Odd scent in fermenting bucket

[pluchar]

I brewed a pumpkin ale a while ago and just transferred it to a secondary about 2 weeks ago. Right after the transfer, I cleaned out the bucket it was in for the primary. I thought I had cleaned it pretty good, but now I am noticing a scent when I smell the inside of it. It's not really powerful, but it is noticeable.

Is this just from a possible poor cleaning or might it be a sign of bacterial growth? What would my next step be? Bleach?

Thanks!

 

[twistr25]

You can try to soak the bucket in an oxyclean solution. Bleach is a pain to deal with to make sure you get it all out. Oxyclean just needs a good rinse and not nearly as harmful afterwards.

 

[Toga]

DO NOT use bleach. Bleach will permeate the plastic. Use oxyclean as mentioned above. Make sure you get the oxyclean free (no chlorine). Fill your bucket with hot water and add one scoop per gallon. Let it sit for a day or two then rinse well. You may never get all of the odor from the plastic but it will help eliminate most of it.

 

[pluchar]

You can try to soak the bucket in an oxyclean solution. Bleach is a pain to deal with to make sure you get it all out. Oxyclean just needs a good rinse and not nearly as harmful afterwards.

Thanks. I'll give this a shot

 

[RM-MN]

I'll bet your bucket smells a bit like beer. Mine does too. Guess what I will use it for next? Yes, beer. Will the smell affect my next beer? No, not a bit. You can scrub your bucket, you can soak your bucket with PBW or Oxiclean, you can soak it with Starsan, or you can do like me and just accept that since it is a fermenting bucket for beer, it will always smell a bit like beer and just do a normal wash and put it away for the next brew day.

 

[Mozart]

I always give my ferementing buckets a good soak in Oxyclean Free after each fermentation, as others have indicated.

That said, I still find that my plastic buckets do retain some color and faint odors from the fermentation despite being thoroughly cleaned. I have yet to have a single infected batch (though haven't been brewing terribly long), nor have I noticed any of these odors getting transferred in the next brew.

Guess this is a long way of saying that I agree with Oxyclean, works great, but if after that you still have some slight discoloration and odor, it's nothing to worry about.

 

[unionrdr]

After rinsing the yeast & whatever else I can out of my plastic FV's,I fil it to just above the crud ring with water & pour in 3-4TBSP of PBW. Stir well & put the top on loosely. In a couple hours to the next morning,all the crud has floated off to the bottom. I brush it out lightly with the bottle brush. Drain & rinse,dumping the PBW & rinse water out the spigot to wash that again as well. Then remove the spigot & soak/scrub it in PBW & a aquarium lift tube brush. Rinse & dunk in starsan & re-assemble all parts while wet with the Starsan. Sanitize again right before filling & this seems to get rid of the smell. I generally don't get discolorations.

 

[beergolf]

I'll bet your bucket smells a bit like beer. Mine does too. Guess what I will use it for next? Yes, beer. Will the smell affect my next beer? No, not a bit. You can scrub your bucket, you can soak your bucket with PBW or Oxiclean, you can soak it with Starsan, or you can do like me and just accept that since it is a fermenting bucket for beer, it will always smell a bit like beer and just do a normal wash and put it away for the next brew day.

So true. A bucket will smell like beer so what.

 

[jonnyp1980]

My buckets stink. Old battle smells from my IPAs. Mmmmm.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Make sure you get the oxyclean free (no chlorine).

Oxyclean and the off brand versions are primarily sodium percarbonate. A a Base. Some also contain a water softener (the blue crystals).

Oxyclean free contains no water softener. The regular stuff with the blue crystals does contain softener.

No Oxyclean (brand name or otherwise) would contain chlorine (an acid).

Mixing the two would be bad.

Just clarifying things here.

I use a no no name brand for cleaning and sanitizing (an off label use), pretty much everything.