Free 5 Gallon Food Grade Buckets

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

egoods

Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2009
Messages
10
Reaction score
1
Location
West Chester, PA
I stumbled across this article on Instructables and it led me to head on down to my local burger joint and ask the manager if he had any spare buckets. To my amazement he was more then happy to give me 4 food grade buckets they had stacked up in back (including lids with gaskets!). There's even an official website for the International Pickle Bucket Rescue League. I guess this is how pickles are delivered to most burger joints/greasy spoon restaurants. I haven't attempted to clean these out yet, and I'm slightly concerned that the pickle smell/flavor will remain. So, not sure how viable they'll be for fermenting (also, would need to drill a hole for an airlock). Just something I thought alot of you might find really useful and cost cutting!
 
Pickle Buckets are the worst ones to use. It is nearly impossible to get the smell of them out of there, since the brine with salt, vinegar, garlic, dill, etc is really penetrative.

You may want to read some of these threads before you run out to Mickey D's. :D

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/pickle-taste-bourbon-stout-132670/?highlight=Pickle

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/pickle-bucket-85010/?highlight=Pickle

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/pickle-bucket-grist-104109/?highlight=Pickle

I'm just sayin'

:D
 
From what I understand the pickle smell is with it forever. Others have said that bakeries have food grade frosting buckets that work well.
 
FYI....I don't think you will be successful in getting the pickle smell out of those buckets, at least that is the common consensus on this board anyway. Maybe you have just the trick to do it, but maybe some other folks could chime in on what they tried that didn't work.

That being said, they would make great utility buckets or for chores around the house...I don't think they could be used for fermenters however.

Good luck!
 
Hmm, yeah I feared the pickle smell would be unbeatable. I'll head to the Acme bakery this afternoon and see what they have, icing and the like would be considerably easier to get out (and at the end of the day it's just sugar, so more alcohol content right?).
 
Beeton is right. Dairy Queen is the place to go. They have tons of 5 gallon food grade buckets there.
 
Back
Top