Weird one...

Let me preface this by saying I hate throwing any out that might even be remotely useful....

So our city recently changed over to automated garbage collection trucks. As part of the system, they provided every house in the city with 2 new containers. So this leaves me with 2 55-gallon Brute garbage cans that I have no use for as trash cans. See where I am going with this?

I am not crazy enough to think that I could sanitize them enough to ferment in, but I am wondering if you think I could get them clean enough to store bulk grains. I would do a hot water/OxyClean wash with a bleach water soak and rinse.

I am sure if I lined it with a contractor garbage bag, I would be good, but I would like to avoid that.

So whaddya think?

How old are the cans? I dont know man, but I would never even think about putting grains in my cans. They are pretty clean but still pretty damn nasty. Just thinking about some of the things that were in the bags that have seen those cans makes me want to vomit. Items include, dirty diapers, crab guts, rotting food, female hygiene products, dog poop, dog vomit, etc. the list goes on. Now, all that stuff was contained in a trash bag, but a trash bag is not air tight and they sometimes rip/burst. Why dont you just buy some new trash cans, they are cheap enough. Or better yet, Homer Buckets.

The cans are a couple of years old, so they are kind of scratched up.

I guess I was thinking that if I cleaned and bleached them, that they would be good enough for bulk grain. I want to start buying whole bags at a time, but I don't have anything mouse/dog/kid-proof to store them in.

I'd do it. As long as you get it good and clean, what difference does it make what was in it before? Make sure the cans are good and dry before you add your grains.

I'd do it, but I would line them with a garbage bag after the through cleaning you mentioned.

I'd use them to store mops/brooms/garden equipment or scrap stick lumber, but not food stuffs...

55 Gallons is a lot of grain.
You can fit a 50lb sack of grain in 2, 5 gallon buckets.
Personally, I wouldn't open 55 GALLONS of grain sacks at the same time. I think you could store the sacks in your cans and keep the "open" one (in a sealed bag) on top for easy access.

I use home depot buckets... I open and dump the base grains in and keep specialty grains in ziplock bags inside separate buckets.

Ed

I'm sure you can clean them up and use them without having any issues. What that said, I personally wouldn't do it. Just the thought of what has been in those cans...nasty. I would think of it every time I poured a beer.

I am not made of money but sometimes I just have to shake my head when I hear about what people do to save a dollar or two. I don't think I could ever drink a beer that I know was made with grain that was stored in an old, used garbage can, no less offer one to someone else. It's just gross and would skeeve me.

I'd be worried more about the lid, personally. Would be damn near impossible to thoroughly soak, and even if you line the bin with a garbage bag the grain would still be sitting open to whatever nasties are on the inside of the lid.

Turn them into portable kegerators for parties etc. There's a couple examples on HBT where people have done this before.

Sawdustguy said:

I am not made of money but sometimes I just have to shake my head when I hear about what people do to save a dollar or two. I don't think I could ever drink a beer that I know was made with grain that was stored in an old, used garbage can, no less offer one to someone else. It's just gross and would skeeve me.

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Not sure what skeeve is....

I guess I was looking at it the same way as I look at the water supply. Think about the fact that the water you pull from your tap was probably once used in someone's toilet, if you are on a municipal system. But it gets cleaned and treated before it gets back to you, basically with the same chemicals I would use to clean the can out.

Unless you are getting your water straight from a mountain top stream with no birds or air pollution anywhere near, you have probably drank someone or something's recycled waste with no ill effects.

Good point on the lid. I hadn't really thought about that part of it.

Not really being cheap, but was looking at it from a Reduce, Reuse, Recycle perspective.

Thanks for the thoughts.

Clean is clean.

tomwirsing said:

Clean is clean.

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And there you have it, ISLAGI. If someone's going to get all trembly because it was once 'yucky', you can do a magical cleansing ritual that will purify it's freakin' essence or whatever it is that's causing such a fright.

Geez...