We have several cleaning products that have been recommended by our customers.
Sodium percarbonate- can easily be purchased in a small bag on Ebay; you will want to fill the container with water and let sit for several hours making sure it touches the entire container by rotating it.
D-Limonene, or orange peel extract, is also effective in cleaning steel vessels. Both of these products have been used to clean stainless steel containers to great satisfaction from previous customers.
Liquid Enzyme II by Sanitary Supply Corporation; this product helps eliminates odors.
Bleach- make sure to mix with a good amount of water and do not let stand in the barrel very long as it can corrode your barrel. Several Breweries recommended this to us to help remove odors.
***After using any of these products you should rinse your barrel several times. Hot water/steam and a good pressure washer will always make the job a little easier. Many customers have even taken their barrels to be professionally rinsed.
If you see what looks like a reddish-brown stain you may think your barrel is rusting. The reddish-brown stain is not the stainless steel rusting; what happens is occasionally an iron based rust can occur if your stainless steel comes into contact with steel containing a high level of iron. In most cases this is very easy to clean and can often be polished out. An example of this would be taking a normal steel screw driver and scratching the barrel with it.
You can see a fairly current inventory list through our online store, but our stainless steel drum supply is not consistent so your best bet is to view this then contact us at ssbarrels@fuse.net or at stainlesssteelbarrels@gmail.com. It’s best to let us know the quantity you require and we will try to fill it or recommend other products that may work for you.
Every stainless steel container we sell will have its condition listed on the description page. Overall, the used stainless steel containers we sell have had a past life. Expect dents, dings, or scratches; in some cases they are next to new. Again, read our descriptions carefully so you get exactly what you want. If you are uncertain about a product please email us.
It is hard for us to say exactly what each stainless steel container had in them. Most come from a couple large suppliers that we have done business with for a long time. Common extracts/residues that many of the barrels contained are d-limonene, tea tree oil, water, eucalyptus oil, milk and various cinnamon extracts. You can also find a description that will usually list where they came from if you click on the barrel description; we also will list the product inside if we know for sure. If they contained anything nonfood grade it will be noted.
Yes a barrel/keg can be polished to help restore and protect a barrel from further damage due to iron or other deposit build up. See the difference in the example below. Dents and dings can still show after polishing.
For additional information/questions on Stainless Steel we recommend you visit SSINA.
Stainless Steel Barrels, tanks, kettles, etc. are hard to come by at a reasonable rates. While we are always sourcing products it’s difficult to know exactly what stainless steel products we may come across. Your best bet is to first look through our online store to see if we have what you need. We also encourage you to contact us if you have questions on a certain container and to whether we have it. In many cases we can put you on an email list in the case that we come across the item you are looking for.
