I just saw that one of the on-line retailers had a deal (sold out) on kegs with some rust spots on the inside. Their listing said “unsuitable for food uses” or something of that sort.
It was my understanding that you could clean off the rust with something like a green scrubby and then let it repassivate.
Any reason this wouldn’t work on an old keg? Not that I need more kegs, but the prices were much lower… And I always need more kegs.
You’d have to have a might small arm to scrub rust inside a keg.
I’ve got kids. But I guess their arms aren’t that long.
Scrubby-on-a-stick?
Wife?
My arms fit inside a keg. Worked well for those used kegs I just acquired. Some had 1-2 year old whole hop bags still in them. YIKES.
I use an old school long plastic brewing spoon, with a piece of Scotch-Brite zip-tied to the end. Scrubby-on-a-stick ! Helps with stubborn stains (of all kinds) on the bottom of the Corny.
Gross!
Wives are not gross!
Certainly not! Love my wife but a 2 year hop sack I could do without:)
Gross is an understatement. The resin in those two kegs ruined several scubbers and sponges. But… when you’re getting kegs for half the price in the LHBS you can only complain so much!
Agreed! Just picked another keg up yesterday, opened it up and found some nasty funk but no hop bags, currently soaking with PBW
I was thinking of opening an empty keg last night to see just how far I could jam my arm in. But I thought better of it. Typically, I use a (dedicated) toilet brush for cleaning kegs so I know I can’t get my arm all the way to the bottom. Or, if I could I would be stuck.
You could try acid #5 for 5 star. You will want to passivate the keg for sure. A green scrubby will help and the acid should fix the problem. Might can get it off and repassivated with just acid.
Well, it’s theoretical at this point since the deal was sold out.
It just struck me as odd that they made a BIG deal out of disclaiming not for food use. It even said something like only good for carpet cleaning and other industrial uses.
Unless it was massive rust, re-passivisation just doesn’t seem like that high of a hurdle.
If they ever post the deal again and I come across it in time, I might just jump on it.
You could try a diluted mixture of water and CLR, followed by a PBW bath. We have relatively soft water up here, so I don’t have much use for the CL in CLR, but it’s very handy for rust removal.
CLR is lactic acid, so if you have some food grade lactic acid you could make a solution of that.