Bulk storage

[tonka]

My brother found some 55 gallon latex barrels with the removable lid at a recycling facility and they want $12 per barrel, apparently they were used once and they once held ketchup, is it worth the purchase? I'm looking to be producing about 750 gallons of syrup next spring and need bulk storage.

[maple maniac65]

Nothing beats a ss barrels for storing syrup. 55 gallon

[sapman]

Will you be selling bulk, or keeping it all at the sugarhouse? I don't think any kind of plastic barrel transports well, or would be "pickable" with a skid steer attachment. I vote for stainless as well.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

I'm not sure how rugged those barrels you are looking at are. But the operation we work for has around 40 of the plastic CDL barrels that use the poly liners. Those barrels aren't available any more but the bags still are. I think they are 40 gallon. Packers prefer stainless, IMO because they sell them but they are probably easier to empty. Point is nothing wrong with plastic if thick enough but like anything stainless is probably best.

[tonka]

As of now I plan on keeping all the syrup to bottle and sell but I'd like to have the option if it came down to it where I can do either or. The barrels my brother found are steel barrels but have a latex liner on the inside, he said they were once filled with ketchup, I thought of buying plastic bladders the supply dealer sells and use them for a year or 2. I totally agree with you guys on stainless but right now it a money thing and the supplier I get all my equipment from never has barrels on hand because they move them so fast. Just weighing my options. Thanks guys!

[maple maniac65]

If you are storing 750 gallons of syrup why would you buy as barrels from a local dealer if it fit in the budget. I would go straight to the manufacture and buy direct. It seems you would need a tractor trailer load for yourself.I am one for eliminating the middle man when I can.

[maple flats]

If using 55 gal SS barrels for 750 gal syrup, that only a little over 13 barrels, hardly enough to make a tractor trailer load. While new steel barrels lined with latex and then using a food grade liner might be OK, barrels from a recycling center has no guarantee the barrels have not been contaminated with something else, I'd shy away for that reason.
In case you do end up selling some bulk, contact a buyer now (or more) and ask them what barrels they will accept, we can guess all day long, but with tighter controls all the time, only the buyer can answer the question, and that answer will only be "as of today", it might change tomorrow.

[markcasper]

There is a bulk buyer here in Wis that really frowns on plastic barrels. When I have been there, I have never seen one around. (hint, hint) I once asked, while not flat out saying they wouldn't take syrup in them, it was quite clear they were looked down on. Any plastic barrel I would throw in the burn pile!! One that had ketchup in......even more. (I hate ketchup BTW, i mean corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup that is called ketchup).

[SugarHill]

I received a letter from a bulk buyer here in Wisconsin just recently that starting next year will only accept bulk syrup in NEW latex coated barrels. Syrup in a previously used barrel will not be accepted. Additionally in the next year or two they anticipate only accepting syrup in stainless steel drums. Nothing noted yet if stainless barrels can be reused.

[markcasper]

Nothing noted yet if stainless barrels can be reused.

Would be quite a stretch to not be able to reuse even stainless drums. Many producers would simply go out of business if thats the case. Good riddens!

[DrTimPerkins]

I received a letter from a bulk buyer here in Wisconsin just recently that starting next year will only accept bulk syrup in NEW latex coated barrels.

The industry term for those is "one-way" drums. They are not reused in other food industries.

Stainless barrels are made for repeated use.