Got a 5gallon bucket.... what to do?

First off, my apologies to mi6op.... Last night I somehow managed to post this as a reply to mi6op's thread about lager fridges rather than starting a new one.

So I'll try again:

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Well I saw a post about a 55gal bucket....

I got a yellow 5 gallon bucket, no lid. It was apparently full of Pickles at McAlister's Deli at some point in time.... but it was by the trash at work. They cater of us a lot but that's a lot of pickles.

Anyway, it's obviously food grade plastic. But I saw a 2007 date on it... not sure if that was a manufacture date, a date the pickles were put in, or an expiration date, but it was a little dusty inside, and I figure it had been sitting in someone's office.

Maybe a good sanitization bucket?

Or I could use it as a wash bucket for the cars. Or start one of those street drumming bands. Or kick it and tell people that I kicked the bucket and see what kind of looks they give me.

Any other good ideas? Remember... no lid. But has a nice handle.



Thanks,

Nic

Any plastic bucket can be reused for fermentation so long as it has what you already said, "food grade" on it somewhere. Getting the brine smell/flavors off it, on the other hand, may be hard... I'd suggest soaking it w/ a mix of chlorine and water filled to the top for a while to see if it kills off the pickle smell. If not, I'd just use it as a sanitizer bucket. If it does get cleaned up, cut a hole in the top, add a bung and a fermentation lock, and you've got another ferm vessel.

Edit: OOPS missed that you had no lid... if there's no lid, then yes use for sanitizer bucket for sure... still soak w/ chlorine to sanitize well and try and kill the pickle smells

I'll still sanitize it before using it as a sanitization bucket.

It has no residual pickle smell. It smells like plastic, and has a thin layer of dust inside. My guess is that someone had a huge event here 3 years ago and McAlister's catered requiring 300 pickles (+/- 25), and someone kept the bucket (washed it) and threw it in the corner of their office, and then decided to clean their office yesterday and just left it by the trash.

The moulding in the bottom says it is HDPE, which I think is High Density Polyfredandethylene. It doesn't actually say "food grade plastic" anywhere but I just assume it is since it has pickle labels on it. Think it's safe to assume it is food grade? Or is HDPE always considered food grade? I'm not a plastic expert.

I've used pickle buckets myself. If it's HDPE and had pickles in it, then it is "food grade."