Risky Kegs? Advice?

[WarEagleBrewer]

So, I'm a cheap bastard. I have two new kegs currently, but I have room for two more. I don't really want to shell out any money for new or used ones right now. So, my father has two corny kegs from the 80's that he used to use to spray malathion, round up, and various other chemicals in bug/weed control. I'm pretty sure these are steel pin lock kegs as my uncle used to work for Coca Cola and Dad got them from him....I haven't looked at them in a long time, but know he still has them. Is there any amount of cleaning in the world that would make these things safe to use for beer if I replace the poppets and gaskets? Hot water soak in PBW or other cleaning chemical? Would you do it?

 

[wilserbrewer]

DDT, Chlordane? Those were the real deal!

I vote no emphatically!!!

Those types of chemicals may be corrosive, so you may have pitting as well

NO!

There is a chemical process to clean such chemicals, but it is rather involved I believe, much more so than PBW etc.

 

[fatherdan]

it depends whos drinking the beer.........

 

[WarEagleBrewer]

Oh well.....it was a fleeting thought at any rate.....

 

[ericbw]

That's too much of a risk. I would destroy them so no one uses them in the future.

Watch for sales and get them as you can. I got some from Adventures in Homebrewing, but their prices are not so good right now.

 

[agrazela]

You just made us all wonder what the used kegs we've bought might have been used for...

 

[WarEagleBrewer]

you just made us all wonder what the used kegs we've bought might have been used for...

lol!

 

[two-rocks]

You just made us all wonder what the used kegs we've bought might have been used for...

I just looked at me beer after reading this! Damn it!

 

[Homercidal]

Coincidentally I was just thinking last night about how I could keep the damn fruit flies from getting in my glass of beer!

THANK YOU!!

 

[mikescooling]

It's good to make home brewers informed about other uses of the same kegs we drink from. What I read is the pesticides were sprayed from smaller 3 gallon tanks (for the most part). this is another reason to switch to sanke kegs.

 

[ericbw]

It's good to make home brewers informed about other uses of the same kegs we drink from. What I read is the pesticides were sprayed from smaller 3 gallon tanks (for the most part). this is another reason to switch to sanke kegs.

Great, I have two 3-gallon kegs.

But I actually know they were last used for soda because when I got them, one had a small amount of lemon-lime syrup still in it. The other had some brown sticky moldy liquid. Took a while to get them cleaned up. The 2.5 gallon kegs I have were new.

 

[mongoose33]

On WarEagleBrewer's headstone:

"But I just wanted to save money!"

 

[augiedoggy]

You just made us all wonder what the used kegs we've bought might have been used for...

I wouldnt worry if it was bad you would already have gotten sick its highly unlikely it was used for pesticides...use a green scotchbrite with bar keepers friend and it will remove everything including the top layer of stainless if your really concerned.

My dad worked for a chemical shipping company that transported everything from orange juice concentrate and fake maple syrup to blue jean dyes and industrial chemicals including those requiring an actual escort because a truck transporting it developed a leak and wiped out a whole small town in their sleep. My father was an actual tank cleaner.

They would clean the tank trailers with caustic acid or whatever process was required for the ph of whatever was in it and then the trailer would be reused for something else.. stainless is not porous and used because it can be cleaned so well.

 

[WarEagleBrewer]

On WarEagleBrewer's headstone:

"But I just wanted to save money!"

That's not funny. Accurate maybe, but not really funny. Thank you all for the sound advise. When I asked my dad about these, I thought he only had two. However, he indicted that he had three, one of which he had simply washed the syrup out of and never used. If he can find it, I'm gonna change out all the poppets and gaskets and see if we can make it work. They are over 30 years old, so we shall see.

 

[mongoose33]

That's not funny. Accurate maybe, but not really funny. Thank you all for the sound advise. When I asked my dad about these, I thought he only had two. However, he indicted that he had three, one of which he had simply washed the syrup out of and never used. If he can find it, I'm gonna change out all the poppets and gaskets and see if we can make it work. They are over 30 years old, so we shall see.

I considered another type of post, one which would have gone like this:

"Are you serious? You want to put beer in vessels that previously held poison, and you're asking us if we think it's a good idea?

Seriously?"

I thought the humor might have gotten across the point less dramatically.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Cleaning kegs thoroughly then following it up with a very good rinse of de-ionized water would help with any residual contaminants. DI Water is so pure that "other stray" molecules will immediately bond to the oxygen and hydrogen molecules.

DI water is like a solvent due to its high purity. Its so high you can't measure the pH. It literally has less than 10 ppm of dissolved solids. In running pipe it can dissolve metals over time. You have to use PVC or CPVC for DI Plumbing.

I was working at a factory that cleaned glass (insulated glass windows). They used the DI water for streak free rinsing. They plumbed the DI with copper tubing only to have the joints leak a month later. It was almost simultaneous areas of multiple leaks. They tell me this when I visited to audit their equipment. I'm like, you can't use copper!!!! In a former job I was corporate specialist on water treatment and structural sealants.