Beer Porn or Big Tease?

I'm a farmer in souther california and our company recently decided to replace the stainless steel tanks on front of some tractors.

The tanks are already setup with valves and have around 150 gallon capacity. HOWEVER, they've been used to hold pesticides/herbicides/fertilizers in high concentrations.

My question is this: Can the stainless steel tanks be cleaned well enough to be used safely? legal commercially?

Sell them for scrap and use the money to buy a more appropriately sized brewing vessel.

I'd have to agree with this suggestion. The tanks have carried dangerous chemicals, and that alone would make me not want to use them. Add the fact that they are just friggin huge, and would be a massive PITA to use and clean, I'd say see what you can get for them.

thats bad juju ...+1 sell em

some risks are'nt worth takeing - sell em

I'd have to agree. Every time I looked in my glass I'd be thinking, "....... is this slowly killing me?....."

I like the sell for scrap idea.

Not to mention, 150 gallons is pretty damn big. Our club had a hard enough time filling a 55 gallon bourbon barrel.

Funny that we all eat foods grown in or covered in these pesticides/herbicides/fertilizers but we're scared of brewing in vessels that once contained them. Not really apples to apples but amusing still.

I agree with Tonedef and the others. Why risk it?

Now, if you could identify the chemicals used and ask someone who actually knows what they're talking about...

Yeah, if you could get away with actually selling them that would be the way to go. I know if I sold anything from my company that they gave me for free they'd crap a brick. If not I'd buy stock in Five Star and get a butt load of PBW!

If you really wanted to use them, clean the hell out of them with caustic, fill with hot water and then have samples sent to the lab. It's not like you can't test for contamination.

WOW! What replies by you fellow brewers that posted above, I can't believe all that was posted by them. First off those tanks are worth gold to someone needing that large of capacity, I would grab them in a heart beat as there is money to be made. Scrapping them your the one who will lose big dollars and a big stupid mistake, don't scrap them.
I say this from having a friend that has a multi million dollar a year tank wash business the past 27 years cleaning out big rig tanks. This from small 500 gallon to 6,700 gallon single tanks to twin 3,000 doubles.
A tractor can come in after hauling epoxy resin products, paint products, sulfur, fertilizers, pesticides or any other product that would kill you. The tanks are cleaned out with a crew that goes inside with a air life support hood then begin cleaning the tanks, then chemically clean and wash outs. Then the next load can be food grade FDA aproved to haul, kind of scary isn't it and legal? This happens thousands of times a day across thje country not counting zero washouts who would know?
At that same cleaning facility another friend parks his tank truck he only hauls vinegar almost daily hence no clean outs after each load. The only problem he has is a few deliveries he first must have a Rabi (? Quaker looking dude) look at the tank then charge $960 and after 5 months get a sticker stating he can haul their "Kosher Certified Vinegar". One food processing plant that "Demands Kosher Tankers Only" ran out of vinegar on a 24/7 shift. They had locals in pickups hauling vingar from rusty 55 gallon drums to the plant a Stanford & Son's operation. Those drums had rust and sludge in them but "that's ok we have filtering systems at the plant". Bottom line even a HAZ-MAT tanker can be cleaned out and the next load food grade certified rated. Those are the tankers with the stainless boxes across the top openings you spot them a mile away on the highway.
If you going this big into brewing I would have those tanks cleaned with the PROPER CLEANING AGENTS and rinsed then your good to go as a food grade or brewing use with a certificate stating so if you have a cleaning facility clean them, this is not cheap as replacing them isn't either. Even etched stainless tanks have passed for food grade as vinegar will etch 304 stainless. I'm talking 200 and 300 grain vinegar that will burn the skin. Sorry fellow above reply brewers unless you have been around the tank cleaning business like I have you have given the OP the wrong information and I find this a big dollar mistake that he could make on bad posted information. This made me sad reading these replies. Just think about the next tanker on the highway and what's in that tank and what was in it three loads ago?
Done ranting, sorry not to offend any Kosher related people just the truth on what goes on daily in the tanker business.

Just because you can doesn't man you should...

Wow, thanks for all the quick responses.

As for the capacity issue - I asked because I am very seriously considering opening up a small microbrewery in my hometown and this would the absolute cheapest startup. I'm going to visit another man who did the same thing and work with him for a bit before I do (3 barrel brewing company).

However, I obviously don't want to put myself or anyone else at risk.

Thanks for the tank cleaner recommendation. I'm going to look into how they do it and what it costs.

My guess is that if you can get the ATF / FDA to approve them for commercial beer production, you should be fine. It's not like chemicals can leech into stainless.

On the other hand, if I knew beforehand that I was about to drink a beer brewed in a former pesticide vessel, it would definitely give me at least a second's pause.

But there's a lot about food and beverage production that I'd rather stay ignorant about. Some things you just can't unknow.

With 10 of those tanks you would have the basis for a fine microbrewery. Properly cleaned, those things would be food grade with no problem at all.

I use a ROUND UP weed killer spray container with sprayer that has been washed out with tank wash cleaner from my above reply company and use free vinegar from my friends tanker with sprayer as a weed killer all ther time. Within two days yellow straw weeds plus a few hours of vinegar smell that's about all besides slight cement etching and a hell of a lot cheaper free by the 5 gallon containers. Around my neighborhood are many Mexican hired gardeners and once a couple years ago one with broken English told me "That Good Killer Bad For People". I placed the sprayer in my mouth and gave it a spray job, he about fainted on the spot. To this day I LMAO when I see him and point to my mouth like spraying. Later I showed him a household vinegar bottle "see same ting".
You got yourself a gold mine of a find, sorry your had bad replies almost costing you those tanks. Look down the highway and guess what was in those tankers a load or two before? I bet 1/10% of this forums members or less have worked around food production that you see in your local stores, you will not eat the products if you worked around them watching what goes on. I've been there over the years.

Take the tanks and run. Those are cleanable with no real problems. Fill them with water after cleaning and get it tested. Thats the cure all solution here.

+1, clean the hell out of them, using multiple cleaners (separately), then fill the tanks, and a clean jar (control sample) and let sit for a week. Then send the samples off to the lab.