Beer Forum

Straight to the point, I used 8oz of PBW in about 5 gallons of water in my 6 1/2 gallon carboy. I believe I used to much PBW because now I have a white streak on the outside going down the length of the carboy. My home brew club said to use vinegar, what i have has a concentration of 5% acid but this did not seem to help? I have been using a scrub pad I put a little on the scrub pad and scrub. Does did need to soak (kind of hard being its on the outside)? I have just been doing this over and over for the last couple of days and it seemed better at first but now I see no new results with still a white streak??? Any help would be great thank you in advance.

If it is only on the outside then don't worry about it at all. I have some carboys that have some white outside streaks as well (nothing crusty) and they brew quite fine beer on the inside.

Not necessarily too much PBW, depending on your water chemistry. I often find PBW will stain if it is not rinsed, with water the same temp or hotter, before it dries onto what you are cleaning. You would think that the residue would be easily washed off, though. You might have to do a hot PBW wash and rinse. Of course, a call to Five Star might confirm.

A lot of people will recommend the obvious chemistry solution - if you have a caked on base, it needs an acid.

From working with PBW, I find that isn't always the case. You need to give your PBW what you'd give your lady. More, hotter, longer. Rinse with a larger volume of water than the PBW used. It needs to be at a hotter temperature as well. And rinse longer. Much longer. When you think you've rinsed enough, you're probably halfway done. That's just general advise for PBW.

When you get the "staining" or caked on residue, acid isn't always the immediate solution. Attempting to lessen the problem by another PBW soak is often beneficial. Again, more, hotter, longer. Give it a good soak. Put on some heavy gloves & periodically go over it with a soft cloth rag. When you're done with the soak, rinse it. Immediately. More, hotter, longer. The very second you're done rinsing, then hit it with the acid.

This is actually a pretty common problem with carboy necks as well. It's been a while but from memory, I hit it with 70C PBW & rinse no lower than 90C. For a prolonged soak monitor the temp of the PBW. Don't let it crash. If you need to, do a PBW "decoction" to keep the temp up. Losing a few degrees isn't a big deal, but crashing it during the soak is one of the causes for that "stain" or residue.

We have HARD water here in Florida, and every time I clean we get a solid haze of carbonate on the glass and even on SS products; it's a chemical reaction.

We keep a spray bottle of double strength Star San to spray down the carboy exteriors & SS, and put about a gallon of water and 1 oz of Star San in the carboys to remove the deposits. Works like a charm, as well as a HOT rinse in clear water when your done with the wash cycle...