Beer Forum

I just got home from a 16 hour road trip to pick up 10 6 1/2 gal carboys (free). They were previously used for sulfuric acid. Anyone know the best way to neutralize any residue and clean???

I would say rinse thoroughly with water then run some baking soda and water in there.... BUT don't listen to me until someone who knows what the fuck they are talking about chimes in.
Adding water to Acid improperly can cause major OH SHIT!
BUB

I don't know, but if you figure it out please post the answer. I think I might be able to score some myself but cleaning them has been a worry of mine.

Either a solution of baking soda, or sodium hydroxide

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/c ... m00693.htm

You should be able to just rinse with a shit load of water, anyways, any lab tech worth their salt should have handed you the bottles already rinsed and sulfuric acid free... I regularly use the 2 liter HCL bottles for growlers and as with any acid, the key to cleaning is massive dilution. Rinse em out 6-7 times with 3 gallons of water and that should be enough to ease your worries. These bottles will take a beating, just be careful to avoid hot/cold temp differences like any other glass (have cracked one or two of em using em for starters) oh, and if the weird plastic type cover is there (it comes on the 2 liter bottles), it comes off of the bottle pretty easily if you make a couple slits down the side and peel it off. Just remember to cut away from yourself, cause this is one of those jobs where it's really easy to screw yourself up on if the bottle slips. good luck! and the previous post is great except that it deals with a shitload of sulfuric acid, this can be dangerous, hence neutralization first until the ph strip comes back close to neutral. Noone would send you across country with 60 gallons of Sulfuric, so the small quantity that you may have ended up with should be fine for sending it down the sink after dilution. Yay strong acids!

Thanks for all the input... I got the carboys from my father inlaw who got 50 of them from a military auction in the late 80's and they have just been sitting around.. there was a very small trace of acid in the bottoms... about a tablespoon at most... I used a baking soda solution and then rinsed the shit out of them... ph is at my normal tap water range.
Time to get brewing

What about carboys used for mushrooms?