Having trouble getting stains/residue off inside of glass carboy.

[Juno_Malone]

Take a look at the attached pictures to see what I'm dealing with. It seems like it's maybe residue from hard water? So far all I've tried is PBW, and it's not doing anything to it. First I tried the recommended 3/4oz per gallon, 30 minute soak followed by some light brushing, no luck. Then tried a 48-hour soak with a bit more PBW (~6oz + 6.5gallon), followed by some light brushing, still no luck.

Can anyone tell me what this stuff building up is? And what my best options are to remove it?

Thanks!

 

[madscientist451]

From the sound of your question it sounds like you have hard water? Try getting some non-hard water from a friends house or some other way, and try the PBW again, leave it in there for a week. Don't dump the PBW water out, have buckets ready, you can use the same PBW water over and over.

 

[BrewSomeMore]

If its mineral deposits than dump a gallon or two of white vinegar and top off with water. That should be able to descale it.

 

[imasickboy]

White vinegar. No soak, just swish, dump, and rinse.

 

[Juno_Malone]

From the sound of your question it sounds like you have hard water? Try getting some non-hard water from a friends house or some other way, and try the PBW again, leave it in there for a week. Don't dump the PBW water out, have buckets ready, you can use the same PBW water over and over.

Not really sure how hard my water is on a scale of good to bad. My water report has the following:

Calcium: 34.0
Magnesium: 5.7
Sodium: 29.0
Bicarbonate: 160.6
Sulfate: 26.0
Chloride: 9.1
Total Alkalinity: 132.0
pH: 7.5
Total Hardness: 108ppm

 

[Juno_Malone]

White vinegar. No soak, just swish, dump, and rinse.

Hmm if that's all it takes, I might be in luck - I've got a few gallons of white vinegar in the garage I was going to use in the process of re-seasoning some cast iron pans. So no need to dilute to fill the carboy all the way up, or let it soak at all? Just a gallon or two of vinegar, vigorous shaking/swirling, drain, rinse with water?

 

[Riot]

Your water report looks very similar to mine. It isn't that hard but I certainly would t call it soft either

 

[BrewSomeMore]

I guess try swooshing it first. Then if that doesn't work, let it soak.

 

[imasickboy]

Hmm if that's all it takes, I might be in luck - I've got a few gallons of white vinegar in the garage I was going to use in the process of re-seasoning some cast iron pans. So no need to dilute to fill the carboy all the way up, or let it soak at all? Just a gallon or two of vinegar, vigorous shaking/swirling, drain, rinse with water?

Just a quart should be enough. Dump it in, pick up the carboy, and start swirling and turning.

 

[Redlantern]

CLR will take that out.