Removing plastic odour and cleaning big tanks

[bathman]

I am just about to clean and sanitise two 170L plastic tanks. The tanks are food grade medium density polyethylene. These will be used initially for cold soaking grapes for 3-5 days and then for fermenting the red wine.

They currently have a strong plastic odour which I don't want to transfer to the grapes. I was planning to scrub with hot water and star san. Any tips on getting rid of the odour? I am sure I saw something when browsing plastic tanks a while ago specifically to be used for removing odour, but can't remember what it was.

The second question, how do people normally go about cleaning large tanks? It seems a waste of water to fill the entire thing up and leave it to soak. I was planning to just put ~25 litres in the bottom of each and periodically scrub the sides of the tank with the solution. Does anyone do anything different?

Thanks!

 

[CDrew]

StarSan is a great sanitizer but not a cleaner. I would clean with PBW (powdered brewery wash) which is an alkaline percarbonate cleaner. If you can't get that, Oxyclean Free (It's gotta say FREE-as in free of perfumes and other stuff you don't want)) is a good substitute. And, while I have not tried it, I think Cascade Dishwasher powder is the same chemistry. In the US at least, Oxyclean Free is available at the usual big box stores like Target, WalMart etc. Any of these do a great job scrubbing out a fermenter, even the initial scrub where you are trying to remove the release chemicals from when it was molded. If there are any home brewing stores near you they will have a selection of excellent cleaners, and PBW is my definite favorite if available.

I agree with your method. Mix up 10L or so in the bottom, and scrub the walls with a long handled brush. Works great. Rinse thoroughly, then use a spray bottle to spray with StarSan. Don't rinse after the StarSan.

Pics of English vineyards needed and your set up for fermentation. Good luck. The 3-4 times I've been to the UK I've loved it. Hope to visit again soon.

 

[bathman]

Thanks for the advice. I have a tub of sodium percarbonate and VWP cleaner/steriliser (which contains troclosene sodium) so sounds like that should do the job.

Pic of my setup below, picking up 250kg of Pinot Noir next weekend, 10 hour round-trip unfortunately. Will be adding photos to my other thread as things progress.