sodium met smell

zephyr · Post by **zephyr** » Friday Mar 02, 2007 4:02 pm

Greetings fellow beerlovers

Set to boiling water today (we have tank) for my 2nd brew, to realise that i had left sodium met in the fermenter for, oh, 3 days. It stinks to say the least - made the mistake of leaning over it when i took the tap out of the soak and almost burnt my nostrils. Have rinsed, and am now leaving it to air to get rid of the smell.

We bought a secondhand kettle once that smelt the same and it was the worst coffee i've ever tasted (even worse than that cheap arse stuff office kitchens stock).

Any experience with the same out there? Love to here some good stories but the search on this forum so far has led me to believe if i brew in this fermenter now it's gonna taste like shit.

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Saturday Mar 03, 2007 1:05 am

I have no problems using sodium met.

A good rinse should be enough.

BierMeister · Post by **BierMeister** » Monday Mar 05, 2007 12:08 pm

Rinse with hot hot water and rinse again. Then use the best scientific tester there is and give it a sniff. Still smell it then use boiling water to rinse and test again. No smell is a good enough indication.

zephyr · Post by **zephyr** » Monday Mar 05, 2007 1:00 pm

Yeah it's weird, I rinsed with cold water as it says on the bottle. It still smelt really strong. I put boiling water in it and that's when the smell filled the room, I guess the steam really got it up in the air? Decied after that to leave it a few days to air. It still has a faint-medium smell but I am hoping it won't affect the next brew too much

It has now has water in it cooling down for the next brew.
Fingers crossed!

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Monday Mar 05, 2007 1:20 pm

rinse it til you can't smell it, or run a big risk of ruining a brew... seriously

zephyr · Post by **zephyr** » Monday Mar 05, 2007 2:18 pm

...mmmm....just poured a sample after its been in there 20 hrs and the water smells pretty strong.

think i will start again.

may have to take your advice, damn it. flying to sydney tmrw so can't do it until next w/end.

Longrasser · Post by **Longrasser** » Tuesday Mar 06, 2007 1:21 pm

Ive never used the rotten stuff
Couple of litres of boiling water sloshed thru the brew tub seems to be ok for me

zephyr · Post by **zephyr** » Monday Mar 12, 2007 4:42 pm

came back from sydney on sat, am now ready to put down the brew tonight. poured one last sample of the water and it's not too bad. will start a thread re the maple pale ale recipe i plan to do.

will just go boiling water/napisan next time but.

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Monday Mar 12, 2007 7:20 pm

KEG wrote:rinse it til you can't smell it, or run a big risk of ruining a brew... seriously

How does it ruin it?

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Monday Mar 12, 2007 10:02 pm

cos it'll taint it with the smell and possibly the taste of sodium met.. yech, chemical beer.. no thanks.

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Tuesday Mar 13, 2007 1:02 pm

I suspect people don't follow the directions on anything related to cleaning.

A just wack it in mentality.

2 teaspoon to a litre and a good rinse is plenty.

I never have a drama.

The stuff is foodsafe and theres no way it can stuff a beer IMHO.

Each to there own I guess.

astrogeek · Post by **astrogeek** » Thursday Mar 15, 2007 5:45 pm

I've got the same smell in my fermenter after using sodium met. It was the first time I have used the stuff as I used to just use boiling water (Which worked fine, I just thought I should do it better). I used 1 teaspoon to a litre, swooshed it around and left is for about 20 mins. After I rinsed it out man did it have a bad smell. Seems to be getting a bit better now but I hope it doesn't taint my next brew.

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Thursday Mar 15, 2007 5:50 pm

Yeah, Sodium Met is a crap sanitiser, it gets you as bad as it gets the bugs. I recommend switching to Idophor.

Trough Lolly · Post by **Trough Lolly** » Friday Mar 16, 2007 10:20 am

Me too - I use sodium percarbonate (home brand napisan will do) to clean and alternate between no rinse Iodophor and Star San to sanitise...

Cheers,
TL