Funky mash tun

I got lazy after brewing my last batch and left the grains in my mash tun (10 gallon Igloo cooler) for about a week before tossing them and cleaning it. It still has a bit of a funky smell. The best I can describe it is sort of vegetal and like the grains had started to decompose. I don’t detect any sort of sour smell.

Any advice for cleaning?  I've got some Oxyclean and tons of StarSan.  I was planning to brew this coming weekend and don't want to ruin future batches.

I would fill with hot water and some of the oxy clean and give it a good soak for 24 hours or so, see how that works. Then let it dry out really well. You could also let soak in a light bleach solution, if you do this make sure you rinse very well. That will give you a bit of sanitation as well.

Good advice above. I don’t think the funk would carry over to your brew anyway.

And next time do your chores on time! Dumping the tun is not on my top ten list either but as you’re finding it is 10x more work if it sits. I try and clean up as I go along because having a bunch of stuff to wash out at the end of a brew day does suck.

“Funky Mash Tuns” sounds like a cool name for an Irish band.

Thanks for the advice. In the future, I’ll be (slightly) less lazy.

If you decide to do a bleach soak, you might as well as some vinegar at the same time. This changes the ph of the bleach and makes for a no-rinse sanitizer.

Endorsed by Charlie Tally, 5 Star Chemicals. Listen to the pod cast for the proper ratios.

http://hw.libsyn.com/p/3/9/0/390da96899 ... 9fe3843633

NOTE: DO NOT MIX BLEACH AND VINEGAR TOGETHER! TOXIC GAS IS FORMED. MIX THE BLEACH WITH THE WATER. THEN ADD THE VINEGAR.

Bleach and vinegar sounds like an interesting idea. Never heard of that one before.

Holy Crap! This post has a perfect timing and sense of brewing zen. I brewed on Sunday and left the mash in my cooler promising myself it would go out with Mondays trash. Notably forgotten until this very minute! After work I gots some work to do :oops:

I always wash my mash tun after the last runnings hit the kettle and coming up to a boil. The less cleaning I have at the end of brew day, the better. I heard about a guy on AHA who left grains in the cooler for months and it smelled like death. Yeesh.

I do the same, I left mine in the garage in the summer once for 2 days…couldnt even breath in there. I just make dog biscuits and dump the rest in the garbage disposal now once the boil is starting.

You put 9 - 13 lbs of grain in the garbage disposal???

I was thinking the same thing. I yell at my wife if an onion peel goes down there…

Guess it depends on your plumbing. Our grey water line runs down into the basement floor and the full length of the house at a minimal drop before it reaches the drain. No way I can put much of anything down the disposal.

I put my spent grain on the compost pile but I sometimes set it on fire when it dried.

You can pretty much just rinse most brewing implements if you do it fight away. Putting things off really bites you in the hind end. We once tried to tour the Ft. Collins, but the tours were cancelled due to the fact someone didn’t dump the mash from the previous day. We had to have our tasters out on the patio.

[quote=“tom sawyer”] No way I can put much of anything down the disposal.[/quote]The guy I call to periodically roto-rooter our drains says that garbage disposals are what keeps him in business - they cause people to grow complacent about what they put down the drain, like bacon grease, and most of the time when a house has a drain backing up the root cause is food and grease built up in the run from the house to the city line.

I would do the best you can, but remember you boil your wort for a full hour, which should kill the any left over microbes that survive the sarsans, bleach, vingar, ect you are cleaning with. I would not worry about souring your next batch.

You put 9 - 13 lbs of grain in the garbage disposal???[/quote]

No, I do 10 G batches so it’s usually more, been doing it for 5 years and havent had any problems yet, a bigger problem is animal fats as mentioned before, which I dont put down there. I think it probably has a lot to do with your set up in your house.

Why even have one then?