TheFrenchCanadian
Junior Member
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2015
- Messages
- 6
- Reaction score
- 5
I got two glass carboys from a friend a few days ago that hadn't been used in nearly ten years. Both of them were quite dirty. One is a 23 litre one that had some whitish powedery deposits up near the neck and heavy hard water stains in a ring around the bottom. The other is an 11.3 litre version that had a fine, but very definite crud ring just below the shoulder, and some sort of rough gritty stuff that had pooled and hardnened onto the side, once again, just below the shoulder.
I gave both of them the usual wash with 1tsp Oxiclean Free dissolved in 4 litres of water. Dropped a rag in there with a bit of the soapy solution and sloshed it around until my arms hurt, then used my carboy bristle brush as best I could. The ring around the neck of the larger one was gone, but the hard water stains remained in the bottom and the smaller one looked like I hadn't even touched it. I decided to fill the small one with the same Oxiclean mixture mentioned above and leave it overnight. The next day, I wasn't any further ahead.
I started thinking about what I could put in there to scrub them clean - even went to my LHBS to see if they had one of those drill mounted carboy cleaners, but no luck. I had read about the rice trick, didn't have any on hand and decided to try lentils (they're like split peas), which I had. No luck either. Did you know that lentils will stick to the bottom of a wet carboy? Well, they do, and very well I might add - trust me...
Then I started looking around the basement. My wife makes jewelery and has a small tumbler which uses Stainless Steel mixed shot to polish the stuff she makes. She has a pound of mixed shot to go with it, which comes in four different shapes, ranging from fine pins that are maybe 1/32" thick to round balls that are no larger than maybe 5/32" across, as well as diagonal shapes. I figured, what the heck, same idea, but might work even better than rice!
So I dumped the whole pound in (about a cup's worth) & put about a cup of water in with it. Not bad, a bit hard to swish around though - not enough liquid and a bit sticky. So I put in about a litre total of the Oxiclean soapy water and it was perfect!!
It swished around nicely and once I was into a bit of a rhythm, I was able to clean up every square inch of the carboy in no time, with just a few passes! Worked like a charm with very little effort.
I simply dumped out the shot into a fine colander when I was done and then gave the carboy another wash with only clean water and Oxiclean & then a good rinse and it was positively sparkling.
So there you go - spend more time making wine and less time cleaning! Find yourself a pound of fine jewelers stainless steel shot in various shapes, pour it into your carboy with a litre of the cleaner of your choice and you'll be in business!
TFC
PLEASE NOTE: I was VERY careful not to pitch or hammer the shot around inside the carboys, I swished it gently and made sure it stayed in the water, forming kind of a water/metal/soap slurry if you will. Of course, glass carboys are delicate, use caution any time you're using something metal with it!
I gave both of them the usual wash with 1tsp Oxiclean Free dissolved in 4 litres of water. Dropped a rag in there with a bit of the soapy solution and sloshed it around until my arms hurt, then used my carboy bristle brush as best I could. The ring around the neck of the larger one was gone, but the hard water stains remained in the bottom and the smaller one looked like I hadn't even touched it. I decided to fill the small one with the same Oxiclean mixture mentioned above and leave it overnight. The next day, I wasn't any further ahead.
I started thinking about what I could put in there to scrub them clean - even went to my LHBS to see if they had one of those drill mounted carboy cleaners, but no luck. I had read about the rice trick, didn't have any on hand and decided to try lentils (they're like split peas), which I had. No luck either. Did you know that lentils will stick to the bottom of a wet carboy? Well, they do, and very well I might add - trust me...
Then I started looking around the basement. My wife makes jewelery and has a small tumbler which uses Stainless Steel mixed shot to polish the stuff she makes. She has a pound of mixed shot to go with it, which comes in four different shapes, ranging from fine pins that are maybe 1/32" thick to round balls that are no larger than maybe 5/32" across, as well as diagonal shapes. I figured, what the heck, same idea, but might work even better than rice!
So I dumped the whole pound in (about a cup's worth) & put about a cup of water in with it. Not bad, a bit hard to swish around though - not enough liquid and a bit sticky. So I put in about a litre total of the Oxiclean soapy water and it was perfect!!
It swished around nicely and once I was into a bit of a rhythm, I was able to clean up every square inch of the carboy in no time, with just a few passes! Worked like a charm with very little effort.
I simply dumped out the shot into a fine colander when I was done and then gave the carboy another wash with only clean water and Oxiclean & then a good rinse and it was positively sparkling.
So there you go - spend more time making wine and less time cleaning! Find yourself a pound of fine jewelers stainless steel shot in various shapes, pour it into your carboy with a litre of the cleaner of your choice and you'll be in business!
TFC
PLEASE NOTE: I was VERY careful not to pitch or hammer the shot around inside the carboys, I swished it gently and made sure it stayed in the water, forming kind of a water/metal/soap slurry if you will. Of course, glass carboys are delicate, use caution any time you're using something metal with it!
