In a Pickle

[325abn]

Would well cleaned plastic pickle pails be ok for sap? :)

[Fred Henderson]

YES! and don't worry about any garlic smell. I use 200 of them until I could buy metal buckets. On the road sides it was diffcult to keep them upright rock or not but in the woods they are great.

[royalmaple]

I use some as well. Although they have been cleaned and cleaned, I don't think you can ever get the pickle smell out of them, but it does not seem to transfer into the sap or at least not enough to alter the syrup.

I also have some food grade 50 gallon olive barrels that stink like olives, again smell does not seem to transfer into the sap or syrup.

I don't know about taste if you were to add hot syrup to the pickle buckets. I would like to think that could open the pores in the plastic up and could release into the syrup. But I have not tried it, and may still be fine.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have used pickle buckets for years and and they still smell 12 years later but never affected the sap or hot packing syrup in them either.

[markcasper]

STOP!! Do not put your syrup into pickle buckets! My cousin was selling syrup to a wholesaler a few years ago. When it came time to grade them, the buyer noticed a smell and after tasting it, it was obvious that he should not have done such a thing. It was beautiful medium syrup, at least before. The buyer bought it as commercial, but man did he take a hit with somnething like 40 gallons in pickle buckets.

They probably would be ok for sap, but syrup is nothing but a flavor magnet. If it was a last resort, one could probably but commercial in them, but nothing better. Thats my advice. Mark

[mapleguy]

I don't recommend putting syrup in any reused plastic container, you never know what taste it will absorb from the plastic. I know guys that have steamed and cleaned with different cleaners and have ended up losing grades on the syrup due to off taste. You may get away with it in cold sap , but very unlikely to in syrup.

[maplehound]

When I first got started I used cake icing buckets to gather sap . They had very little smell. When I took a sample to a fellow syrup producer he told me right off that the syrup tasted good even with the icing tast in it, I never told him about the buckets ahead of time and he never seen my operation but sure knew that it was there,

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Send the hot packed C into the pail first or even a couple of times and let it be the guinea pig and then use it later for A stuff.