WortMonger

Recipes 

I have never had an issue with Star-San and my Therminator. I do worry though, so I only use the Star-San in the chiller when it is hooked to the cleaning loop on my brewery (actually it is just hooked up to my lautering grant and pump combo and recirculates there). Otherwise, I stick that bad boy in my king-size pressure canner and fire it up after cleaning it. I have quit using Star-San on my brewing equipment (no need to sanitize that anyways), so the chiller only gets PBW or Oxy followed by a slight vinegar water rinse. Then nothing but tap water before everything is left to dry.

As for the AC coils... I would think it would be fine if you rinsed off before it set all day. Couple hours and a rinse should be fine once a year. The rest of the time I would just use a pressure hose and be careful not to bend the fins with the spray.

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Lyikos

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Does anyone know of the fate of DDBSA when its diluted by starsan. The Sulfate is probably used by the yeast, but there is still that whole complex of a benzene ring with a dodecane tail. Both of those are pretty toxic to people, so anyone knows what happens to them?

EDIT: NM found an answer in another thread.

Xoxon

Recipes 

My tap water causes Star San to go very cloudy immediately - the podcast infers that this might reduce the product's effectiveness (he asks a caller how long it takes to turn cloudy due to ions in his local water supply), but doesn't say how severe this issue is.

Should I be using distilled water?
Is a cloudy diluted Star San still doing the do?

WortMonger

Recipes 

Buy some RO water and use that. You don't want to use distilled because it can also make the product work differently IIRC. RO has a minute enough volume of minerals to buffer the water so you get what the product says you get. I'd buy a 5 gallon water bottle and just go refill it when needed. You don't need much star-san since it foams, and you can always use that until it is used up.

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stonebrewer

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Question about Star San: a buddy of mine swears it has to be at least 120F or it will not properly sanitize. I tend to keep mine around for a few weeks before I dump it, going from carboy to keg to bucket and back again. Should I be heating it up to get it to work properly or is that just not necessary?

Thanks!

rales

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Five Star's Tech Sheet on Star San says nothing about heating... I think it would be there if it were important.

medusa1066

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Ask him to show you where on the packaging it says that

stonebrewer

Recipes 

Thanks for checking that. I never saw anything on the bottle but he was pretty adamant that he had read it "somewhere" so I will let him know that it works without heating. He was in food service in college and I think he was taught then to heat all sanitizers and that just has stuck in his brain...

WortMonger

Recipes 

It doesn't need to be heated up. He may be thinking of PBW or another cleaner, but not a sanitizer like Star-San.

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"Beer... Nutritious and Delicious!"