Should I be worried about my smelly FV?

[Steve]

Yesterday I did my first extract brew that was a christmas present. It's an exmoor beast kit. I got the grains steeping and then got my FV out to sterilise it. Now, since my last brew I had used it to soak bottles for removing the labels. I used some steriliser in the water while they soaked to stop anything bad growing in the water and keep my FV clean. However, when I came to use it yesterday there was a bad smell but as I only have 1 FV big enough and had already started I gave it a good scrub with neat washing up liquid and then rinsed out and soaked in a hot strong steriliser solution. It had about an hour of soaking and when I came to rinse it out rather than being left with the faint smell of VWP that the plastic has absorbed it still smelt bad.

At this point I had no choice but to use it and hope for the best. I have ordered a new FV today and will rack into it as soon as I can and I'm not going to judge the beer until I crack a bottle but should I be worried? I'm hoping my cleaning attempts were enough and it was just the plastic holding the smell which will soon be overpowered by the smell of fermenting beer.

 

[pittsy]

Next time it's empty use warm water and bleach plus an overnight soak the followed by around 5 rinses with warm water , if smell is still there after that then throw it away . It may be infected . I think i would leave brew in there now (i wouldn't of used the fv ) and taste it in a few days , if foul etc throw brew out , you don't really want to pass infection into new fv (if infected) hope it goes well for you.

 

[PD]

Most probably it was the plastic holding the smell, and it will cause no problems

Never leave sterilising solutions or bleach in fv's for a long period to time. and if possible store without the lid completely on. Let some air circulate and give a quick swill of a no rinse steriliser before use.

 

[Steve]

Ok thanks I'll see how it goes. Just got an unbiased sniff of the FV and they didn't pick up on the smell so hopefully I've got away with it. It's tucked away now and I'll check on it in 2 weeks time.

I had stored it with the lid fully clipped on which is what I'm blaming it on as I usually use it to store my equipment when not in use so leave the lid off to give it air. Oh well you only make the mistake once.

 

[Hollow Legs]

Early on in home brew I used to clean out my FV and pop the lid on so as not to get any infections etc but I soon learnt that if you clean, dry and leave a gap in the lid as PD says you don't get a musty smell when you open the lid, Good luck :thumb:

 

[winelight]

You will always get a full range of opposite opinions on this board :) I'd have said leave the sterilising solution in for 24 hours. Maybe that's not a good idea for a FV? but it's OK for glass etc.

 

[ScottM]

When I'm having trouble with stains/smells I generally leave a reasonably strong solution of VWP in overnight. Never had an issue thus far.

One thing to note though, for some reason the smell will stick when the FV is wet... this goes for VWP too. What I tend to do is empty out the solution after 24 hours, give a quick rinse with cold water and then sit upside down and allow to dry. Next day I rinse it out again a few times with cold water and then allow it to dry upside down again. 99% of the time this leaves the FV spotless and odourless. If I still have an issue I would repeat, and if the issue is still there after that I would bin it.

 

[winelight]

empty out the solution after 24 hours, give a quick rinse with cold water and then sit upside down and allow to dry. Next day I rinse it out again a few times with cold water and then allow it to dry upside down again. 99% of the time this leaves the FV spotless and odourless. If I still have an issue I would repeat, and if the issue is still there after that I would bin it.

Very useful tip, thanks for that.