Plastic primary - leftover odor / taste

I just read the thread about leaving a batch in a plastic primary which had some nice info in it, and I had a thought. Do the buckets keep the odor after a batch? I only did one batch in a bucket (the others have been in a Better Bottle) and I noticed a significant leftover odor. I did my best to clean it, but the odor remained.

Is that normal or maybe is my bucket not high enough grade? Does this affect the beer taste?

I assume this isn't really an issue based on how many experts here use a bucket, but I wasn't sure if it was normal or if maybe my bucket was poor quality.

normal they tend to take on odor and get stained from the wort.

Buckets can take on odor and stain. Try saniclean from 5-star chemicals. I've had good luck getting the odor removed with that (not so much stains).

I've never noticed any bad flavors as a result of this, but it could affect flavor, I suppose. The effect would likely be minimal and how would you know if a flavor is from the current batch or leftover flavor from a previous one unless one of your previous batches had a real unusual ingredient?

I just brewed a very strong Christmas ale with a lot of spices in it (so good!). However, it left my primary with a very strong smell. While I soaked it with SanStar after the fermentation and before my next batch, it still has a strong smell.

Sampled the oatmeal stout that went into it and it had a slight spiced smell but the beer itself was stronger. I am sure if I brewed a mild or something it might have been more pronounced

I've never had a problem with odors, but I do have three fermenters and rarely use more than one at a time. I bleach them out after making wine or cider.

I ferment solely in plastic buckets. The answer to the OP is.....NO. The bucket itself will become stained and have an odor of hops, but so does beer. I don't worry about it.

My bucket doesn't have much of a smell at all - maybe it's because I always give it an overnight oxiclean soak and then soak it in starsan too.

Would an overnight soak in bleach work, followed by a water soak?

Bassman said:

Would an overnight soak in bleach work, followed by a water soak?

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Try it out. I use oxyclean and it usually doesn't have much smell after that. It never seems to impart a flavor in my next beer so I don't worry about it.

To follow up my post regarding my situation, the reason I think I had a stronger aroma transfer was because I moved my christmas ale from the primary fermenter, gave it a was and sanitized it, then put my beer into it. So it had air for a matter of minutes. That might have helped.