getting smells out of plastic

Hey all!

I picked up a couple sweet 14 gallon "barrels" at a yard sale recently which I want to use as fermenters, problem is, they came from the local coke plant and have a strong dr pepper smell, they had the syrup in them. I tried soaking them with bleach water, rinsing them with hot water and they still stink...........any sugguestions on what else I could try to get rid of the odor? They have small openings, (barrel bungs) so its tough to get inside or just leave the lid off ( to air it out)......I was maybe thinking baking soda or something to absorb the odor??

thanks in advance! Scott

Since they're plastic, I don't think there would be any harm in doing a stronger bleach solution, I've used some pretty caustic bleach solutions to long soak my plastic buckets between beer and wine and it works great given a week or two.

I use Oxyclean on my big fermentors but those are stainless and don't hold odor as well, but it still might be worth a shot.

Well You beat me to it.....I was gonna post a similar question-Brewed a batch of APA a couple weeks ago and with all the chilling and racking to the primary and clean up of the boil stuff I forgot to empty the spent grains out of the cooler(MLT).You guessed it that sat out on the back porch and started the fermentation process on it's own.Intention was to feed to the chickens but with that stench it went in the compost pile,now I'm stuck with a malodorous MLT even after a good soap and hot water wash----How can I get the stink out-better yet-Will this odor(no staining) effect future batches ?

Sorry Scott-didn't mean to hijack this one.....

Any input would be appreciated. Shane

I've never had anyhting that bad, however to remove foul or unwanted smells from my plastic buckets I've let a nice solution of bleach sit in the bucket for a week or so to pickle. Use a light scrubby pad (one that won't scratch the plastic) to help "wash" the plastic with the bleach solution still in the bucket. Dump it, and it'll probably smell like bleach. After that mix a fairly strong solution of water and baking soda and let that sit for a while to get rid of the bleach smell. That's worked for me before, when I've had to leave some nasty stuff sitting in the buckets. Hope it helps.

I had a PET plastic fermentor bucket that I left sanitizer in for too long -- 2 weeks+, and it picked up the sanitizer odor, which I was more worried about than any off odor from previous contents -- it was hard to get the odor out, but brewing several batches seems to have worked. I brewed fairly full flavored beers, and never noticed any of the "taste" from the plastic leeching into the beers.

I recommend you clean and sanitize as best you can, but don't go crazy trying to cover up or remove the odor from the plastic - you might create a stronger and worse odor/flavor. Just brew a couple of batches of stronger flavored beers (stouts, porters, scotch wee heavy, etc) and RDWHAHB!

Dump a half a box of cascade dishwasher soap into them. fill with hot water and let it sit for a couple days. If it dosn't work you are only out $3.50. *shrug*

Oxyclean free does wonders, too.

Oxyclean with a fairly strong solution. Soak till clean. If tehre are stains, then this could take a few days. This will clean most, if not all residue out, but you will probably still have odor.

If it still smells then use a box of baking soda and water and let soak for a couple days.