Weird Smell Of 'sick' When Sanitising Fermenter!

[einnebcj]

Went to sanitise my fermenter today to preparing for bulk priming tomorrow. Fermenter has been sitting idle in a closed cupboard for a few years now as this is my first brew in very long time. Poured the powder in the fermenter and then added water. As soon as I added water a very strong smell of sick was released almost to the point of making me gag- and I have a fairly strong stomach! Luckily I had another fermenter so I repeated the process and no smell was evident. Obviously the smelly fermenter is not suitable for brewing anymore but I was wondering if anyone has any clue as to what has happened here? The fermenter,whilst having been stuck in a cupboard for a few years, would have been cleaned/sanitised/dried before it was put away and no more or less thoroughly than the other fermenters.
Now that the fermenter has started to dry inside, the smell has reduced.....
Weird......
Chris

 

[DUANNE]

give the fermenter a good soak in percarb or unscented napisan followed by agood sanitiser such as starsan or iodophor and you should be good.

 

[potof4x]

Did you use sodium metabisulphate as your cleaner? The couple times I used it I can remember some really strong gagging or almost fainting type episodes. Don't recall if vomit was part of the odor though. SM was popular a back when, best place for it now is the bin .