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




> "KD" > wrote:
>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
>