How to clean a plastic barrel

Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
P

pb1uk

Active Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2015
Messages
31
Reaction score
0
Location
NULL
Hi all,

I'm preparing to barrel my cider but i'm having trouble cleaning my plastic barrel and wondering if anyone can help please?

There are these black specs that I just can't shift. I've tried hot water, vwp, bi carb and vinegar all with out success. They're in a place of the barrel that I can't seem to reach with any implement either. Here are some pics below from looking in the lid of the barrel...





Is there another method I could try? Would the barrel be ok to use if I can't get them off?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Pete
 
If it were me:

Unscented bleach and vinegar solution, be VERY careful when making this mixture, get it too concentrated and it will give off chlorine gas, and will be very unpleasant and/or kill you. http://chemistry.about.com/od/toxicchemicals/a/Mixing-Bleach-And-Vinegar.htm.

Then keep it for cider. Cider being dry doesn't have the same problem as beer as there's no sugar for bacteria to live off (unless it's infected by acetobacteria).

If not that, then just buy a new bucket. You can pick up FV's for ��£7-��£8, it's less than the ingredients for a lot of brews and not worth the effort of trying to get stains out, and still risk infection. I use a PET fermenter, the harder and smoother plastic seems to come up clean a lot easier so it lasts longer, even if it did cost 3x more to start with.
 
That looks like mold. When i have not cleaned my buckets straight away i have seen how fast it can grow. Cant always remove it all as gets into the plastic. As Spoon says get a new bucket although i have probably reused mine after sanitising and not had problems.
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

I'm at the stage where my cider has stopped fermenting. I was going to add some campden tablets today then pass through a muslin in a day or two into the barrel (which has the mold). My plan was to hold it in the barrel until next weekend and then bottle it.

As it has stopped fermenting is it ok to be left until next weekend for it to be bottled?
 
pb1uk said:
Me bucket is fine, it's the barrel that has the issue. The barrel has a tap too, which I don't think would work with a liner.
Click to expand...
try a load of OXY ACTION with warm water over nite, if that doest work chuck it out.
 
I too have had the dreaded "Black Spots" and I used Tesco's Thin Bleach to get rid of them.

The bleach is unscented, costs only 29p for a 2 litre bottle and is super effective, especially when used neat.

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=260550096

To get rid of the black spots in an FV I put the bleach in neat, sealed the lid and swirled it around a few times to begin with and then every time I passed the FV for the next 24 hours.

The next day I drained the bleach out and discovered that the one persistent black-spot remaining disappeared when lightly brushed.

After that I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and ... (put it this way, I hope you aren't on a water meter) ... until the smell of bleach had disappeared.

At that point I refilled it with water overnight and then sanitised it the next morning before putting it back into use.


BTW

I strongly advise against mixing bleach with any form of acid.

The highly toxic gas Chlorine is always produced. (The quantity is set by the proportions of acid and bleach present. The reaction will continue until such time as one or the other component has been completely depleted.)

Please check out ...

http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/resources/chemistry-in-your-cupboard/harpic/5
 
don't want to be a gloom merchant but I had several barrels that got infected. I treated them with bleach, hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide and boiling water (not all at once) all to no avail. I reckon bottling is the best solution for cider and I have invested in kegs for the ales.
 
i had a strange pinkish 'growth' that appeared within the plastic wall of my beersphere when i 1st pulled it down from the loft after a decade of resting. It had been packed away clean and dry.

bleach nor a soak with oxi touched it, i retired the container rather than risk a brew in it.

If after a 30 minute soak in a warm laundry oxi solution followed by a good rinse and soak in neat thin bleach (dont use the thick types as they are more resistant to rinsing out and are less penetrative) the 'stain' persists i would consider it a lost cause and retire it to garden watering or other use..
 
Spoon said:
If it were me:

Unscented bleach and vinegar solution, be VERY careful when making this mixture, get it too concentrated and it will give off chlorine gas, and will be very unpleasant and/or kill you. http://chemistry.about.com/od/toxicchemicals/a/Mixing-Bleach-And-Vinegar.htm.

Then keep it for cider. Cider being dry doesn't have the same problem as beer as there's no sugar for bacteria to live off (unless it's infected by acetobacteria).

If not that, then just buy a new bucket. You can pick up FV's for ���£7-���£8, it's less than the ingredients for a lot of brews and not worth the effort of trying to get stains out, and still risk infection. I use a PET fermenter, the harder and smoother plastic seems to come up clean a lot easier so it lasts longer, even if it did cost 3x more to start with.
Click to expand...

i think theyre on bout a keg not a fermenting bucket soz:whistle:
 
Dutto said:
I too have had the dreaded "Black Spots" and I used Tesco's Thin Bleach to get rid of them.

The bleach is unscented, costs only 29p for a 2 litre bottle and is super effective, especially when used neat.

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=260550096

To get rid of the black spots in an FV I put the bleach in neat, sealed the lid and swirled it around a few times to begin with and then every time I passed the FV for the next 24 hours.

The next day I drained the bleach out and discovered that the one persistent black-spot remaining disappeared when lightly brushed.

After that I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and ... (put it this way, I hope you aren't on a water meter) ... until the smell of bleach had disappeared.

At that point I refilled it with water overnight and then sanitised it the next morning before putting it back into use.


BTW

I strongly advise against mixing bleach with any form of acid.

The highly toxic gas Chlorine is always produced. (The quantity is set by the proportions of acid and bleach present. The reaction will continue until such time as one or the other component has been completely depleted.)

Please check out ...

http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/resources/chemistry-in-your-cupboard/harpic/5
Click to expand...

i have read about mixing unscented bleach with water to dilute and then adding white vinegear....

im not suggesting it or recommending it but i did read about it being a very good , and cheap cleaner - and that it should ideally be done outside !
 
Even with all the precautions in place Chlorine is still a nasty gas to generate to kill a small spot of mould! :lol: :lol:

I used to work with it a lot on Water Treatment Plants and even wearing a respirator didn't stop the Chlorine in the air reacting with sweat and turning it into HCl (hydrochloric acid) on your skin!

Take a look at this ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine

It makes sobering reading! :thumb: :thumb:
 
You could just use a kettleful of boiling water. It'll kill mould but won't remove it.
You could also try a concentrated solution of washing soda which I'm currently using to clean my collection of beer bottles which are lined with dried on **** and which leaves them spotless and shiny.
 
pb1uk said:
Thanks for the advice guys.

I'm at the stage where my cider has stopped fermenting. I was going to add some campden tablets today then pass through a muslin in a day or two into the barrel (which has the mold). My plan was to hold it in the barrel until next weekend and then bottle it.

As it has stopped fermenting is it ok to be left until next weekend for it to be bottled?
Click to expand...

no probs to leave it in the primary for a bit longer, I had to do the same when I made my current batch, was an extra couple of weeks in the primary before I racked/bottled it - carbed up fine, and had half cleared too by the time I racked it (brucey bonus) !
 

Similar threads

Aaron1977
Leaky barrel
Replies
11
Views
685
Dazzelknight
Dazzelknight
Sven
Plastic barrel failure!
Replies
2
Views
835
Sven
Sven
peterpiper
16.58% ABV Barrel Aged Imperial Stout - Cromarty Brewing Co. Anniversary XI clone recipe
2 3
Replies
44
Views
3K
peterpiper
peterpiper
AndyGT
Gas loss of my barrel
Replies
5
Views
968
user 43495
U
H
  • Locked
Sold 35l Brewzilla v3, PID controlled 30l Burco sparge kettle, Fermzilla 27l and 55l for sale
Replies
5
Views
646
Herms bay
H

Latest posts

Back
Top