Plastic fermenting buckets - various issues

[Bru]

How do you get rid of the beer smell from the bucket ?
Do you rest the bucket before fermenting in it again ? - I sometimes clean and rack a fresh batch the same day.

 

[Reelale]

Good soak of Oxyclean (hot) followed by a good rinse, again hot, seems to work for me.

My apologies if Oxyclean is not available there. I didn't see your location until I posted. I've also used PBW as per the instructions and it worked also. But I was using a relatively new (3 batches) bucket.

 

[JVD_X]

Also - sanitizers like StarSan and SaniClean work well in this regard.

 

[Revvy]

The smell won't really permeate into the next batch of beer anyway, so even if it does smell it's not a huge deal. And many folks, myself included have racked on top of a yeast cake in a primary, again with no cross flavor/smell issues.

 

[Teacher]

My experience echoes Revvy's. I've made some quite different beers sequentially and never noticed anything.

 

[CalmYourself]

When empty, I fill them with bleach, water + vinegar (no chlorine comments pls).

Same with my no-chill cube.

They smell like bleach, but there is no trace of it in the beer at all.

 

[jgbrown]

Bleach will get rid of the color tint and the smell. Just make sure to rinse well.

 

[Richabt]

I don't let the smell bother me either, I just make sure it's clean and sanitized and I have no problems with my next batch.

 

[malkore]

just don't use a beer bucket for making wine, or vice versa. keep separate buckets for each.

also a lot of people decommission a bucket after X number of batches or annually. Mine's due to become a sanitizer or grain bucket when I have time to go grab a new bucket.

Reason: plastic gets scratched and scuffed, adn those valleys can harbor organic material, which means you may not be sanitary anymore.

having said that, my bucket is from summer of 2007 and goin strong

 

[Bru]

Thanks all.