Amigos, my fermenter stinks of Bleach after cleaning it... any suggestions ?

[Frisp]

Last week I decanted my Chubby fermenter into a keg.. Filled with warm water, added a half reccomeded amount of Chemclean to soften the crud from the Krausen. with the intention of washing it out and rinsing the next morning..

However we had a family crisis and i didnt get to wash/ rinse it for 6 days..

Now regardless of how many times I rinse, even with charcoal filtered water, it Im still getting a slight whiff of bleach. from inside the empty fermenter

Have I killed my chubby? is there a fix.?

Will filling it and adding a teaspoon of Campden on an overnight soak work?

UPDATE: I found the issue and its not Chemsan. when I cleaned / rinsed the fermenter this morning I used unfiltered tap water.. and its rammed with Chlorine..

Several hours later I gave it another sniff and its Bleach free.

What must have happened is that the chrorine was hanging around inside the fermenter and due to the narrow neck on the chubby it wasnt venting very fast. even rinsing and shaking the filtered water wasnt removing the chlorine in teh air inside teh Chubby.

todays lesson is to clean with water thats been through the chlorine filter

 

[marshbrewer]

Will filling it and adding a teaspoon of Campden on an overnight soak work?

It will help in my experience, but perhaps leave it a bit longer than overnight.

 

[Clint]

Is Chemclean chlorine based?

 

[Frisp]

Is Chemclean chlorine based?

doesnt seem to be! but I think I have found the issue. (See Updated post above)

 

[Twostage]

doesnt seem to be! but I think I have found the issue. (See Updated post above)

A man from Northumbria water once told me that they add more chlorine as the weather warms up to kill off the beasties.

 

[Frisp]

A man from Northumbria water once told me that they add more chlorine as the weather warms up to kill off the beasties.

Here in SW Scotland the water catchment is peat over garnite so the ptap water is loaded with Chlorine to the point I cant drink tea.
Without banging it through a charcoal filter tea tastes like chemical soup.
In addition they use Ammonia in the treatment this means teh water is full of Chloramine..
Luckily for me thats about all thats in it, the profile is darn low in everything else

 

[Cheyne_brewer]

Last week I decanted my Chubby fermenter into a keg.. Filled with warm water, added a half reccomeded amount of Chemclean to soften the crud from the Krausen. with the intention of washing it out and rinsing the next morning..

However we had a family crisis and i didnt get to wash/ rinse it for 6 days..

Now regardless of how many times I rinse, even with charcoal filtered water, it Im still getting a slight whiff of bleach. from inside the empty fermenter

Have I killed my chubby? is there a fix.?

Will filling it and adding a teaspoon of Campden on an overnight soak work?

UPDATE: I found the issue and its not Chemsan. when I cleaned / rinsed the fermenter this morning I used unfiltered tap water.. and its rammed with Chlorine..

Several hours later I gave it another sniff and its Bleach free.

What must have happened is that the chrorine was hanging around inside the fermenter and due to the narrow neck on the chubby it wasnt venting very fast. even rinsing and shaking the filtered water wasnt removing the chlorine in teh air inside teh Chubby.

todays lesson is to clean with water thats been through the chlorine filter

A strong metabisulphite solution. Like a tbsp in a pint. Swirl it round making sure every square inch gets treated. Repeat the swirling every so often over an hour. Tip out the solution avoiding the fumes and leave to drain. A rinse with cooled, boiled water and you should be good to go.

 

[Cwrw666]

I always clean my fermenters using bleach, often leaving the diluted bleach in them for weeks. Never had a problem with bleach flavour in my beer.

 

[Frisp]

I always clean my fermenters using bleach, often leaving the diluted bleach in them for weeks. Never had a problem with bleach flavour in my beer.

is that teh same for all kit plastic/ pet and SS?

 

[Cwrw666]

is that teh same for all kit plastic/ pet and SS?

No, don't use bleach on SS as it eats into it. For SS I use soda crystals.

 

[MashBag]

You might try ascorbic acid too (vitamin c) that will remove chlorine products. Was only reading about it a few days ago.

 

[Frisp]

You might try ascorbic acid too (vitamin c) that will remove chlorine products. Was only reading about it a few days ago.

I thought Ascorbic Acis was just for wine makers?

 

[MashBag]

Wine makers (from grape) would not need ascorbic acid.