Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

So I'm waiting for my wife to finish giving my daughter her bath and I decide to go get my other 5 gallon carboy from the garage. I haven't used it in a year and I think I want to rack my stout into a secondary. I get the carboy, take it down stairs and I notice something BLACK in the bottom...which I think is leaves.

It...wasn't...leaves.


ugh...the horror! that smell!, ugh...


From what I can tell, a mouse had fallen into my carboy and now...ugh...worms like I've NEVER seen were...ugh...wriggling in what was left of...ugh...the mouse. Did I mention the smell?! So, holding my breath, I add a bit of water, swish it around and dump it out outside.

So, here's my dilema...which I could use some advise. (I've got it soaking in a strong solution of PBW.) Would you ever brew in that carboy ever again?

(...god I can't get that smell out of my nose.)

It is glass, right?  And you know wormwood is something different?

I'd say yeah.  Just clean it really, really well.  Maybe let some bleach sit in it overnight. (Will bleach make a difference?  Probably not, but it would help me mentally.)  Don't you seal up your carboys?  Or at least fill them halfway with Purell? 

I look forward to your next mouse brown ale.

I 'm not sure Jamey put enough emphasis on cleaning that carboy REALLY REALLY well.  I'd bleach it, iodine it, PBW it, and bleach it again.  Probably let it sit overnight in each treatment.  Use a new brush everytime you scrub it out too.  In my mind, that's about the only thing that MIGHT make the next beer out of that thing palatable. Nevertheless, I'm going to guess that your next beer that you put in that carboy will have a bad odor to it, even if it is subconsciously derived. 

I didn't want my brush to tough it yet. ugh.

I soaked it in PBW for a few hours and now it's filled to the brim with a STRONG bleach solution. I figure tonight I'll brush it out and soak it again. Fortunately, nothing large stuck to the glass.


Here was another solution I received:
"Make a wheat based beer, pitch Wyeast cal ale 1056, ferment for 2 weeks and transfer. Let it finish out and then inoculate with Bretanomyces, ferment for a fews month, and then rack to an oak cask and then,.... and then  ....... are ready for this.... get ready........., too late now.... add some diced green sour apples, then maybe pitch some champagne yeast to dry the sucker out.

It will be a hit wit any Belgian Beer aficionado. Perhaps call it"  Heffe  Wormwood Granny Smith Lambic Gueze, bottle it in champagne bottles and  give it to your loved ones for the Holidays."

The cost of a new carboy is pretty cheap I would throw it out and save the time and hassle just get a new one and move forward covering it up next time. Every container is a little bit porous even glass and organic compounds have a way of never leaving items. The mental thought of dead mouse and worms causing the off flavor might haunt you for a while. Even if it only ruined one batch of beer, the time and effort you saved by spending $30 on a new one would pay for itself.

That is a good point.  You should listen to sensible people. (i.e. not me)

Or you could make that your dedicated funky carboy.  I've got my Bretta-PET carboy holding my lambic and I will probably fill it with a Berliner Weisse before the summer comes.  You could have a f'd up renegade carboy for experiments, not that that is your style. 

I'm sure someone would take it off your hands if you decide to be safe.

PET carboy is not the same as a dead pet in a carboy.

P.S. Based on this post, I can see that I'm going to have to be very careful about whose beer I drink when we start sharing homebrew.   

Rodent Roggenbier? A mousy Munich dunkel? Yum.

Oh hey, to all you noobs out there...

When you're finished cleaning out your carboy, put some foil or saran-wrap over the hole so no critters or other funk gets in.

(When I lived in Cleveland, I got into the habit of cleaning and sanitizing my carboys after each use. I'd then seal them with saran-wrap or an airlock. That way I always knew I had a good one on brew day. Somehow, when I moved down here, that wisdom got left behind. Now this noob is buying a new carboy. Just knowing what...ugh...was in that carboy...oh, god the smell... is enough to want to get rid of it.)

I would agree with Jamey, keep it around as your experimental "funky" beer (not that you really do many of those) container.  You should definately keep it around just for the story value and for the ability of this post to grow exponentially as it is re-told by club members years in the future.  "Do you remember when Grandpa Care For A Pint found that mutant rodent in his fermentor and endured a herculean battle with it for the sake of good beer and the homebrewing's future . . ."

Hahaha....that's totally gross. If its glass, bleach kills everything. If you can get the smell out, I'd keep it.

I'm pretty confident that I can get the smell and funk cleaned out of the carboy...just not my head.



I may be putting it up for trade.

I'll trade you for a bottling bucket with a dead opossum in it.

Possum!, did you say Possum!? Now we're talkin'!

Throw in a brew pot with a dead raccoon and you have yourself a deal.

P.S. Raccoon must have been decaying in pot for 30+ days or no deal.