two weeks ago, i was so excited at my last brew that i forgot to clean in… left the grains in it , and yesterday when i opened :o :-\ my goodness! you can imagine how bad smells!
I clean it up with oxy clean, star san and stills has a little bit of weird smells
it is my first cooler since i begun to brew to all grain,
so, it is time to buy another one? it will add smells or of-flavor to a future brew?
thanks!
Al
Mama miaa :-[
Yes. I have read threads where people have spent as much in cleaning supplies as it would cost to toss the cooler and buy a new one.
We had this discussion a few months ago, and I think the guy put some oxyclean in there and let it soak for a couple days, and it turned out fine. I left grain in my cooler for a week, but with just a little pbw for a couple days it all came out fine. However, throwing it out and getting a new one will work if you don’t want to put in the work.
Here is the thread.
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=11509.0
wow, good to hear i am not the only one with this problem hehe
i saw something like a 70% percent recomending that it will turn good after a good ideas… it’s just that my cooler works so well and i apreciate it
thanks for comments!
Al
leave it out in the sun when its soaking. The sun helps eliminate some of those odors.
Try some warm water and a box of baking soda. Remarkably effective at removing odors.
I actually leave my cooler out open in the sun after breing as a matter of course. A couple times I thought it was all cleaned out well so I closed it up and put it away, only to find a couple weeks later that there must have been a little grain left hiding somewhere and the whole thing stank. a couple days in the sun after brewing and cleaning and I have not had that problem again.
I just always leave my cooler open. Doesn’t get much sun in my garage, though.
I store my coolers with a small chunk of sponge between the lid and the top outer rim to allow them to dry out and not get funky between uses.
I love these threads. ;D
Stanky grain is just about one of the nastiest things I can imagine.
It’s a smell you never forget.
+1 on the sun and pbw/oxiclean/baking soda route.
I just figured out tonight that I left some stuff dirty from my brew session last week - fortunately it wasn’t a big mass of grain, just some chunks that dried up. No smell. Whew! Soaking now to get it off.
The PVC interior of coolers is not UV resistant. Exposure to sunlight will cause it to become brittle over time (months). The effect is cumulative.
The “sun” option in a San Francisco apartment is rarely available, but I have found a long soak in OxiClean + a good long airing to be a great help. Also, every once in a while I disassemble my hose bulkhead, clean it, and let it and the cooler dry before reassembling.
I don’t ever actually close my cooler when I’m not using it–the lid is stored beside it or very loosely on top of it.
I almost went back and modified my post about this. I do worry about that. course I worry a bit about filling the cooler with hot liquid then eventually drinking said liquid. I think that may be what eventually gets me to build/buy/beg a metal vessel mash tun.
What about beer that smells like vomit?
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=12011.msg152095#msg152095
Couldn’t help myself.
Any dampness in a closed cooler quickly smells nasty. The cooler our milk gets delivered in MUST be left open when not full of fresh milk or it just gets rancid.
uhhh ;D it’s shure is a funny thread just like Euge said, i almost got a picture of that “Zoo” playing around in those muddy grains…eeeoowwwwww haha, my wife shout to me to get rid of that inmediatily and do not throw it in our garbage container…
but im pleased knowing that i can use it for more brews
Al
HA! Nope, you’re not the only one. I’ve forgotten about it for a week before, but it only takes a day or two to start getting nasty. I once had a mouse or something die inside the frame of an old car I once had. The smell is similar.
Oh, edit for relevant reply: The smell took a while to go away, but I never had a problem with any batch after that and still use the same equipment.
it is nice to hear that theoman,… uhh, i must admit this is the second time i forgot, but the last time it was only a couple of days,…, i think is a very good example of the smell, a dead mouse! haha ;D
can top that. when i was in the navy i baked a salmon in casserole type dish. left the leftovers in said casserole dish on the counter. then went to work for well, a while. came home. ugh.,