Mouse defiled my mash tun

[Paulgs3]

Getting ready to brew, spraying everything down pre-cleaning, notice something a bit off with an odor around me brew equipment stash I have shelved in my garage. I leave the top of my Igloo cooler off and I pulled out the cooler to see a mouse (assuming) made a home in there. There was a pile of feces and urine all over the bottom and a nest in the middle that looked like fur. I have no idea how the bastard got out of there... It's a 10g cooler.

Pissed (pun intended), as I really liked that mash tun. I can't keep it, pondered bleaching it, not gonna do it. I tossed the whole thing out.

Brew day ruined, on the positive side, been needing a larger cooler conversion anyway and this is great justification to convince the wife to let me!

Lesson learned: store cooler/mash tun/kettles up side down.

 

[Britinusa]

Man that sucks, I store mine upside down just so they stay dry, never thought about a mouse setting up home in there.

 

[Schemy]

Flipping mine over this evening. I don't have mice, but better safe than sorry.

 

[Darwin18]

Dude, you shouldn't have tossed it. Just thoroughly cleaning it out would have been fine. The wort leaving the mash tun gets boiled which kills anything potentially harmful that is biological.

 

[Xpertskir]

Dude, you shouldn't have tossed it. Just thoroughly cleaning it out would have been fine. The wort leaving the mash tun gets boiled which kills anything potentially harmful that is biological.

This...and let me assure you there is more rodent feces and urine in the grain you are using than there would be residue in your tun after a good cleaning.

 

[m3n00b]

This...and let me assure you there is more rodent feces and urine in the grain you are using than there would be residue in your tun after a good cleaning.

Yup.

 

[Cyclman]

Stories like that need a picture!

 

[Tiber_Brew]

This...and let me assure you there is more rodent feces and urine in the grain you are using than there would be residue in your tun after a good cleaning.

Yup.

Thirded. I've heard stories from a guy who worked for a major grain provider for Cargill. I try not to think about it.