Stinky $1 fermenter

I bought a 5 gallon Ale Pail with the lid and airlock at a garage sale for a $1 last weekend. The catch? Oh, it stinks. Bad. I don't know if the guy kept it empty in a moist basement or what, but it smells like dirt. Seriously, like potting soil or something.

So far I've left bleach water in it overnight, baking soda dissolved in water in it overnight and right now I have a solution of Straight A sitting in it. It still stinks!

I don't know if the funk will affect the flavor of anything I brew in it or not, but I don't like taking the chance. I was going to start some peach wine in it this week.

Advice?

I would personally chuck it. New ones aren't too terribly expensive, and will give you a better piece of mind.

I use a plastic 12 gallon barrel to ferment in. It held powdered fruit flavoring in its former life. After cleaning it with bleach and FILLING it with vinegar and letting it sit for a month, it still knocks your head off when you take the lid off after its been sitting empty for a while.

Hasn't affected the flavor of what I ferment at all. no detectable odor or taste........

Now that its clean, fill it with hot tap water and let it sit for a week or so. Keep it sealed up like you would for fermenting. Then do a taste test. If you can't taste it, your probably good.

You could try soaking it with a diluted bleach solution overnight, and then rinsing like mad with hot water. If it comes clean and odor free, you might want to use it. I probably wouldn't though- I'd probably use it for other things instead of brewing.

If it's still stinky after bleaching, I'd get rid of it. It's only a dollar, whereas if you make a batch of beer in it that turns out stinky, the ingredients for that would cost a lot more than a dollar.

I can get a plastic fermenter for like $6 around here. Not worth the risk. Id use it for planting something.

Well.... it looks like I've done about all I can do then. I'll leave the Straight A in there overnight and if that doesn't help I'll just wash the car with the bucket. At least I got an airlock out of the deal...

You could use it as a sanitizer bucket. I find my brewdays are more organized if I keep my brew gear (or bottling gear) in a bucket together. Makes it easy to keep together, to move from the shed to the brewpatio, and to mix the sanitzer right on top of.

Actually, after the Straight A treatment it's not too bad.... my other bucket smelled much worse after using English Cider yeast.