Cleaning sap storage barrel

[Daveg]

I use plastic, food grade barrels to store sap for cooking. I noticed that there may be mold on the inside of one of the barrels. What does everyone use to clean thier non-stainless steel equipment? I'm concerned bleach would taint the sap.

16-1 bleach and a scrub pad on a stick to reach through the bungs and then a thorough rinse with a hose sprayer. Bleach ruins RO membranes.

[billyinvt]

I fill a couple of five gallon buckets with weak bleach solution and warm water. I run it through my transfer pump (to clean that too) and spray out the inside of each container and slosh it around good. Then I rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse with clean warm water.

[Ravenseye]

Resurrecting this thread - I've been using star san this week to finish off anything touching raw sap after I scrub it down with water and multiple rinses. Having used that stuff for brewing I can say it's a huge time saver and have not had a single contamination issue. If there's anything more likely to spoil than maple sap it's a mixture of warm water grain and yeast...

I use Star San as well. It doesn't take much to mix up a lot of Star San and I use it on all my taps and sap buckets. No need to rinse either so it saves time.

[Zucker Lager]

I use Star San as well. It doesn't take much to mix up a lot of Star San and I use it on all my taps and sap buckets. No need to rinse either so it saves time.

I've been using Star San's brother PBW (powdered brewery wash) for cleaning then the star san for disinfecting. The PBW cleans well and does remove hard to get out gunk. I cleaned out some buckets using it that had coconut oil in them it took out the oil and the smell in two washes. Jay

[Cody]

I've been using Star San's brother PBW (powdered brewery wash) for cleaning then the star san for disinfecting. The PBW cleans well and does remove hard to get out gunk. I cleaned out some buckets using it that had coconut oil in them it took out the oil and the smell in two washes. Jay

PBW also works great in the dishwasher also,we run it through couple times a month,dishwasher and glasses just shine.

[lafite]

I just changed out my storage barrels to ones with open tops (latched closed during the season). will make it easier to clean after the season. Last year I had 50 gallons of sap in one that froze solid because of a deep freeze here. I wasn't able to use that barrel for the season.