Unfortunate mashtun.

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Check out the Cock Ale recipe in Charlie Papasian's new complete Joy of homebrewing. It calls for a whole chicken in the beer! 😱Holy freekin wow!!! It's not a rat but, Jesus! It's a whole damn chicken and that is gross enough for me! Says to pluck it, pummel it and smash it's bones! If any of you dare devil's out there try making that recipe, you are one manly man for sure! Tell me how it turned out!🤪
 
Last edited:
Check out the Cock Ale recipe in Charlie Papasian's new complete Joy of homebrewing. It calls a whole chicken in the beer! 😱Holy freekin wow!!! It's not a rat but, Jesus! It's a whole damn chicken and that is gross enough for me! Says to pluck it, pummel it and smash it's bones! If any of you dare devil's out there try making that recipe, you are one manly man for sure! Tell me how it turned out!🤪
Damn....
 
Check out the Cock Ale recipe in Charlie Papasian's new complete Joy of homebrewing.
OK, Charlie, that's two revolting ideas. Goat Scrotum Stout and now this. I didn't get close enough to the GSS recipe to check the ingredients, but imagine those both on the menu at a brew pub. I imagine they'd age a while.

I'd have a hard time sharing bottles with a vegan friend. Not sure about the carnivores, either. Both sound like marketing challenges.

I usually put a little effort into making a label, but no, no, no.

I imagine that's a whole chicken for a 5-7 gallon recipe.
 
OK, Charlie, that's two revolting ideas. Goat Scrotum Stout and now this. I didn't get close enough to the GSS recipe to check the ingredients, but imagine those both on the menu at a brew pub. I imagine they'd age a while.

I'd have a hard time sharing bottles with a vegan friend. Not sure about the carnivores, either. Both sound like marketing challenges.

I usually put a little effort into making a label, but no, no, no.

I imagine that's a whole chicken for a 5-7 gallon recipe.
That gives new meaning to, "a chicken in every pot"
 
I've only had one rat in my garage/brewspace; little bugger got in while I had the door open for brewing one day. Heard it scuttling around behind the shelves for a few days, then one day nothing; and found it dead under my kitchen table, courtesy of my youngest cat (who was born feral). None since.
 
I am vigilant because I store my grain down there in food-safe pails with Gamma lids. I have never found any evidence of attempted entry to those.

Our mice waltz right in the garage, and I've got traps everywhere. But, I didn't want to chance it so bought a small steel garbage can and use that as grain storage. I'd like to see them chew through that.
 
I've only had one rat in my garage/brewspace; little bugger got in while I had the door open for brewing one day. Heard it scuttling around behind the shelves for a few days, then one day nothing; and found it dead under my kitchen table, courtesy of my youngest cat (who was born feral). None since.
It is tough to beat a good mouser. They are natures autonomous traps.
 
It is tough to beat a good mouser. They are natures autonomous traps.
He hunted that damn thing for two days; I've never been around a hunting cat before and it was fun to watch. Wasn't a big rat (probably not full-grown) but its neck was neatly snapped with no mess, and the cat didn't try to eat it thank heavens. He got lots of treats for that kill.
 
@duskb hopefully this post isn't too late but I am alarmed at the positive comments regarding using bleach to sanitize plastic. DON'T DO IT. As one post mentioned a chef uses straight bleach to clean cutting boards, hopefully that was misunderstood by the author. There is absolutely NO instance where the use of bleach should be used on vessels that directly contact beer. The FDA mandates a chlorine to water solution of 100 ppm be used to sanitize food contact surfaces. Anything over 200 ppm is hazardous to humans. If you are convinced to use bleach, first obtain chlorine test strips so you can make a 100 ppm solution and only use the proper ratio. And here's the next hurdle, plastic has the uncanny ability to store the chlorine and release small amounts into the volume of subsequent liquids that it contacts. That includes food grade plastic. In the event you must use bleach, leave the vessel open in direct sun light for several days after exposure. It doesn't remove the smell of chlorine completely but it does reduce the smell to the point that the un-knowing possibly would not smell it. Doesn't means it is not there, simply fill it with water and wallah your chlorine is back. If your sense of smell and taste are mutted you may well never know your brew presents an essence of chlorine. Replace the cooler.
 
@duskb hopefully this post isn't too late but I am alarmed at the positive comments regarding using bleach to sanitize plastic. DON'T DO IT. As one post mentioned a chef uses straight bleach to clean cutting boards, hopefully that was misunderstood by the author. There is absolutely NO instance where the use of bleach should be used on vessels that directly contact beer. The FDA mandates a chlorine to water solution of 100 ppm be used to sanitize food contact surfaces. Anything over 200 ppm is hazardous to humans. If you are convinced to use bleach, first obtain chlorine test strips so you can make a 100 ppm solution and only use the proper ratio. And here's the next hurdle, plastic has the uncanny ability to store the chlorine and release small amounts into the volume of subsequent liquids that it contacts. That includes food grade plastic. In the event you must use bleach, leave the vessel open in direct sun light for several days after exposure. It doesn't remove the smell of chlorine completely but it does reduce the smell to the point that the un-knowing possibly would not smell it. Doesn't means it is not there, simply fill it with water and wallah your chlorine is back. If your sense of smell and taste are mutted you may well never know your brew presents an essence of chlorine. Replace the cooler.

Murph4231, Interesting information. Thank you for the insight, As one of the posters on this thread promoting using bleach, I would like to learn more. Do you have any links or references that I can look at and expand my understanding?
 
That is interesting information. I was more commenting that I wouldn't stress to much about a rotting rodent corpse ruining a vessel that after a good clean is going to hold mash that will boil for an hour as wort before being consumed. But I was not aware that one should not use bleach as sanitizer. I used to use bleach regularly (in solution - but not tested for sure) for sanitizing plastic brewing stuff . Now I use no rinse sanitizer to avoid off flavours and harming stainless. I also know that even very recently bleach was one of the sanitizers that was specified for Hand Washing with a 3 sink setup by Food Safe regulations in commercial kitchens. I can remember being check by an inspector with strips to see we had a high enough concentration.
I find that super interesting and would like to know more
 
@Rufus your local health department and or the FDA directly can provide you with food handling and sanitation guidelines. I'm a retired food service manager of a national railroad. One of my basic task was to always check crews sanitizers. While used correctly chlorine bleach is an acceptable food service sanitizer it is not an acceptable aroma or taste profile in beer. It is beyond me why anyone one risk a quality homebrew to have it give any trace of chlorine.

As I eluded earlier, you can indeed sanitize a cooler using chlorine. While I don't know a direct link to confirm that 100 ppm is the correct proportion water to chlorine, the instructions are on the test strip package. Test strips are available at all food service suppliers and many grocery and drug stores.
 
The nose knows if there is enough chlorine to hurt anything. A few rinses of scalding hot water and letting stuff dry out real good does the job. I have a good well and I can smell chlorine a mile away.
 
I agree with Murph 4321 about the concern for off flavours with bleach as a sanitizer. I stopped using it because I felt I sometimes could detect some even being careful with rinsing. Plus StarSan is really easy with with keeping stuff sanitized right till you are going to use it.
I still use it in cleaning applications outside brewing though, particularly treasures in my daughters lunch containers I find a week later (sometimes as ugly as a decaying small rodent) :).
 
I agree with Murph 4321 about the concern for off flavours with bleach as a sanitizer. I stopped using it because I felt I sometimes could detect some even being careful with rinsing. Plus StarSan is really easy with with keeping stuff sanitized right till you are going to use it.
I still use it in cleaning applications outside brewing though, particularly treasures in my daughters lunch containers I find a week later (sometimes as ugly as a decaying small rodent) :).
I would not use bleach as a no rinse sanitizer like star san, but I would not be afraid to use it on something like an "unfortunate mashtun" for a good cleaning. If I did use it as a sanitizer there would have to be some pre-boiled rinse water involved.
 
I did some research on line about bleach. I found a federal site and a state site. They specify a recipe. I forget the exact ratio. Something like 3 tablespoons per gallon. Significantly less than full strength is my point.

I did not see any mention contact time. I did not see any mention materials to avoid or mention consequences of stronger than the stated strengths.
 
There is even a specification for the amount of allowable rodent hair and insect parts in most grain-based foods.
yeah biology was a real treat learning about the statistics on the amount of rat hair a feces found in coffee and cocoa and the amount of legally allowed protien in ketchup from the big green tomato worms..
 
Since it is just the mashtun and NOT the fermenter, seems like and any issues would be small, since the wort is only in contact for 90 mins at most...
and its BOILED and FERMENTED with alcohol being the result afterwards all of which would realistically make this a complete non issue.
 
Back
Top