A beter way to clean fermenting bucket?

[Nike_Eayrs]

My fermenting bucket smells like a strong saison. I sanatize the bucket after I bottle, and again before I brew. Should I be worried that this smell will infect the next batch of beer? Is there a better way to get rid of the smell? Cheers!

 

[beergolf]

Don't worry about the smell. If it bothers you, then you can give it a good soak of Oxiclean. Fill it up with hot water and a scoop of Oxi and let it sit. A good rinse and the smell will be gone and your bucket will look clean.

I usually bottle on tha day I brew so I just give my bucket a good rinse, a quick sanitize and dump a new brew in. No problem.

 

[Yooper]

You don't have to sanitize after you bottle! That's when you do a rinse, and then clean it. Oxyclean and hot water is perfect. Then, rinse well and put it away. When you use it again, rinse off any debris (or clean it if it's been a long time) and then sanitize.

 

[Revvy]

Another trick is t leave the bucket out in the sun for a couple hours. The sunlight helps "bleach" out the odors in plastic.

 

[scottland]

Sanitizes aren't strong cleaners. Cleaning and sanitizing are two very different things. Stan San is a mild cleaner, but it's no where in the same ballpark as something like PBW.

Use PBW at the proper concentration in hot water, and you will find your buckets are much better. If your buckets have taken on too much color, they aren't as clean as they can be.

I have a 3+ year old bucket that's still bright white, and just faintly smells of beer and yeast.

 

[AlCophile]

Not to anger anyone, but the ultraviolet energy in sunlight disrupts the chemical bonds in plastics, and other materials. Remember skin cancer?Some plastic products have included in them UV-absorbing molecules which convert the UV energy into heat. That is how modern kayaks are prevented from breaking apart when stressed. Older boats, not so much. So, if a plastic is not specifically designed for exposure to sun, don't. Try this: place a poly water bottle in the sun now, today. Visit it in August. Step on it. See? If UV damages a plastic surface, it will probably cause pitting, and places where crud can collect. Go, brew and prosper!

 

[JonM]

Unscented Oxyclean Free, right?

 

[Yooper]

Unscented Oxyclean Free, right?

Yes. Or the Dollar Store version of unscented. Or PBW.

 

[Effingbeer]

Yes. Or the Dollar Store version of unscented. Or PBW.

I am all for saving some cash, and I haven't done any research, but does anybody know how similar or different oxy and PBW are?

 

[Komocabo]

I use the oxuclean free and it's great. Never had a problem yet. Soak it, dump it, amd rinse. Wonderful stufff and relatively cheap

 

[BBL_Brewer]

Five star saniclean works well too.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

I am all for saving some cash, and I haven't done any research, but does anybody know how similar or different oxy and PBW are?

PBW is basically just oxyclean and sodium metasilicate.

 

[scottland]

PBW is basically just oxyclean and sodium metasilicate.

And a pinch more surfactant(oxy has some), and a chelator. I wrote a long blog post on it, but I'll keep it simple here.

Supplement somewhere between 30-40% of your mixture with sodium metasilicate. It's a much stronger alkali than soda ash + sodium percarbonate(aka oxyclean). A common sodium metasilicate is TSP/90. You'll find it at hardware stores.

Add a tiny, tiny drop of dish soap to your liquid oxyclean + sodium metasilicate mixture after you've mixed with water. That will give you a little more surfactant. More isn't better here, you just need a drop. I've found that works magic compared to oxyclean alone.

What homemade PBW doesn't have is a chelator. Those with hard water know that oxyclean will leave hard water scale on equipment if left to soak too long. My water is Jesus Christ hard (450-490ppm TDS), and if I leave an oxyclean solution overnight, I will have scale in the morning. Chelators fix that. Unfortunately I have not experimented with any yet.

Or just buy PBW.

 

[jiggs_casey]

I find that I have to let them 'air out' for a couple of days, even after I oxyclean them, to completely rid them of the 'funky bucket' smell. I don't 'stack' my buckets anymore when I store them either.

 

[Effingbeer]

And a pinch more surfactant(oxy has some), and a chelator. I wrote a long blog post on it, but I'll keep it simple here.

Supplement somewhere between 30-40% of your mixture with sodium metasilicate. It's a much stronger alkali than soda ash + sodium percarbonate(aka oxyclean). A common sodium metasilicate is TSP/90. You'll find it at hardware stores.

Add a tiny, tiny drop of dish soap to your liquid oxyclean + sodium metasilicate mixture after you've mixed with water. That will give you a little more surfactant. More isn't better here, you just need a drop. I've found that works magic compared to oxyclean alone.

What homemade PBW doesn't have is a chelator. Those with hard water know that oxyclean will leave hard water scale on equipment if left to soak too long. My water is Jesus Christ hard (450-490ppm TDS), and if I leave an oxyclean solution overnight, I will have scale in the morning. Chelators fix that. Unfortunately I have not experimented with any yet.

Or just buy PBW.

THANKS! I can tell you've got some chem background and looked into this. For me, it seems like a too much work and worry to save a few pennies per pint.
I guess if that makes me a PBW/Starsan fanboy, so be it.

 

[mooshimanx]

I've never found I could really get the smell out of a bucket entirely no matter what I did beyond letting it sit for a while, but even if I don't, it doesn't seem to "infect" the beer with the old smell.

 

[skullface1818]

plastic buckets pick up smell like crazy. I wouldn't worry about it too much.......

I tend to used large quantities of boiling water and a steam cleaner to sanitize my buckets. no issues yet ^_^

 

[jkendal]

don't worry about the smell. If it bothers you, then you can give it a good soak of oxiclean. Fill it up with hot water and a scoop of oxi and let it sit. A good rinse and the smell will be gone and your bucket will look clean.

+1

 

[unionrdr]

I put 3-4 TBSP of PBW in my plastic FV's,then fill to near the top with water,stirring to dissolve. Let it sit for a week or so. Then place my home cheapo bucket under it (it's on my fermenter stand) so the spigot on the FV can drain into the cheapo bucket. Then rinse it out. Remove the spigot & soak that,cleaning the mounting hole with a paper towel & some starsan. I use aquarium lift tube cleaning brushes to scrub out the inside of the spigots.
The spigot & mounting hole can hold some crud that makes some of that smell & can harbor nasties. I sanitize all the pieces & reassemble to the FV. I sanitize the whole thing again on brew day. Dito with the bottling bucket,bottling wand/tube,etc.

 

[solbes]

Oxi Free soak in hot water, let stand for 24 hours. Rinse, dry and store. Then a rinse with StarSan prior to use.

The buckets do pick up an odor. Hoppy IPA's and my RIS were a few to do this. But it dissipates over a week or two of dry storage.

 

[BWN]

All my buckets smell like beer even after I clean them. It doesn't bother me and I have never had a problem.

 

[tonyc318]

All my buckets smell like beer even after I clean them. It doesn't bother me and I have never had a problem.

Same here! After having a better bottle too, I still prefer the bucket.

 

[BWN]

Yeah I have used carboys but I prefer buckets.