Probably a stupid question

[archthered]

My wife and I want to make sauerkraut, if I use one of my beer buckets to ferment it in and my mash paddle to smack it with will I ever be able to use either for beer again? I'm more concerned about the bucket.

I don't have any food grade equipment big enough to make the amount of kraut we want that isn't for beer. I need something that I can seal off, and yet have a way for CO2 to get out and a plastic beer bucket is perfect.

I am concerned that whatever ferments cabbage will stick around in my bucket and paddle and I will get an infection in anything I use them for after that. I'm less worried about the paddle because not only anything it touches gets boiled but also because I can submerge it in boiling water easy enough. The bucket will be harder, and probably ill-advised, to expose to water like that and I am worried I will never get the microbes from the kraut out. That said the conditions are pretty different, the cabbage being quite salty with little sugar and the beer being sugary but with little salt, so I think it may be possible to do this.

 

[pshankstar]

Buckets are cheap I would invest in a separate bucket for your sauerkraut. That's just my honest opinion. I wouldn't use a wooden or plastic mash paddle either. If you have a large stainless steel spoon, I would say that would be ok. You can clean it and sanitize it like crazy and I doubt anything would carry over to it. Plastic and wood I would be afraid of anything leaching into it no matter how much you cleaned it. Plus you don't want to scrub a bucket too hard and create scratches.

Good luck!

EDIT - Another thing you could do is go to your local grocery store or bakery and ask if they have any frosting buckets and lids you can have. I have scored many of them and clean them really well to store my grains with gamma lids. I also use the extras for cleaning equipment and what not too. You could easily drill a hole and install a grommet for the airlock if you really wanted. They are smaller than the 6.5 gallon buckets, at least the ones I have. But for free who cares?

 

[eric19312]

The bugs that make sauerkraut sour may well be able to sour your beer. It woukld be important to be extra diligent in the cleaning and sanitation of that bucket. BUT actually given the cost of a bucket I'd get a sharpie and mark that one with a big S and never use it for "clean" beer again. Really with the price of ingredients for a batch of beer not to mention your time it is just not worth the risk.

But if you still insist on using the bucket for beer here are a few thoughts...
If there are any scratches in the bucket these may harbor bacteria. It is best to never use anything rougher than a sponge in cleaning out brewing buckts. The green plastic scouring pads sometimes stuck to one side of a sponge should not be used on your buckets.
Assuming there are no scratches get the bucket good and clean. PBW/oxyclean/one step any will do a decent job with a sponge getting the bucket clean. I'd probably do a full bucket soak with either oxyclean or PBW to try to get rid of the smell too. If you have a spigot on the bucket it should be disassembled and individual parts cleaned and sanitized.
Before using the clean bucket must be sanitized. Given that you know lactobacillus was in your bucket previously you could be extra diligent about sanitizing the bucket. Perhaps sanitize once with Iodophore (full soak in properly diluted iodophore) followed by air drying followed by starsan rinse right before use.
With enough diligence and caution I am sure you can make a good beer in that bucket again but if it were me I would not risk it.

As for the mash paddle. Don't worry about it. The unmashed grain you stir into your strike water to make the mash are covered with lactobacillus. Mash paddles like your mash tun should be cleaned at end of brew session but their is no reason to ever sanitize either of these parts of your brewery.

 

[Dirkdougler]

The bugs that make sauerkraut sour may well be able to sour your beer. It woukld be important to be extra diligent in the cleaning and sanitation of that bucket. BUT actually given the cost of a bucket I'd get a sharpie and mark that one with a big S and never use it for "clean" beer again. Really with the price of ingredients for a batch of beer not to mention your time it is just not worth the risk.

But if you still insist on using the bucket for beer here are a few thoughts...
If there are any scratches in the bucket these may harbor bacteria. It is best to never use anything rougher than a sponge in cleaning out brewing buckts. The green plastic scouring pads sometimes stuck to one side of a sponge should not be used on your buckets.
Assuming there are no scratches get the bucket good and clean. PBW/oxyclean/one step any will do a decent job with a sponge getting the bucket clean. I'd probably do a full bucket soak with either oxyclean or PBW to try to get rid of the smell too. If you have a spigot on the bucket it should be disassembled and individual parts cleaned and sanitized.
Before using the clean bucket must be sanitized. Given that you know lactobacillus was in your bucket previously you could be extra diligent about sanitizing the bucket. Perhaps sanitize once with Iodophore (full soak in properly diluted iodophore) followed by air drying followed by starsan rinse right before use.
With enough diligence and caution I am sure you can make a good beer in that bucket again but if it were me I would not risk it.

As for the mash paddle. Don't worry about it. The unmashed grain you stir into your strike water to make the mash are covered with lactobacillus. Mash paddles like your mash tun should be cleaned at end of brew session but their is no reason to ever sanitize either of these parts of your brewery.

Home Depot has a nice little 5 gallon food grade bucket for around 5 bucks. Not sure if it has a lid or not.

I drilled holes in the bottom of mine to act as a kind of filter basket to drain and steep my biab. Much easier than holding it there.

 

[brewgar]

Buckets are cheap I would invest in a separate bucket for your sauerkraut. That's just my honest opinion. I wouldn't use a wooden or plastic mash paddle either. If you have a large stainless steel spoon, I would say that would be ok. You can clean it and sanitize it like crazy and I doubt anything would carry over to it. Plastic and wood I would be afraid of anything leaching into it no matter how much you cleaned it. Plus you don't want to scrub a bucket too hard and create scratches.

Good luck!

EDIT - Another thing you could do is go to your local grocery store or bakery and ask if they have any frosting buckets and lids you can have. I have scored many of them and clean them really well to store my grains with gamma lids. I also use the extras for cleaning equipment and what not too. You could easily drill a hole and install a grommet for the airlock if you really wanted. They are smaller than the 6.5 gallon buckets, at least the ones I have. But for free who cares?

@pshankstar : I too use the ~ 5.0 gallon frosting buckets from the bakery department of local grocery stores. They come with a lid that has a rubber gasket, are easy to clean, and are free at my area stores. These are perfect for my standard 4 gallon batch sizes. I add spigots and blow off grommets to brew/bottling buckets as needed, plus have 3-4 available for spent grain, rinse water, etc.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

I agree, that the risk of contamination is great, if your beer fermentor is old, has a few scratches from cleaning etc. it may be time to replace it anyway. If so, it can become the kraut bucket, just use a sharpie to label it. Some hardware stores carry reasonably priced crocks if you are going to regularly make kraut, it might be a good investment. I inherited a 5 gallon crock with a lid that an uncle used for pickled herring. It is huge!

 

[archthered]

This pretty much as I thought. I will just use an old beer bucket for kraut and get a new beer bucket.

I do want to address one thing here just in case anyone else reads this and thinks about making kraut

I wouldn't use a wooden or plastic mash paddle either. If you have a large stainless steel spoon, I would say that would be ok.

I was told not to use anything metal for sauerkraut. My Dad said he did that one time and it ruined the batch and the metal implement. I did not go in to detail and ask what it was or if the kind of metal was the issue since he insisted that he's read up on it since and it's just a bad idea to use metal. I haven't tried it yet but I suggest not using your stainless steel spoon, he always uses a wooden baseball bat.

 

[pshankstar]

Sounds fair enough OP. I don’t like sauerkraut and would never look into making it so that might be something to keep in mind for others. Thanks for sharing and good luck with your sauerkraut!