Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

so i left my 2 6.5 gallon carboys soaking with oxyclean for awhile(oaky more like 2 weeks) i brewed a belgian dubbel, i dumped out the carboys and they had a scale attached to the side, i tried brushing rinsing to no avail. I did a little googling and found it is not uncommon. I didnt really find any good remidies for taking it off except soaking in star san.

1. Has anyone else had this scaling issue?

2. How the heck do you rmove it?

You didn't say if your carboys were glass or Better Bottles (plastic).

The Five Star folks that make PBW and StarSan told me at NHC 2 years ago in MN not to leave PBW in Better Bottles for more than the recommended time (certainly not 2 weeks), as it can cause a cracking of the plastic. Supposed BB was working on a formulation of their plastic that wouldn't be susceptible to this chemical attack.

Since PBW is similar to Oxyclean, this might be the same problem.

Another reason I went back to plastic. I used to have this problem all the time.

brownbeard wrote:Another reason I went back to plastic. I used to have this problem all the time.

Now you can't see the scaling.

I leave PBW in my glass carboys a long time and no scaling. Must be the plastic. If you have some star san past its prime for sanitizing dump that in and see if it helps. I use old star san to soak in my kettles before I dump it. Cleans up stuff really nice.

Also, there are some slight differences between PBW and Oxiclean. I have had PBW get stuff clean where Oxiclean didn't quite do the job. Brew Stong has a good podcast about chemicals that goes in to detail what makes PBW different. I don't recall what it was and I still use both products in my brewery.

That's why I asked the folks at Five Star, since I prefer to put up my carboys in wet storage (usually StarSan). I just empty it into my bottling bucket on brew day, use it to sanitize everything else, and my primary is good-to-go!

I'm not sure about Oxiclean, but they say PBW needs to be rinsed with the same temp water it was put in with. It may be some calcium coming out of solution after it cools. You might try using more hot Oxi or PBW to clean off the scale.

Quoteth the Palmer:
"These cleaners [PBW/OxyClean] will throw a chalky haze on surfaces in hard water if left sitting for several days, which can only be removed with an acid rinse or acidic cleaner like CLR from Jelmar"

That would explain why Star-San would work - it's primarily phosphoric acid.

Matt F wrote:

brownbeard wrote:Another reason I went back to plastic. I used to have this problem all the time.

Now you can't see the scaling.

Plastic buckets have great big openings I can put my whole arm in. No need for soaking. You only have to soak carboys, because you can't properly scrub them. Cleaning was my #1 reason for abandoning glass carboys.

Update:
My carboys are glass.

I did some additional research
1. PBW WILL do this however, it takes alot longer, is far less suceptable to get the scaling than oxyclean.
2. Yes acid stuff will take it off, like star san, i have both carboys soaking now in star san and you can see the white haze as it removes the scaling, SLOWLY, it turns into a white cloud in the liquid
3. Plastic is suceptable to the scaling, just alot harder to see.

4. Moral of the story, oxyclean it great and has many uses , but for me, it no longer include cleaning my carboys.

Ditto to Tim's comment. I switched to buckets about a year ago and have yet to regret the choice. Clean up takes 5 mins and only requires a sponge and dish soap.

usually i dont let my carboys soak, and i can clean them easily, because i usually clean them right after i empty, keg, whaterve. i use glass for both primary and secondary.i made the mistake this time of waiting too long. that will teach me

I have a couple buckets but have never used them for fermenting. I would but I tend to leave my beers in primary way longer than I plan too. Like a month sometimes. I only secondary when dry hopping or long term aging like my sours sitting for a year.

People seem to complain a lot about cleaning carboys. I don't have much trouble cleaning the carboys. I have a sink with a dedicated jet bottle washer that sprays out most of the gunk. If it is bad I will let it soak which I don't find very difficult to do. Fill with water and cleaner, go do something else, come back later or even the next day, dump and rinse. Always hang on to the handle you should have attached to the neck. The glass itself is slippery.

To each their own, I have had many good beers from all sorts of fermenters including buckets. I love my glass. I like to watch and the kids think its cool to see the yeast in a feeding frenzy. I would like a stainless steel conical though. I think they're cool.

Speaking of SS conicals, does anyone in the club have one? I've been looking at the Stout Conicals, but haven't been able to come up with a good reason to get one.

http://conical-fermenter.com/products/conicals/

Jim Fuller has a couple of them from different sources. He really likes his.

On 08/28/12 15:51, DrPaulsen wrote:

Speaking of SS conicals, does anyone in the club have one? I've been looking at the Stout Conicals, but haven't been able to come up with a good reason to get one.

http://conical-fermenter.com/products/conicals/

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I think Jim Fuller has one of the stout conicals. I have been looking at those too. Not sure about the good reason you need. Conicals are way more expensive than other things for fermenting but I still want one. I can see it making yeast harvesting simpler and I usually do 10 gallon batches so I supposed one fermenter would be cool.

If you have the means I highly recommend picking one up. It is so choice!