Dead Mouse in Empty Carboy ... yaakkk !

General Homebrew Discussion
1

I went to get one of my older carboys from the cellar to start a 3rd brew and dead mouse in it and been in there awhile …  stinks bad …  Can I clean it good enough to use it again ? Have you had this problem before ?  Will Bleach - 91%  Alcohol - Hydrogen Pyroxcide - Iodine -  comet ??  boiling water ?  Get it clean enough ?

2

If glass, I think you will be fine after a good cleaning and sanitizing. I never use bleach, but this might be a case where I would consider it. Consider all of the used carboys that brewers have traded over the years. We have no idea where they have been or what has been in them, yet we still buy and use them.

If plastic, I would toss it.

3

PBW or oxyclean and hot water! Then you can name the first batch Dead-Mouse beer…

4

I had one in a better bottle once.  I filled it with hot water and oxiclean and let it soak for a couple weeks, than cleaned it again and rinsed several times.  Haven’t had a problem with it, smell or otherwise.

5

It’s like beer.  Clean it real good.  Then sanitize it.  Use the regular bleach ~ 9:1 (in water).

6

Agreed with all the above. I had one in a glass carboy, cleaned with hot PBW, soaked in a strong bleach solution. No problems after.

7

As long as it can be completely cleaned, it can be sanitized.

8

Do NOT use boiling water on Carboys or plastic! For glass bleach is perfectly fine and you should be perfectly fine. If it was plastic carboy I’d be tempted to trash it.

9

Given the risk of hantavirus, I’d definitely start with bleach or a quat-based disinfectant.

10

“Yeah. OK, well, uh, we found, uh, this mouse in a bottle of YOUR BEER, eh. Like, we was at a party and, uh, a friend of ours - a COP - had some, and HE PUKED. And he said, uh, come here and get free beer or, uh, he’ll press charges.”

11

Ya know, I remember another thread about this very thing a few years ago.
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=3715.msg59340#msg59340

edit: found it!

12

I think I’d bleach it twice lol

13

Yes It is Glass , I would definately  toss it if it was Plastic

14

Thanks for all the advice … I’ll bleach and disinfect and oxyclean the crap out of it  without boiling and make star san  extra strong !  glad I won’t have to trash a good glass carboy … Cheers

15

Extra strong star san may actually be less effective than the recommended strength. Thye recommended strength is recommended because that is the strength it will be most effective. Glass is not very porous. Boiling will break it so don’t use that for sure.

16

First thing I thought of, too.