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Primary has an odor that won't come out

Hi all,

I'm fairly new to this hobby, and I have two primary fermenters - food-grade plastic buckets I purchased from my wine supply store. One of them, I've made maybe four or five batches with it, the other I've only made one, but it came filled with freshed pressed apple juice (for my apple wine, which is coming along nicely).

After my last uses of these buckets (made apple wine and mead at the same time) I noticed an odor in there...rather acidic I guess, that's the only thing I can think of to describe it. I've soaked them with pink chlorinated cleaner overnight, soaked them with sodium metabisulphite, left plain water in them for days, and still I can smell it.

I wash these things after every use, sanitize them before using them again.

I'm afraid this could flavour future batches. Surely I don't need to purchase new buckets, these are not old yet. Can anyone recommend anything else to render my primaries odorless once again? Or do I just need to buy new ones?

Thanks!

KD

Reply to
KD
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Was them with a Clorine Bleach solution... Let them soak for a few hours and rinse well with hot water.... Works every time for me

A.J.

Reply to
A. J. Rawls

Aquired a couple of buckets from businesses saving food containers for me. They were for pickles. Tried bleach, baking soda, detergent, plain water, sunshine. Still smell like pickles. Haven't tried ammonia though.

Steve - Noobie Oregon

Reply to
spud

Toss 'em. Your time is worth more than what it would cost you to buy new ones, and you'll never get the pickle smell out anyway.

Tom S

Reply to
Tom S

I would not even trust glass that has held pickles, much less plastic. That stuff never comes out.

But I agree with the chlorine bleach treatment. After rinsing, let them air dry completely, then rinse one more time. That will remove any possible residue. As a last treatment, you could let them air dry again, then sprinkle in some backing soda, seal and let it sit. That will absorbed any lingering odors.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Calvert

FWIW, glass can be _completely_ cleaned of even the nastiest residue. That's not true of plastic however. It's also not true of the caps to some of those vessels, which generally have plastic liners/seals.

Also, most commercial wineries have completely abandoned chlorine for cleaning anything - even floors - due to TCA issues, or the possibility thereof. Still, I regard bleach as safe to use for cleaning _nonporous_ items, with the caveat that such cleaning must be followed by complete and thorough rinsing.

Tom S

Reply to
Tom S

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