Pickle Bucket Odor

[TheMagicHatter]

So my roommate happens to work at a restaurant that goes through 2, 5 gallon buckets of pickles a week. They're food grade buckets that have the rubber gasket in the lid so the bucket seals tightly. I believe they would make for great fermentation buckets.

Now my question is this... how can I get rid of the pickle odor? I have no need to revolutionize the beer industry by creating a pickle flavored beer.

Any ideas?

 

[acuenca]

So I had a similar plan... 2 ~24 hour soaks in oxy clean and a couple in bleach... the pickle smell is still there. Get icing buckets from your local grocery store. No muss no fuss.

 

[wyzazz]

You'll never get rid of the pickle smell. I suppose if you want Pickle Brau then it's OK.

 

[TheMagicHatter]

Damn... so what are the thoughts on using them as sanitizing buckets? I don't see where there would be a problem filling it with water and sanitizer to keep things clean while brewing and bottling.

 

[friday]

You can get rid of the pickle smell but you have to drink about 25 gallons of pickle beer before it goes away.

They do work well to keep your hop crowns from spreading all over your yard.

 

[wyzazz]

Damn... so what are the thoughts on using them as sanitizing buckets? I don't see where there would be a problem filling it with water and sanitizer to keep things clean while brewing and bottling.

Meh, I still wouldn't. I would use them for grain buckets and stuff. You could fill one with Starsan and let it soak overnight, then pull a cup of it out and give it a smell/taste to see if it has the pickle odor/flavor.

 

[BrewThruYou]

Unfortunately, IMO they're pretty much useless. You'll never get the odor out. You can buy food grade 5 gallon buckets at Home Depot or Lowe's for like $3 each and another $1 for the lid.

 

[Homercidal]

Try some Sodium Hydroxide?

Honestly, if they are only 5 gallons, buy the Homer buckets from a home improvement store.

Get a fermentation bucket from an LHBS for like $12 that would be better for a primary.

 

[tasq]

See the similar threads below... You aren't going to get rid of the smell.

 

[djt17]

I had a pickle bucket that I WAS able to get the pickle smell out. I accidentally left spent grain in it, in the sun, covered, for a week. I threw the bucket away.

 

[rico567]

Some smells ain't going away. I got a couple of nice 3 gal. icing buckets from the grocery store, cleaned them out, hit them with PBW, great free buckets. Then we visited the mysterious East and I developed a taste for kimchi. So we get home and I get a certified Korean kimchi recipe and ferment it in one of those buckets. The kimchi itself was awesome.......but the smell was such that I couldn't keep it in the house. Even in covered containers in the fridge, the smell would permeate the entire lower floor of the house every time the refrigerator door was opened. As for that bucket? Strictly garden / utiliity use now.....pickles are probably the same.

 

[Revvy]

Sorry but the one thing that can't be gotten out of buckets to use them for brewing is pickles....I don't think you'll find one success story in all these threads. The pickling brine penertrates way too deep into the plastic.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/pickle-bucket-173350/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/pickle-buckets-144485/?highlight=pickle

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

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

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

As all the above threads have shown, even multiple soakings of oxyclean won't work....If it were that easy there wouldn't be so many threads.

As much as I am all for scrounging, recycling and repurposing, and finding free stuff for our hobby. I have to say pickle buckets really just need to be passed by. Get yourself some frosting buckets, or even soy sauce buckets from the local chinese takeaway, but not anything with vinegar, it's an acid and will penetrate the bucket.

Look for frosting or soy sauce buckets, or go get whhite hdpe buckets from lowes or had....

 

[TheMagicHatter]

Man, I even searched "pickle buckets" and the search didn't turn up any of these results.

Regardless, thanks for the feedback gang. I had a feeling it was a too-good-to-be-true situation.

To the garden it goes!

 

[ClarnoBrewer]

I had a pickle bucket that I WAS able to get the pickle smell out. I accidentally left spent grain in it, in the sun, covered, for a week. I threw the bucket away.

A dead raccoon will also cause the pickle smell to no longer be an issue. Or so I've heard.

 

[Piratwolf]

A dead raccoon will also cause the pickle smell to no longer be an issue. Or so I've heard.

The old dead racoon in the bucket technique, eh? I haven't seen that one in a month of Mondays!