Reuse bottling bucket after an infected batch?

BleECH! I forgot to add the priming sugar, dumped 5 bottles back into the bottling bucket, and one of them was suspect. Sure enough, that batch turned nasty sour very rapidly. I un-capped all the bottles and dumped them. (It feels like I reached a milestone - my first dumped batch!)

So, is it OK to use the plastic bottling bucket again?

Some people say no, but I say yes. If you clean it really well.

I had an infection once. Clean and sanitized it and ... got an infection immediately again. Soaked the whole thing in a bleach bath for a day and a half. Clean and perfect since.

Um, not speaking from authority but you can take it as one point of empirical evidence.

BigFloyd said:

Fermenter buckets are cheaper than the cost of ingredients for one batch.

I'd replace that bucket as well as any hoses (also cheap) that carried the infected brew.

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+1 why risk it

replace what you can afford to replace and bleach holocaust the rest.

Unless your bottling bucket was scratched it won't harbor bacteria and a good cleaning and sanitizing will take care of any that try to remain. The spigot is where the concern is. It does have places to harbor bacteria and they are hard to sanitize while in place so remove and replace the spigot with a new one or remove it and take it all apart to clean and sanitize. The valve can be popped out if you run hot water on that area so even that can be cleaned well.

Hello, Depending on what strain of infection you have, it can be very difficult to get rid of, some strains bleach will not kill, I know this from first hand experience.

If you want to kill any infection in your plastics take everything apart especially the spigot like RM-MN said, and soak everything that came in contact with that brew in a 50/50 mix of Hydrogen Peroxide and water for a full 3 days.

This method and this method alone is how I killed the infection in my plastics, bleach bombing and soaking in StarSan didn't do anything to the bug I had.

I hope this helps

Cheers