stainless drums? what the heck do i do with them?

[slanted & enchanted]

okay guys, i bought 7 55 gallon stainless drums about a year ago on the cheap. with the help of a few guys out there in cyberspace for help on the design (thanks plise), and a few friends with some serious welding mojo for actual construction, i am now the proud owner of a kickass one tier, propane fueled, 55 gallon, tippy-dump equipped brewing monster (weeeeeellll ,((in jamil voice)) i brew with two other dudes, so we all own it). It works great. just great. we can easily pump out 40 gallons once a month and split it 3 ways, instead of killing ourselves by brewing every weekend on our old converted keg system.
anyway, i still have 4 drums that i can't figure out what to do with. They are closed top with a 3" bung. if they were brand spanking i'd have no problem using them for maybe lagering/storage, but they are all, let me say, "weathered" and have the remnants of some sort of food product in them, so i'm very hesitant to fill them with pbw, drain, and call them sparkling. one of the 3 kegs we used for tuns had this disgusting, viscous orange goo in it. we cleaned that thing 10 times before i was satisfied. all this stuff is safe, but just being safe doesn't mean not disgusting.
so anyways, i'd have to plasma cut the tops to really make sure they're suitably clean. that blows out the quick, easy airtight storage container... plus we only do 2-3 lagers every year, so lagering space isn't really that high if a priority.
i initially envisioned using one or two as conicals (toledo metal spinning has some hoppers that would fit right on the bottom). but after the welding experiences we had, we found out these drums are very thin (about half the thickness of a standard sankey) and our welder had to patch a lot. patching on a boil kettle is one thing, but i want my conical smooth. then we'd have to figure out the lid, outlets, pick ip tube, blah blah blah... sounds like a money pit.
i think i'm just going to look into a plastic conical tank from usplastics. i'm not a fan of plastic but they're cheap and i think probably pretty safe for quickly-kegged ales, which is probably 90 percent of what we brew.
so what do i do with all these drums?

[bcmaui]

Make a smoker for meat with them? Instead of an ugly drum it will be a pretty drum.

Resell three of the drums for someone else to make a similar system?

Use it for water storage for roof runoff?

[seanhagerty]

For the right price, sell one to me. Pm me and we can discuss

Sean

[bub]

#1 FUCK YOU, I HATE YOU
#2 Get some caustic, have someone who knows what the fuck they are talking about tell you how to use it...
2.1 either recirc the caustic ala Doc's keg washer or fill it 1/2 way and agitate for awhile (rock and roll)
2.b rinse several times
2.III do an acid wash (see learn how to do it above)
That bitch is clean, use as is for fermenting with some sort of blow off contraption and temp control.
3. Again F You for having such a sweet system.
BUB

[Brant]

way to come in bub

I'd do the smoker deal for one because that sounds badass plus no additional cleaning.
the rest I'd step up to some NaOH/KOH for cleaning just to make sure. then, since you don't do many lagers I'd do a large scale real ale or just a bulk english ale you feel like rolling around to increase attenuation.

[slanted & enchanted]

if you're ever a little southeast, say downtown indianapolis area, stop by. i could brew 35 gallons of 1.10 imperial stout with room to spare in my mash tun.

and you could watch.

#1 FUCK YOU, I HATE YOU
#2 Get some caustic, have someone who knows what the fuck they are talking about tell you how to use it...
2.1 either recirc the caustic ala Doc's keg washer or fill it 1/2 way and agitate for awhile (rock and roll)
2.b rinse several times
2.III do an acid wash (see learn how to do it above)
That bitch is clean, use as is for fermenting with some sort of blow off contraption and temp control.
3. Again F You for having such a sweet system.
BUB

[Mylo]

and you could watch.

ZING!



Mylo

[Chris_J]

Make a smoker for meat with them? Instead of an ugly drum it will be a pretty drum.

My thoughts exactly.