[oxford brewer]

I have just picked up some second hand gear(2xfermenting buckets,2x wine fermenting bins,sure i can adapt them for beer and 2x beerspheres(float system)also a gas cartridge).
My question is .....the gear is pretty dirty and the beerspheres smell a bit like maggots what can i safely use to get rid of ,what could be an ingrained smell or taste?

Please help!!!!

 

[DeRoux's Broux]

can you get OxyClean? it's a powdered detergent. just add some to the vessels and fill with hot water. let it soak over-night and rinse real good. that might help.

 

[SteveM]

Else just let it soak in bleach...but rinse thoroughly.

 

[Rhoobarb]

Yes, and then be sure to sanitize them with bleach or some equivalent. Good luck! That'd be a great score if they clean up for you.

BTW, what's a beersphere? Is that like a keg of some sort?

 

[DAAB]

Avoid the Oxyclean with the blue crystals (artificial brightners) if you can, prolonged soaking with this tends to leave a hard to remove blue tide mark. I prefer one or more of the following methods.
Soaking overnight in a Soda Crysral/washing soda solution 1 tablespoon per pt .
Soaking for a couple of hours in a 5% thin household bleach solution (1 litre bleach of every 20 litres water. (Cleans and steralises and deodorizes most smells)
Finaly if that fails take a damp sponge and sprinkle on some barcarbonate of soda ( baking powder) and scrub, do this a couple of times and leave the residue on for 1/2 hr or so before rinsing.

 

[bikebryan]

can you get OxyClean? it's a powdered detergent. just add some to the vessels and fill with hot water. let it soak over-night and rinse real good. that might help.

You certainly can let it soak overnight in oxyclean, but, for general knowledge, letting it soak for more than 4 or 5 hours doesn't produce any better results. The "oxygen power" of oxyclean outgasses within a few hours and after that you don't get much cleaning benefit (I'm tempted to say no cleaning benefit, but don't believe in absolutes).

 

[oxford brewer]

Thanks for or your help people!!

Rhoobarb, a beersphere is a keg but really round and has a float system so that your beers taken from the top(unlike normal kegs with the tap at the bottom).

If i can get rid of the smell that is???????????/

 

[oxford brewer]

Cheers guys

At the moment it seems as though the smell has gone(bleach and water...no thin bleach so just used less thick bleach...hope is ok?????.
It got rid of a big ring of old scum around the top of a fermentor!!!!!!!!
Need to get new floats, taps,valves and seals though(i can possibly recondition each item for about £6-7 each).

Here's to happy brewing!!!!!!!!!!!1