Home Distiller

So, I was needing something new and was checking out craigslist.

Found a guy selling used pickle barrels.

A couple issues. He has 7. He wont sell them seperate. They still have pickle residue in them.

SO....

I now have 7 60 gallon pickle barrels with a light coat of residue in them. Now of course I have no need for 7 60 gallon barrels, Ill use the other 6 for rain water collection for the tomatoes in the spring or the likes.

What do I use to clean the one barrel I want to mash in? Any suggestions? I was thinking about just loading it up, taking it to the car wash and blasting the living heck out of it with pure water pressure washer style.

What is the material of construction? Beggin your pardon, but just cant seem to think of the most common material for packing 60 gallons of pickles in (plastic, wood, steel?) etc.

A good water wash should get rid of the vinegar and pickling spices I would think.

The thing about containers used for pickles is getting the smell out of it. If you're using it for fermentation it might not be that big a deal - don't know. But then again it could be that the pickle flavor may carry over to your wash. I use gallon glass pickle jars for collecting strip runs and got the smell out by soaking them with Oxy Clean. You didn't say, but if the barrels are plastic, the smell may be permanent.

S-C

It will carry over for a long time likely longer than you are going to want to deal with it.

AC

I'm curious how much you are going to spend on 7 used barrels because you want 1. Have you checked out new? I paid around 70 dollars for a new plastic open head drum with lid.
I agree with people saying the smell will last a long time.

Here is a stock google pick.
http://www.novabarrel.com/img/plastic-b ... border.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I went ahead and got all 7 due to the fact I can use the other 6 for tons of stuff around the house. Like I said these will be ideal for rain collection for my garden during the spring. Also was thinking about using one for large amounts of rice storage in my bug out camper.

If I can get this pickle residue out that is. These are food grade of course, I really want to hope that a strong blast from a pressure washer, even if I have to remove a layer I should come out okay for a mash barrel?

You could put one underground and hide your stuff in it. sounds like you got a good deal.

Ammonia will cut it. Ole boys use to get feeling barrels.
Leave it sit in the Sun with top off and time will get it home to.

So I'm tole

Eau d' gherkin!

buddy it sounds like you are in a real pickle.

Clean 2, maybe 3. Trust me youll have stuff bubblin in em before you know it.

Dont use anything abrasive. Scratches in plastic harbor bugs.

I always use a chlorinated cleaning powder. Not sure exactly what it's called but it's a pink powder and you mix 1 tbsp. to 1 gallon of hot water and let it soak.

Hey Old Crow,
Did you get the smell out? What worked, what didn't? I just picked up a pickle barrel and I'm curious how it worked out for you?
Bu77hed

I got 2 5 gal pickle buckets some time back, from Firehouse Subs. Thought they would make good fermenters. Scrubbed with PBW, sat open for a month out in the sun. Mixed up a batch of Col. Wilson's sweet feed, distilled, had off flavors of garlic. Scrubbed with PBW, Dawn, Ajax. The garlic is probably even stronger now. But for $2 each, they make nice utility buckets. Another guy in my homebrewers club had the same experiance with buckets from Jimmy John's. He ruined 2 batches of beer befor he stopped using them.

I had a glass pickle jar I tried to make yeast starters in once. GLASS pickle jars. Nothing I could do removed the smell, including bleach, sun, vinegar, PBW, nothing! And the starter ended up ruining the beer because the flavor carried over.

Stay the hell away from pickle bbls for your fermentors. They're great for pickles though.

I use the pickle buckets from my local Deli. To get the smell out I bought wal-mart's cheapest coffee I could find. In a 5 gallon bucket it took a few cups of coffee. Left the coffee in for a few weeks, shook the buckets daily to move the coffee around. This is all done with the lid on of course. After 2 weeks the stink was gone. The buckets were free, the coffee grinds work ok the first two uses, after that you need to replace. So far, I havent noticed any coffee or pickle taste or smell in my product. Try it, the buckets and lids are free from most deli's and most people have coffee around the kitchen. If for some reason the smell doesn't come out, you got a good utility bucket for millions of uses! I say this because one deli I got some buckets from had kosher pickles with a BUNCH of garlic in them, the pickle smell went away but the garlic persisted for months!