Source
r/Homebrewing•
sloppystack

Did I ruin my kettle?

What's up everyone

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Did a brew today using a new hop spider... it was too large and sat on the bottom of my kettle during the boil. Did not think this would be an issue, but of course after chilling and getting the wort in to the carboy, I found a medium-large blotch of burnt hop matter thoroughly adhered to the bottom of the kettle. After scrubbing, soaking, scrubbing, re-soaking, and scrubbing more (with one of those microfiber scrubber sponge things) I have removed maybe 1/3 the burned stuff. The remainder seems pretty stubborn and I am out of ideas to remove it without spending many many days of cycling through soaking and scrubbing.

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I am wondering:

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  1. Did I ruin the kettle? is there a way to reliably remove burnt material like this?
  2. Should I be concerned about the batch I am currently fermenting? the wort smelled fine to me and I never noticed a burning smell or anything during the boil.

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Any ideas, thoughts, or prayer are much appreciated.

Posted May 11, 2019, 10:51 PM UTC

015
chino_brewsKiwi Approved•
  1. The kettle is not ruined. It may take a ton of elbow grease to get it off. If it's a SS kettle, start with a HOT soak in PBW solution. After that, move on to Barkeeper Friend (powder) and scrub with a thick paste of it (little bot of water to make paste) and green scrubby. If you need to keep going, the next step is foam oven cleaner according to directions.
  2. We can't tel you unless we can taste the beer. You'll know what you have when you taste the carbonated beer. If you taste burnt flavors at any intermediate step, you can toss it earlier.
5
sloppystackOP•

Thanks, I will taste it when I pull the first gravity reading and see...

1
MentionMyName•

Kettle is ruined. Beer is ruined. Bottle and package both and send to me for further analysis.
In all seriousness, it's probably all fine. Equipment takes a beating. Scrub with some steel wool and move on. It won't affect anything further, very likely.

4
sloppystackOP•

you freaked me out for a second there... thanks for taking the time to reply!

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Cleaver13•

Please don't use steel wool on your kettle if it is stainless steel, just asking for problems. Green scotch pads are fine.

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beer_and_pizza•

Bar Keepers Friend is powdered magic.

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D3nnycrane•

Nah, not ruined. A couple of things that have worked for me in the past when Candi sugar left a burned mark:

Soak for 4 hours before running a scouring pad over it.

Doubt you have much to worry about as far as off flavors, I haven't noticed an issue that hasn't aged out after similar mistakes.

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_Snik•

mixing cooking oil (vegetable or something cheap) and salt together to create a paste works as well.

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Busted_Knuckler•

While I'm sure that would work well, I would be wary of using any kind of oil on my kettle. If you dont get it all out, it could cause foam stability issues in your beer.

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_Snik•

Never thought of that, good point.

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sloppystackOP•

Good to hear, and thank you. This is a pilsner so it will have time to condition and hopefully work out any off flavor. I will taste it when pull a gravity reading and know better then if it has anything weird going on

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after_hours_chef•

Tablespoon of Caustic Soda (hardware store), fill the kettle to 6 inches deep, and leave on low heat.

It'll come off super easy. Make sure you rinse well, and clean as per normal afterwards

I use this method for cleaning carbon of of a commercial grill

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sloppystackOP•

Thank you, I will consider this among the other suggestions here!

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SmilingFrogBrewing•

Assuming you have a stainless steel kettle, do not use steel wool. It might remove the burnt material, but it will cause rust and pitting.

Barkeepers Friend is a good product and may do the trick. If you go this route, use a scotch-brite pad (green).

Perhaps an easier method is EZ-Off oven cleaner. It is caustic, so you have to wear eye protection, gloves, and be cautious of fumes. EZ-Off will dissolve any organic material (which is why it is important to wear eye protection, gloves, and be careful of the fumes, since you are made of organic material as are your eyes, hands, and lungs). Follow the directions on the label for cold cleaning and you should be fine. EZ-Off will not affect the stainless steel.

As far as the beer is concerned, it's probably OK, but taste it and make up your own mind. I doubt you found one neat trick to make great tasting beer!

0
sloppystackOP•

Thanks for the idea, and yes, I doubt the burn will somehow improve the beer. Fingers crossed that it comes through OK.

1