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Carboy cleaning?

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B

B. Goldwater

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 29, 2013
69
0
0
Denver, Colorado
I am the recent recipeint of a few new to me 3 gallon glass carboys.

The carboys were unfortunately left outside a house for many months and neglected. They had layers of dirt and sediment from being rained and snowed on and I am sure at some point critters called them home.

I have successfully gotten most of them clean using bottle brush and cleaner, but there are areas that are being very stubborn and are not easy to get to with the brush. Any ideas on how to make these safe for fermenting in again?

I would hate to see them have to get recycled...
 
Long soaks in hot PBW seem to get rid of most anything. Make sure it's hot, as it works a lot better, but be careful with hot liquid and glass.
 
What akueck said. Only 40C works perfectly fine, so use the hot water from the tap. No need to boil it. And if for some reason you can't get PBW, OxyClean Free works just as well. (Normal OxyClean does too, but it has a perfumed scent and contains surfactants that aren't present in OxyClean Free.)
 
And when you think they are clean, fill them with a light bleach water solution for a day or two, very good a removing light organic film/schmutz/etc and it you might be surprised how much clearer they are afterwards...
 
For areas you can't reach with a brush but still insist they need scrubbing, chuck a handful of dry barley or rice in some water and swirl it around where it's dirty, it'll eventually scrub anything away.

I actually own three different carboy brushes, one's good for the bottoms, one's good for the shoulders and the last one's good for the sides...
 
I don't use carboy brushes at all -- too much of a pain. A long soak in OxiClean I usually follow up with a rag, put into the carboy with about a liter or so of the remaining OxiClean solution. I use the rag probably just like Chevette Girl uses grain. It doesn't make any visible difference since everything comes off in the soak, but it gives me added peace of mind. Plus, a rag is not likely to ever scratch the inside of a plastic carboy, which is what I use.
 
I used oxiclean free over the weekend and that did the trick. That stuff lifted off everything i could see with my eyes and then a good soak in water and bleach gave me the piece of mind i needed... They are now all filled and happily fermenting away! ;D Thank s for all the help Ladies and Gents...
 
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