Cleaning Oil Residue from Barrel

I just picked up some very nice barrels that had olive oil in them. Soap, hot water and a ton of sloshing and rinsing got them very clean including the smell, but there is a very thin residue left behind when I run my finger inside the bung.

I'll be cutting a hole in the side of a couple of them to make dump stations and I'll be able to reach in and scrub those out, but I'd prefer not to cut the others. What could I use to break down the oil without being able to reach in and scrub the inside?

Will vinegar work or will that make things worse?

Sean

PBW (powdered brewery wash) is something i use to clean just about everything. ive cleaned things others threw away and made them like new. i have no experience with olive oil but there is alot of info on the net .

Thanks. The description and reviews for that sound like what I need. Unfortunately, the local home brew supplier doesn't carry it. They have Star San. Ever used that?

Star San is not a cleaner. It's for getting beer and wine equipment as close to sterile as possible. The equipment has to be clean. Try Midwest brewery

Great. Thanks.

Sean

let us know what works for you when you get done. always interested in the good and the bad for future reference. thanks

The PBW worked great. Thank you SO much for the info! The inside feels just as clean as the outside and the barrels smell like virgin plastic. The other barrels that I cut open to get inside of got a good scrubbing with a very mild mix of soap and there is no discernible difference between the two. They are both VERY clean. I feel very comfortable putting these barrels right to use.

I also used it to re-clean my front pan. There's always a layer of goo up at the edges where the defoamer and crud get cooked on. The vinegar doesn't even put a dent in this stuff. The PBW took it off in 15 minutes.

The only downside was the cost. The local brew shop had it after all, but man it's expensive. It was $21 for 2 lbs.

Once you mix it, you can reuse it up to three months, but I dumped it b/c it was pretty grungy. Maybe next time, I'll make a spray bottle to surface clean areas that don't need a soak.

The directions say to use it in water between 100 and 160 degrees. I started out with it hot, but eventually it cooled and I didn't see a big drop in its effectiveness. But after all I've just used it this one time.

Thanks again,
Sean

i am glad it worked out for you. im sure others use it as well. it is great stuff. a little bit of $$ but i feel well worth it. ive used it to clean coffee extract out of barrels as well. once in a while, i do a tough load of my work clothes in the laundry. Happy tapping!

I bought some barrels that had olives in them and I need to clean them out. How much of the PBW did you use per barrel? I have to clean 4 barrels out. Thanks!

I don't remember. It was a while back. I think the mixing directions are on the container. I may still have it around if you need that info. I probably only poured a gallon or so in, just enough to slosh around and get everything wet. I do remember when I was trying to clean the front area of my pan, I tilted the pan so that the line of scum was under the solution. Good luck.

So simply you fill up the 55 gallon barrels with water, add about 3 lbs of PBW, let it sit for a day, then dump and rinse it?

I have no way to heat up four, 55 gallons of water, so ambient temperatures will have to do.

I have ordered 12 pounds of it. I was able to get for under $30 Cdn for four lbs of the Five Star PBW on Amazon, which is cheaper than the $45 for four pounds at the brewery shop.

My barrels are also plastic barrels last containing olives. I power washed them, used dish soap and bleach, but did not get all of the olive smell out of the barrels.

No, no. That's way too much. Just mix 1-2 oz per gallon of water and dump it in the barrel. Maybe use 2 gallons of water total. Mix it up in a bucket and pour it in your barrel. Rock the barrel around so the solution hits all the surfaces. Give it some time with some occasional sloshing to keep all of the inside surface wet and the alkaline will do its magic. Rinse well.

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Originally Posted by SeanD

No, no. That's way too much. Just mix 1-2 oz per gallon of water and dump it in the barrel. Maybe use 2 gallons of water total. Mix it up in a bucket and pour it in your barrel. Rock the barrel around so the solution hits all the surfaces. Give it some time with some occasional sloshing to keep all of the inside surface wet and the alkaline will do its magic. Rinse well.

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Thanks, that is a big difference. I may cancel my order with Amazon and pick some up at the beer making store.

Would you ever use PBW to clean up sap from pots, or steam pans, or tubing?

It needs to be rinsed out really well, so definitely no on the tubing.

It's good on stainless, so it's okay to use it on the steam pans. Again, rinse really well.

For sap pots, do you mean your buckets on trees? You won't really need it. Most people give their buckets a good cleaning at the end of the season. You can give them a rinse and wipe pretty quickly during the season, but they mostly start to get funky towards the end of the season when things slow down and they sit in the warm sun all day. If you are talking about aluminum buckets, make sure they won't react with the PBW if you do use it.

The PBW arrived today and I cleaned out the four barrels. I used 3 gallons of hot water from the tap, and likely more than I needed of the powder. They all look very clean so far, I will know better when they completely dry. There is still an ever so faint olive smell in the barrels. I don’t know if that ever goes away, but I will do the PBW wash one more time to be extra sure.

I also made one platform to hold two barrels and will make another platform for two barrels later this week.

Weather permitting, I will be doing the second and hopefully final cleaning of the plastic 55 gallon barrels, last containing olives, using the PBW again. Assuming that they come out totally clean and no longer have an olive smell, do you put the lids on and don’t open them again until sap season, or do you have the lids on, but slightly ajar so that air can get in and out of them?

Thanks

I would leave them open to the air. Upside down on a pallet in your garage or shed. Then all you need to do is a quick rinse with water for any dust that may have gotten in and you are set to collect.

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Originally Posted by Pdiamond

I would leave them open to the air. Upside down on a pallet in your garage or shed. Then all you need to do is a quick rinse with water for any dust that may have gotten in and you are set to collect.

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Thanks! I will take your advice and store them upside down, open to the air, on a skid, in a covered shed.

They all look clean. Two have no olive smell, one has a very, very faint smell and the fourth has a faint, but noticeable olive smell. I will fill the last two with water and let them sit for a few days, then do another PBW cleansing. I will get there.

I filled the barrels with water and let them sit for two days. I dumped the water out today and then had my wife smell them for the first time. They past the smell test. Now to store them until sap season.

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.

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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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I use the bins. Just make sure they are the food safe ones. You can also get food safe liners for them.

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Originally Posted by wobbletop

I use the bins. Just make sure they are the food safe ones. You can also get food safe liners for them.

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Thanks, if my last attempt at getting the A&W root beer smell out fails, I may get this 37 gallon bin, if the plastic is food safe. I will check it out tomorrow, while buying the vinegar and baking soda, to get the smell out.

I likely will only fill it to about 25 gallons at any one time, but it will be good to have the extra volume. I will be adding a rain barrel spigot to it, to drain the concentrate into the pots that go on the induction elements, or into 5 gallon pails.

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I'd be surprised if they were food safe. The rubbermaid brute garbage bins are usually though (check for yourself).

I went out today and checked out and purchased a Canadian Tire Mastercraft bin (45 gallons) and a Rubbermaid Roughneck Garbage bin (32 gallons), both made out of food grade plastic. I am still going to try and clean the harder plastic 30 gallon barrel, but if it still has a hint of the root beer smell, I will go to one or the other bin, whichever fits best in the spot and which everyone looks like the rain barrel spigot will connect best to.

Today it is freezing rain, so not a great day to try and clean the barrel..

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