Cleaning Oil Residue from Barrel

Yesterday I picked up a 55 gallon and a 16 gallon used barrel. The previous owner had cleaned them well. I brought out my pressure washer and washed them, then I put in hot water and added the PBW and swished them for a while. The 16 gallon is like new, the 55 gallon cleaned up well.

While I had the pressure washer out, I gave the steam pans a spray, making quadruple sure that there was no soap residue on them. There wasn’t. I also sprayed the 4, 55 gallon drums I had previously cleaned. Two of them had zero smell, one had the very, very slightest smell to it and the fourth had a very faint smell to it.

I had my wife smell them, not giving her a heads up. I had the new barrel which I had pressured washed, but had not PBW yet. The first three she smelt nothing. The fourth she lingered over, but said it was okay, but she could smell the new barrel. Now that she had the scent of the olives, I asked her to smell the fourth barrel again. This time she could smell a very faint smell.

I PBW’d the 3rd and 4th barrels again. I know they are 100% clean and that perhaps by March even a bloodhound won’t smell anything, but what level of concern should I have with a barrel that is 100% clean, but has a very, very slight smell to it?

For some reason I really like the 16 gallon barrel and I think I will find a lot of uses for it.

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I think you'll be fine, you've washed and rewashed several times. I don't believe you will have any issues.

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Originally Posted by Pdiamond

I think you'll be fine, you've washed and rewashed several times. I don't believe you will have any issues.

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Thanks.

I checked them again this evening and I think this final PB wash worked. I could not smell anything. Just in case, I put screens over the openings and will store those two barrels up right, to let them air better, just in case they need it. I also added a rain spout to the new 55 gallon barrel which will sit near the evaporator and will take whatever overflow the 20 odd five gallon pails cannot store.

You know what I would do with that is set it up on a short platform and pour your five gallon buckets into it. As you need sap draw off from the 55 gallon drum. Frees' up the 5 gallon buckets and gives you plenty of storage.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pdiamond

You know what I would do with that is set it up on a short platform and pour your five gallon buckets into it. As you need sap draw off from the 55 gallon drum. Frees' up the 5 gallon buckets and gives you plenty of storage.

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I was considering doing that with my 16 gallon container.

In both cases (55 gallon or 16 gallon) I was thinking of keeping the sap in the five gallon barrels overnight, as I can bury them in the snow and keep them “refrigerated”. Likely I would only fill the 5 gallon pails to the 4 gallon mark to make then lighter and to reduce the opportunity for spillage. At the start of the boil, I would pour 12 gallons (3 pails) into the 16 gallon container, then draw off as I needed. Every hour I would add two more pails of sap to the 16 gallon container, assuming I was boiling at 8 gallons an hour.

Near the end of the boil, with little left in the container, I could pick up the 16 gallon container and either dump it into the preheat pan, or back into a five gallon pail, then I could clean the 16 gallon container and it would be fresh for the next day.

Picked up a 30 gallon food grade plastic barrel with bungs for $10 yesterday, to use for my concentrate with my RO. It last contained A&W root beer. I cut the inner top out. It looked clean inside and I will start to “clean” it tomorrow, to get anything remaining out and the smell of root beer out. Once it is cleaned, I will add a rain barrel spigot at the bottom and will drain concentrate into 5 gallon pails to go into the pans and pots.

I will make a lid for it.

Hmmm, I read somewhere that get pop concentrate smell out of plastic barrel is tough. Today I just did a long power wash at the car wash and sort of a light PBW wash and the root beer smell is still there. The barrel itself is very clean inside.

I have lots of other things to try to get the smell out, but need one day above zero to run the garden hose from the outside tap.

Don't worry too much about the smell. If it's cleaned and sanitized, one season of sap or permeate collection and it will take the smell out - and not put it in your syrup. Btw, be mindful of carwash sprayers. Sometimes, the same nozzles are used to spray the soaps and other stuff they up sell you on.

Today was a rare day above freezing, so I dumped several gallons of hot water in the barrel and added a lot of BPW, and scrubbed and swished the solution around, then rinsed it well, but the strong root beer smell is still there. The next warm day I will retry a few of the techniques.

It would kill me if the smell did affect the syrup, as all of the concentrate will pass through this barrel and it would ruin everything I have done starting with last summer. If I do not totally get rid of the smell the next round of tries, I will go out and buy a new expensive 30 gallon barrel. I was successful with the other 5, 55 gallon barrels in getting the smell out, but I had the luxury of cleaning them in the summer, where I could use my pressure washer and garden hose.

In the meantime the barrel is open and outdoors, facing the sun on it’s side each day.

The darn barrel last containing root beer still has a strong root beer smell. I am going to try another round of dove soap, well rinsed afterwards, vinegar, baking soda paste and PBW, if that does not work I will have to buy a new one. It’s hard to do the cleaning now with always freezing temperatures outside.

An option instead of buying a true barrel, is buying a food grade 32 gallon garbage pail. This is to hold my concentrate. Has anyone used garbage pails to hold their sap or concentrate?

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