Glass Cleaing

[THUNDERBOLT]

I have been given a 30 litre glass demijohn which I wish to use for racking after fermentation of the wash has finished, the demijohn had been used as a terrarium and was absolutely filthy. I have cleaned it out with a pressure washer and scrubbed it as well as I could with a bent bottle brush and obviously soap and water. It looks clean but I really would like to sterilize the container before use but I feel it needs a stronger method than using the normal barrel/bottle sterilizer. Any suggestions. regards.

[Zak Griffin]

There is really no need to rack into a secondary vessel with Distilling mate...

As for sterilising, a good swirl of foreshots should kill everything.

[hillzabilly]

I used some beach sand and water to swish around and help clean the solids off the inside of one and soaked overnight in bottle wash(sodium matabisulphate),but ifn its pretty clean forshots rinsed around as Zac said will kill the nasties,I allways rest them on a foam mat to avoid costly breakage,or at least in the basket ifn ya got one with it,problem with some fertilizers and minerals in terrariums is it can leave a nasty coloured stain on glass wich is difficult to remove like some bore water does to bricks and windows,wich may need something specific like CLR to remove as it will prolly come off in ya wash or feints slowly and teint ya product ifn ya use it for that as alcohol is a pretty good solvent .cheers hillzabilly ;-)

[THUNDERBOLT]

Thanks for the replies, never thought about foreshots, only racking to avoid the dregs in the boiler. regards

[Kenster]

Thunder', i am with you. Any extra dead yast or grunge you can keep out of the boiler has to end up a better result. I rack all my washes, yep another process but what the heck.

[hillzabilly]

I found one of these (carboy syphon cap) from the HBS very helpful as I have four 25lt glass demi's and use silicone bungs with airlocks as well,the cap holds ya syphon hose then ya just blow into the other outlet to start flow.No good ifn ya have one with the large opening though ,wich I found better suited to oaking and just put a paper towel over the top secured with a lacky band.cheers hillzabilly ;-)