[Chris]

So I brewed a sour beer, a Kriek, in a PET bucket. It spent over a year in this bucket. I have no plans for a new sour beer. My question is, what to do with the bucket now. I was thinking I could use it as my sanitization bucket? or should I just leave it empty until my next sour beer?

[hmbrewing]

I wouldn't risk it. If You really need a sanitizer bucket PET buckets are cheap. Why take the chance?

Label it as your sour bucket and just leave it aside till your next sour.

My 1.5 cents.

[RC]

It's not bad advice to not reuse that bucket for "regular" beers anymore. Nonetheless, it's reusable. Give it a good scrub with a non-scratch sponge and hot alkaline cleanser, to get the biofilm off the walls and bottom. Then scrub it again. After rinsing well, fill it with an extra-strength solution of bleach or iodophor. Let it sit overnight. Rinse well, and you're good to go. You'll likely still have some non-sacc cells lingering in the bucket, but no more or less than in your "regular" beer fermenters.

[KellerBrauer]

It's not bad advice to not reuse that bucket for "regular" beers anymore. Nonetheless, it's reusable. Give it a good scrub with a non-scratch sponge and hot alkaline cleanser, to get the biofilm off the walls and bottom. Then scrub it again. After rinsing well, fill it with an extra-strength solution of bleach or iodophor. Let it sit overnight. Rinse well, and you're good to go. You'll likely still have some non-sacc cells lingering in the bucket, but no more or less than in your "regular" beer fermenters.

+1

PET containers, by nature, clean quite well if done properly.