Serious decontamination of cornie

[Hogarth]

My bad, I finished a cornie but didn't wash it out for months, and when I finally opened it up it absolutely REEKED. So I soaked it in soda crystals and then scrubbed. Then I soaked it in PBW and then scrubbed. Seeemed okay after that, so I sanitized it and filled it with fresh beer. Now -- you guessed it -- the beer is REEKING.

Whatever's inside there is obviously not going to be killed off easily -- think Bruce Willis in Die Hard. The only difference is that this time Hans Gruber is going to win.

So, what do I do? A long soak in caustic soda followed by intensive scrubbing? Oxyclean? Steam cleaning? Napalm? Frankly I'm willing to try anything that doesn't actually destroy the keg. Is there a fail-safe, kill-everything method of doing this?

Cheers!

[barneey]

A hot soak in caustic would be my first line of attack, remove everything and fill with caustic until over flowing (your need to sit it in something), bung the long dip in there as well, Take everything else apart and clean in PBW.

Later with the aid of another corny keg keep flushing PBW between the two using the posts.

[boingy]

Did you dismantle it? Chances are the nasties were lurking in a tube/seal/nook/cranny.
Reduce it to it's component parts. Boil anything that fits in a pan for 15 minutes. Attack anything else with bleach/caustic. Don't soak for too long then rinse and double rinse.

[Hogarth]

Thanks guys. Yeah, I dismantled it first time around, soaking everything separately. But I didn't run a rag through the inside of the dip tube or scrub the threads on the posts, so I'll do that now. Plus the caustic/PBW treatment.

Is it okay to put the o-rings and poppet valves in a pressure cooker, do you think?

[darkonnis]

Would suspect so but the golden rule is don't submit anything to deep/thorough cleansing if you haven't got a spare you can use.