Cleaning my brew pot?

[collinsDPT]

Hello everyone, have a noobie question I would love for someone to answer.

I am waiting on my kit to arrive from Midwest Supplies, and in the meantime I found a Bayou Classic 34qt turkey fryer for sale on craigslist. I bought the thing for only $30 and its in great shape. It is aluminum.

My question is, since the pot and burner have already been used (but not to brew) how should I go about cleaning/sanitizing the pot in order to decrease risk of contamination? I have read on the forums about creating the Oxide layer inside the pot by boiling water for ~30 minutes in the pot, but is that all I need to do? Should I use some bleach/water mixture to wipe it down and then boil?

I just want to make sure I give myself the best odds of having a successful brew, considering it will be my first one.

Thanks for the help everyone!

 

[wilserbrewer]

Clean and rinse the pot real well to be sure there is no trace amout of frying oil left. If it has already seen used, it is already oxidised and should be ready to go. No need to sanitize a brewpot...that's what the boil is for.

 

[Bensiff]

It needs cleaned, not sanitized as wilserbrewer stated. I'd hit it with some oxyclean overnight to really break down any biological residue.

 

[insubordinateK]

I like to soak in PBW and hit any spots with burnt residue with a copper pad.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Careful w/ strong cleaners soaking with aluminum...I would wash well twice with a good detergent and rinse like hell...

 

[collinsDPT]

Thanks for your help guys, appreciate it!

 

[Shockerengr]

I'll second the comment on not soaking too long with pbw/oxyclean with aluminum. you can get some significant pitting that way.

a good detergent and scrubbing, then do a boil if you scrubbed off the oxide layer.

sanitation is not a concern on the boil kettle, the heat will take care of anything there. Leftover peanut/vegatable oil is what you want to get rid of. if there is some left, the hour boil will loosen some into the beer, and could cause head retention issues, long term instability (flavor degradation) or off flavors.

but, get it clean and you'll be good to go!