I picked up a huge pressure cooker at the school surplus auction the other day. It has no gasket and I'm not sure it's supposed to. It does leak a bit when the pressure gets up there but it should work just fine for my steam setup. My question is this:
Since this came from school I'm assuming it was used by the chem dept for various chemicals and I'd like to be sure it's clean before I use it in brewing. It has a dark ring and some spotting similar to what you see in the aluminum turkey fryer pots after they've been exposed to wort. I *think* the cooker (a "mastercooker") is aluminim.. and if this is the case then I don't think the ring is an issue. But the bottom of the cooker does have some deposits in the grain that I'm having a hard time getting out with BKF and steel wool. It also had some clay like substance in there that comes out with some elbow grease and steel wool. I still can't get the brownish clay stuff out of the little mfg stamp in the bottom though.. I'm hoping some PBW will accomplish this. There also appears to be a few brownish spots that could be rust (makes sense if this is stainless) but it's gotta be something else if it is in fact aluminum.
Anyhow, what's the most aggressive cleaning approach I can take with this thing? I'm thinking more agressive than PBW if there is such a thing. Muriatic acid maybe? TSP?
Thanks for the help
edit:
If anyone's interested here's a photo I ran across on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-1930s-A...re-Cooker_W0QQitemZ140013981667QQcmdZViewItem
That's exactly what it looks like - outta the 1930's it says. If it's that old then you know it must be quality. The damn thing is heavy as hell! I'm really thinking it must be aluminum.
Since this came from school I'm assuming it was used by the chem dept for various chemicals and I'd like to be sure it's clean before I use it in brewing. It has a dark ring and some spotting similar to what you see in the aluminum turkey fryer pots after they've been exposed to wort. I *think* the cooker (a "mastercooker") is aluminim.. and if this is the case then I don't think the ring is an issue. But the bottom of the cooker does have some deposits in the grain that I'm having a hard time getting out with BKF and steel wool. It also had some clay like substance in there that comes out with some elbow grease and steel wool. I still can't get the brownish clay stuff out of the little mfg stamp in the bottom though.. I'm hoping some PBW will accomplish this. There also appears to be a few brownish spots that could be rust (makes sense if this is stainless) but it's gotta be something else if it is in fact aluminum.
Anyhow, what's the most aggressive cleaning approach I can take with this thing? I'm thinking more agressive than PBW if there is such a thing. Muriatic acid maybe? TSP?
Thanks for the help
edit:
If anyone's interested here's a photo I ran across on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-1930s-A...re-Cooker_W0QQitemZ140013981667QQcmdZViewItem
That's exactly what it looks like - outta the 1930's it says. If it's that old then you know it must be quality. The damn thing is heavy as hell! I'm really thinking it must be aluminum.
