Getting rid of spice odor in primary bucket

[Ace_Club]

Just brewed Northern Brewer's Winter Spiced Ale in my new 6.5 gal bucket. After I bottled and cleaned last night, I notice that there is still a strong smell of the mulling spices lingering in the bucket. Should I be worried about this? Should I let it soak in bleach water or baking soda and water? Anybody else have this issue, and if so, what did you do to get rid of the odor?

 

[fineexampl]

soak in oxyclean. it'll go away.

 

[Ace_Club]

soak in oxyclean. it'll go away.

Thanks! I'll give that a try.

 

[Revvy]

Worst case is if it still smells take a box or two of baking soda, fill the bucket with hot water, dissolve the soda and let it sit for a couple days. That should absorb the odors.

 

[Ace_Club]

Two buckets soaking in OxyClean right now. I figure an overnight soak should do it.

 

[fineexampl]

Two buckets soaking in OxyClean right now. I figure an overnight soak should do it.

Works for me. I ferment in glass, but my bottling buckets do well in Oxy. Post back with your results in case some noobs figure out how to search. :rockin:

 

[Ace_Club]

Post back with your results in case some noobs figure out how to search. :rockin:

lol. Why start now?

Yeah, I usually ferment in glass, but in getting ready for my switch to 10 all-grain batches, I got two bucket primaries. Now I know to keep the spiced ales in the glass and regular batches in the plastic fermenters. Oh well, live and learn.

 

[Ace_Club]

Well, just got done washing out the buckets after the 24-hour OxyClean soak. The faint smell from the bottling bucket is completely gone. The strong smell from the primary bucket is also gone! OxyClean for the win!

 

[juslod]

I just noticed my bucket was having a strong scent to it that I wanted to remove.. I thought I would try Oxyclean but I'm glad to see it worked for you! Awesome.

 

[fineexampl]

Well, just got done washing out the buckets after the 24-hour OxyClean soak. The faint smell from the bottling bucket is completely gone. The strong smell from the primary bucket is also gone! OxyClean for the win!

Awesome! Just make sure it's the one without dyes/fragrance, etc. I made that mistake the first round, but no harm was done of course. Hot water got rid of the undesirables.

 

[Ace_Club]

It was the one with fragrances, but I'm not worried. I gave it a good washing with warm water and soap.

 

[Ace_Club]

Alright, update time. I just kegged my British Bitter last night which was in the bucket that had the spice odor. I was pretty sure it was gone when I put the Bitter into the primary. 10 weeks later when I open the top to keg, I find a Bitter with a spice aroma/taste.

Is this bucket ruined? Should I try another couple Oxy soaks? Should I brew a big, heavy, hoppy beer in it and fight fire with fire?

Right now I'm thinking I'll just get rid of this bucket and get a new one. *sigh*

 

[sudsmcgee]

I brewed a big spice beer in Dec. 2010 and have used the bucket twice since then and never had a residual spice flavor. I would keep it and brew something hoppy like you said to overpower the spice.

 

[Ace_Club]

I brewed a big spice beer in Dec. 2010 and have used the bucket twice since then and never had a residual spice flavor. I would keep it and brew something hoppy like you said to overpower the spice.

Really?! I brewed NB's Spiced Ale and cannot for the life of me get rid of that spice aroma (and flavor) from the plastic.

How did you clean your bucket?

I'm really ticked because this was a brand new bucket.

 

[Seven]

I did the same exact thing as you; I brewed the NB winter spice kit in a plastic bucket, noticed the spice smell lingering in the bucket after kegging, soaked the bucket with PBW overnight to try to remove the smell, but some of the smell still remained.

I have another brew fermenting in this bucket now so I'll probably get spice notes on this next beer too. Damn.

 

[Ace_Club]

I did the same exact thing as you; I brewed the NB winter spice kit in a plastic bucket, noticed the spice smell lingering in the bucket after kegging, soaked the bucket with PBW overnight to try to remove the smell, but some of the smell still remained.

I have another brew fermenting in this bucket now so I'll probably get spice notes on this next beer too. Damn.

I feel your pain. It probably wouldn't have been too bad if it was a hoppy or dark beer. But the Bitter I made was light, not overly hopped and only 3.5% abv. So the spice flavor/aroma is definitely noticeable.

Maybe I'll keep this as my Stout/Barleywine bucket.

 

[wilserbrewer]

While I like oxiclean, I think bleach might have a little more muscle for jobs like this.

 

[Ace_Club]

I'll try a strong bleach solution.

A little advice for future Spiced Ale brewers...use glass.

 

[Seven]

I feel your pain. It probably wouldn't have been too bad if it was a hoppy or dark beer. But the Bitter I made was light, not overly hopped and only 3.5% abv. So the spice flavor/aroma is definitely noticeable.

Maybe I'll keep this as my Stout/Barleywine bucket.

I have a Hopslam clone in this bucket now so hopefully the hops will win out over the winter spices! I'll know in about a month.

 

[EarthBound]

I'll have to remember this. Thanks for the heads up.

I'm sure the bleach solution will work.

 

[matpat]

Worst case is if it still smells take a box or two of baking soda, fill the bucket with hot water, dissolve the soda and let it sit for a couple days. That should absorb the odors.

As Revvy mentioned above, baking soda should do the trick. A couple of years ago I got a mess of 5g plastic buckets from a friend in the restaurant business. Most of the buckets had no smell but one stored minced garlic and another one stored minced ginger. I put half a box of baking soda in each bucket, filled with hot water and let them sit for about a day. The next day the odors in each bucket were gone. If the bleach fails, baking soda is cheap and it works very well at removing odors.