Plastic Bottling Buckets

So I have recently upgraded from Mr. Beer to a full 5 gallon glass system (6.5 and 5 gallon glass carboys) and a plastic bottling bucket. First batch was great, but by the looks of the first few bottles the second batch might have been contaminated which is sad.

My best bet is the bottling bucket because it tasted fine during bottling. The question is then, what do I have to watch out for when brewing plastic? This time I believe the culprit was my failure to remove the spigot when I cleaned/sterilized which I guess is just a lesson. But this brews some other questions:

How big a scratch will it take to hold enough bacteria to ruin a batch when the bucket has been sanitized to StarSan's specs? Will I be able to feel it? Or can a small hairline scratch ruin the day? I was told to submerse all my equipment in the bottling bucket to sanitize. This includes nice sharp pair of scissors, and a long metal spoon. Will dropping these in while full give my bucket irreparable bacteria filled harm?

First, welcome to the Wide Wonderful World of homebrewing!

Second, I've been using plastic buckets & glass carboys as fermenters interchangeably for 20 years, and haven't encountered any problems. In fact, I'm using the exact same fermenter and bottling bucket I started with--which might freak some people out--but it works for me and all my beers turn out great. Never had any problems with contamination. Your technique is the same as mine: filling the bucket with sanitizing solution and drop everything in. (Never sterilized scissors, though!) I can't answer how big a scratch will do you in, but I wouldn't toss the bucket out just yet.

I've found that beer brewing is a very forgiving process. RDWHAHB

What are you seeing that's causing you concern? Have you opened one and smelled/tasted?

When it comes to scratches, it not the size that counts If you do have contamination/infection, I would recommend doing the best cleaning you've ever done, and maybe fill the bucket to the brim with sterilizer and let it sit for a day.

I also recommend not DROPPING objects in your bucket, but place them

And always, always, always remove the spigot, disassemble and clean it! I keep a medium sized bowl with star san solution handy for small items (grommets, air lock, spigot, my hands etc.)

Cheers!

I disassemble my spigot and place it in a jar of OxyClean with a lose lid for a couple days after bottling, then rinse it with hot water, a dip in StarSan, then reassemble for the next session.

mountainman619 said:

I also recommend not DROPPING objects in your bucket, but place them

And always, always, always remove the spigot, disassemble and clean it! I keep a medium sized bowl with star san solution handy for small items (grommets, air lock, spigot, my hands etc.)

Cheers!

Click to expand...

This^

The spigot will do a better job at harboring bacteria than anything else on the bucket. As someone else said, I wouldnt put those metal tools in the bucket either. Even if you put them in slow and nice, taking them out provides another opportunity to scratch the side of your bucket.

mountainman619 said:

What are you seeing that's causing you concern? Have you opened one and smelled/tasted?

When it comes to scratches, it not the size that counts If you do have contamination/infection, I would recommend doing the best cleaning you've ever done, and maybe fill the bucket to the brim with sterilizer and let it sit for a day.

I also recommend not DROPPING objects in your bucket, but place them

And always, always, always remove the spigot, disassemble and clean it! I keep a medium sized bowl with star san solution handy for small items (grommets, air lock, spigot, my hands etc.)

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Out of the bottles we've sampled early, several of them have been bad (face shriveling), and the rest have had a fairly off taste. I'm stashing them to age and I'll check them in a few weeks, but this is more a concern of future sanitation than a past issue.