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My latest brew has left a ring from the krausen just past the neck of my Better Bottle. I am on my third soak with a little bleach and warm water. Usually this does the trick, but I'm almost thinking at this point I may need to use something (soft) to scrub it off. Any advice for dealing with difficult deposits in a Better Bottle?

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Excellent Question. – TinCoyote Feb 8 '10 at 20:07

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PBW. It is magic. Seriously. Put a bit in there with warm water, and the krausen should go away in 30 minutes. I once put a touch in my coffee mug, and the stains from months of not washing it diligently were erased. It's magic.

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PBW and it's ilk are really, really great. – Dean Brundage Feb 8 '10 at 18:36
Hot PBW will take anything out. Given enough soaking time, but often just a little is all it takes. I don't understand why people use bleach so much. It has no cleaning properties at all really. Its a sanitizer by design. – brewchez Feb 8 '10 at 18:42
I like to pour it over pancakes. – hookedonwinter Feb 8 '10 at 18:43
PBW has a cheaper cousin Ultimate Brewery Cleaner (UBC). And BrewVint makes an alkaline cleaner. Both can be found at austinhomebrew.com – Dean Brundage Feb 8 '10 at 18:48
And and excellent answer. PBW is the bomb. Haven't tried UBC, but heard it works just as well. – TinCoyote Feb 8 '10 at 20:08
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PBW is an excellent choice as PJ mentioned. I agree with him regarding it.

However, there is a cheaper alternative, albeit not as effective. You can use sodium percarbonate, or as they call in in the landry isle, Oxyclean. I use a cheap generic Oxyclean (I think I use SunPower or something like that) to clean most of my better bottles and even glass carboys. Couple of big scoops of it into hot water and soak for a few hours.

That being said, if that ring is a real problem, PBW really does the job and does it well.

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Oxiclean and PBW are not the same. PBW uses the same cleaning chemicals as Oxyclean, but PBW has a surfactant in it which allows it to penetrate and get into beer stone and stains. Oxiclean only works on the surface. Eventually, it might work beer stone away, but PBW is far superior for heavy deposits. – brewchez Feb 9 '10 at 13:16
Well, I am not even sure that PBW and Oxyclean are even the same chemicals. I haven't looked into that. You aren't going to get beer stone in a plastic fermenter. You get beer stone in things like faucets and lines. I'm also pretty sure you don't know what "sufactant" means. "Surfactants are wetting agents that lower the surface tension of a liquid, allowing easier spreading, and lower the interfacial tension between two liquids." In short, they work on the surface. I think I was pretty clear that Oxyclean type products were not as effective, just cheaper and will work in some cases. – TinCoyote Feb 9 '10 at 19:40
Surfactants lower surface tension of a fluid. That surface tension is not just at the surface where the soltion meets air. Its also at the interaction of the fluid with everything it contacts. There are microscopic pores and irregularities in beer stone. The surfactants in PBW allow it to get in those "nooks and crannies" hence penetrating the beer stone. That is why PBW works better. But that is also why PBW and oxiclean are not the same thing. – brewchez Feb 10 '10 at 13:58
Surfactants lower surface tension of a fluid. That surface tension is not just at the surface where the soltion meets air. Its also at the interaction of the fluid with everything it contacts. There are microscopic pores and irregularities in beer stone. The surfactants in PBW allow it to get in those "nooks and crannies" hence penetrating the beer stone. Oxyclean does not as effeciently penetrate those surface irregularities. That is why PBW works better. But that is also why PBW and oxiclean are not the same thing. – brewchez Feb 10 '10 at 14:00

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