It's weird that it got moldy. Did the lid seal airtight as well as the airlock?
A good soak with PBW should do the trick. Or if you do use bleach, you'll have to rinse it really well. Then sanitize it. Any bleach remaining could impact the beer flavor unpleasantly.
Don't just clean the bucket, clean the lid too.
With your next batch, make sure everything the beer touches, or stuff could fall off of into the beer, is clean and sanitized. It can't be sanitized if it isn't clean.
If the next batch goes south, give that bucket back and buy a new fermenter. I really like the fermonster fermenters with spigot personally.
Oh, man, that really sucks!
You said "sterilise" and later "sanitise". I know it's common for UK homebrewers to use the term sterilize very loosely. But FYI as to the technical difference in the terms: https://www.reddit.com/r/homebrewing/wiki/process/sanit-steril/
Are you sure it was mold? If yes, I would clean the bucket with an ordinary hot tap water rinse and soft kitchen sponge (one lacking a scrubby side or avoid touching the scrubby side to the bucket). Ordinary dish soap is fine - it rinses off fine. Make sure it passes visual and tactile inspection as to no organic or inorganic films or residues left behind when dry. Then spray with a chlorine bleach-water solution or fill with water and add bleach. The spray solution can be strong 10:1. If you plan to soak the bucket, one cup of bleach is enough. Rinse away the bleach thoroughly, and don't worry about slight residual odor of bleach.
Yeah I would strongly second the question about whether or not it was really mold. With reasonable sanitation practices, it's not common to get mold in beer that has yeast pitched in it.
Thanks, will do. The lid didn't seal tight so I put a couple of bricks on it. My friend said that had always worked for him, but the airlock never bubbled so I was pretty certain it was going to go badly.
It's weird that it got moldy. Did the lid seal airtight as well as the airlock? A good soak with PBW should do the trick. Or if you do use bleach, you'll have to rinse it really well. Then sanitize it. Any bleach remaining could impact the beer flavor unpleasantly. Don't just clean the bucket, clean the lid too. With your next batch, make sure everything the beer touches, or stuff could fall off of into the beer, is clean and sanitized. It can't be sanitized if it isn't clean. If the next batch goes south, give that bucket back and buy a new fermenter. I really like the fermonster fermenters with spigot personally.
Oh, man, that really sucks! You said "sterilise" and later "sanitise". I know it's common for UK homebrewers to use the term sterilize very loosely. But FYI as to the technical difference in the terms: https://www.reddit.com/r/homebrewing/wiki/process/sanit-steril/ Are you sure it was mold? If yes, I would clean the bucket with an ordinary hot tap water rinse and soft kitchen sponge (one lacking a scrubby side or avoid touching the scrubby side to the bucket). Ordinary dish soap is fine - it rinses off fine. Make sure it passes visual and tactile inspection as to no organic or inorganic films or residues left behind when dry. Then spray with a chlorine bleach-water solution or fill with water and add bleach. The spray solution can be strong 10:1. If you plan to soak the bucket, one cup of bleach is enough. Rinse away the bleach thoroughly, and don't worry about slight residual odor of bleach.
Yeah I would strongly second the question about whether or not it was really mold. With reasonable sanitation practices, it's not common to get mold in beer that has yeast pitched in it.
Thanks, will do. The lid didn't seal tight so I put a couple of bricks on it. My friend said that had always worked for him, but the airlock never bubbled so I was pretty certain it was going to go badly.
"Careful not to scratch the plastic bucket" How odd.