Mold in buckets

[Dutch]

because I'm building a small kitchen in my winemakeing area my primairy buckets have been empty for a month.
I just opend them both and saw mold had developed in both.
Both had several spots on the bottem and around the spigot.

Before I stored them I had cleaned them with Chemipro but used no brushes in fear of scratching them, just swirled.
I then sprayed them with a metabisulfide solution and stored them.

Apparently the Chemipro is not as powerfull as I hoped and I made the metabisulfide solution too weak.
I've now ordered Starsan since that is what I read everyone is using.

I tried to clean the buckets but actually decided half way to bin them for peace of mind. I fear especially the spigots where I can not reach every spot.
A new fermenter is €12,- and don't want to risk losing €100,- of wine.

Am I too paranoid or what would you do?

 

[Julie]

If the mo,d is in a place that is hard to get to, I would not use them for wine. If the mold is just inside the bucket, I would use a cloth and some dawn and clean it out real good and use them for winemaking.

 

[UglyJohn]

I found my first bucket had a lot of scratches on the bottom and sides from stirring. I was afraid of not being able to completely clean those scratches, so I tossed it and bought a new one. Cleaning the new the other day, I realized exactly how scratched the first one was! Much easier clean up.

Typically after I clean a bucket or carboy, I pour in a good amount (about a cup or so) of k-meta to keep anything from growing. With the bucket I go ahead and put an air lock on, while with carboys I just cap with a piece of plastic wrap held on with rubber bands.

 

[bkisel]

You've read that everyone is using Starsan over k-meta solution for sanitizing? I would have guessed more folks were/are using the later over the former.

Is there any big advantage(s) of using one sanitizer as opposed to the other?

I will buy a new bucket when an old when gets really scratched up but I don't toss it as I'll always find another use for the old bucket.

 

[Dutch]

Not quite.
I first clean with Chemipro before sanitizing with kmeta.

Chemipro/Starsan for cleaning
Kmeta for sanitizing

Now I switched from Chemipro to Starsan.
When I started this hobby I thought Chemipro was about the same, but I can find very little on it.

Btw, I never use a brush to clean my fermenter, I just fill it wilt a layer of the cleaning solutions and let it stand for a while and then swirl it.
It looks clean then but apparantly it left organic matter that the mold loves.
I will use a cloth in the future to clean the bucket.