Hello all. Planning my first brew in about a year and a half. Located my Bigmouth Bubbler plastic fermenter in the garage, full of the remnants of my last batch from 18 months ago. It was never cleaned. (I know that I suck for letting that happen.) Overpowering smell of vinegar when I pop the lid off.
Any chance of cleaning and reusing this thing, or is it a goner?I’ve got alkaline brewery wash, star San, iodophor and bleach. I just don’t want my first batch back to be vinegar.
Thanks!
Joel
I wouldn’t risk it. I’ve had multiple bad experiences with permanently contaminated plastic. No one else will agree with me. But my experience hasn’t been good. No amount of sanitizer is enough sometimes. Maybe you’ll get lucky. Maybe not.
That’s what I was afraid of. Looks like I’ll be picking up a new fermenter along with my grain.
It’s totally salvageable. Clean it with soap and sponge and elbow grease until the solid crud is gone and no longer visible. This is key–manually get all the crud off before proceeding, and give it a good visual inspection to ensure this. Then soak it extra long in double-strength brewery wash with the hottest water the plastic can stand. The use double-strength bleach for an overnight soak. Rinse well, it’ll be good to go.
I agree with Dave. Why risk a batch for a fermenter that can be replaced for about the same price.
+1 – as long as there are no gashes or deep scratches it will be fine.
Sure, with a deep cleaning and sanitizing it will be fine. You’ve got the Craftneister alkaline so you’re off to a good start.
Just be mindful not to exceed 140F for the water temperature with the cleanser - the manufacturer expressly states that in its product description:
Good luck!
I have always had great results with Iodophor for sanitizer after cleaning. Acetobacter is gram-negative so I believe Iodophor kills acetobacter.
Rinse your cleaner off well. The Iodine complex and the Iodophor concentrate are acidic solutions. Mixing into any water that has residual alkaline detergent will neutralize the solution.
i am a big fan of iodophor, i just found starsan more annoying to deal with. tell me im wrong, im just saying from personal experience. the only disadvantage of iodophor is that if i leave it out longer than an hour i feel like it should be remade fresh.
can time be a factor in removing an infection? intense cleaning and then leaving it alone for a good while (months), then cleaning again?
Great question. I think time could play a role. If wild beasts have nothing to feed on for months or years, they may die on their own. Maybe.
Iodophor doesn’t volatilize that quickly unless you’re using hot water, which you shouldn’t be using with it. I keep a bucket of iodophor solution permanently on hand in my garage (saves water not to make a new solution every time), and I have to top it off with iodophor about once every 7-10 days.
Why clean, wait months, and then clean again? I don’t immediately see what purpose this would serve.
The mfr of the Iodophor I use says “Typically the Iodine mixed into solution will gas back into the atmosphere in roughly 12-24 hours, turning back to clear water. In a completely air tight container, this shelf life is likely far greater, but it’s pretty difficult to put an exact number on it for time. There are things you can look for in solution color (amber vs. clear) and using Iodine test strips as a guide.”
Personally, I mix a fresh solution in a small batch every time I have a brewery-related task, then discard and mix new when I’m doing something again. It’s cheap enough per use to do this.
lol, ive been using iodophor for about 10 of the last 15 years of brewing with 5 years of starsan in the middle.
thank you guys, that helps a lot.
Great info everyone. Thank you. I think I’m going to pick up a good old-fashioned 6 gallon bucket for this batch, but I will keep the bubbler around and perform a thorough cleaning and sanitizing. I’ll put it back into use once I’m sure I’m making good beer after the long layoff. I just know if I use it on this batch I won’t enjoy it.
Good cleaning without scratching. Caustic to the brim for a day.
Acid to the brim for a day.
Follow instructions and dispose of caustic and acid properly.
A lot of good recommendations here about cleaning and sanitizing. I am in the boat of cleaning/sanitizing equipment and reusing it but you should decide for yourself if it’s worth the cost and time to do all of that versus replacement, especially if you are admittedly not the most diligent with your cleaning/sanitation practices. If you don’t do all of the steps you may end up retaining an infection in the vessel.
FWIW acetobacter are not the only producers of acetic acid. There may be other bacteria and/or yeast in there responsible for the condition of the liquid. If you see what looks like a giant floating fried egg then that is likely an acetobacter mother but acetobacter doesn’t always form a mother, either. If you look at the organic apple cider bottles at the grocery store you usually don’t see a mother in the bottle but it is active with bacteria.
Why not household bleach? Extremely effective against bacteria imbedded in plastic. If it’s used sensibly, it’s perfectly safe for PET, vinyl, silicon, etc.
1/2 cup of household bleach per 5 gallons. Add equal parts of white vinegar (when the water has diluted the bleach) to increase the killing power of the chlorine (it lowers the pH, similar to a swimming pool environment.) Let it soak for a few hours and it’s bacteria free. Simple, cheap, effective.
The only problem with using bleach is that the plastic could absorb it resulting in an off flavor in thee beer. A couple hours should not be a problem unless the bucket is older and may have some scratches in it. I gave up using bleach years ago. I use a good cleaner like Craftmeister or PBW and then follow it with an acid rinse. You can find a good acid rinse at a farm supply store that carries products for cleaning milk handling equipment. It is wway chea[[er than using stuff you buy from a homebrew store or an online outlet. The acid rinse I get leaves nothing that could off flavors.