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**cheezydemon3** · 11-02-2010, 02:01 PM

........star san is, yes, dish soap ISN'T. Which is kinda the problem here.

schwinn · 11-02-2010, 02:01 PM

Yes I actually did a quick taste of the bubble and it was definitely soap.
Per samc, I am hoping the 5.5 gallon to a few drops of soap ratio is not going to affect things. - maybe some of the soap bubbles will bubble out of the air lock
(yeast is pretty active as of last night so we shall see)

funkswing · 11-02-2010, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrawTap88

Isn't star san just soap that turns into yeast nutrient?

Nope, StarSan is a phosphoric acid-based sanitizer with a form of a pesticide in it (it causes cells to exploded, hence the sanitation and the warning label on the bottle).

Soap is a dispersant, and a lot of old soaps contained phosphorus, but its not allowed to the general public anymore because of the water quality problems it poses (algal blooms and eutrophication).

I am still confused: did you run out of star san and try using dish soap as a sanitizing solution? I would never do that again, b/c 1) it won't sanitize anything and 2) soap destroys head retention in beer and can act as a laxative.

You could just put your IC in the boil for the last 10-15 min to sanitize it. I thought that was what everyone did?

marcpeabody · 11-02-2010, 03:09 PM

Agreeing with funkswing - sanitizing agents like Star San are meant to KILL bacteria and yeast. The point is to prevent infections. Regular soap does not do the job.

Boiling also works to sanitize (kills the wild bacteria and yeast). I think most people would recommend sanitizing the immersion wort chiller merely by introducing it to the hot water near the end of the boil.

Aside from the initial water/vinegar bath when I first got it, I only clean my immersion chiller with regular running water and my bare hands after each use.

Sanitize with Boil: http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixC.html
Cleaning Copper: http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter2-2-2.html

As far as your current soap problem, I doubt the residual from the wort chiller would be enough to make a strong taste in 5 gallons of beer. On the other hand dish soap has a pretty harsh taste, so who knows? The proof is in the drinking. I recommend not using dish soap on your bottles (buy sanitizer!) and giving your serving glasses a regular water rinse before pouring to make sure no more soap gets introduced to final product.

schwinn · 11-02-2010, 03:23 PM

Generally I have a bucket of star san set aside to clean anything when needed.
I drop my wort chiller, hydrometer, aearater, yeast vile, etc in there as I need it while brewing (just personal preference why I don't boil the wort chiller - i figure why start out with a 200 plus degree wort chiller when you can start cooling wort immediately when taking from the star san solution).
--To explain: In this case I thought I had run out of star san and cleaned a bucket with soap and then happened to find a little left in storage and so was able to fill a partial bucket of start san after the fact. (hence the sanitizing solution with soap residue) - You are correct I usually do not clean with soap at all.
--At this point head retention is the least of my worries / I can deal with the that (just keeping my fingers crossed on a batch gone soapy)

funkswing · 11-02-2010, 04:37 PM

I think your beer will be fine. Thanks for clarifying.

I like your logic on not boiling the IC to sanitize. Funny thing is that with boiling to sanitize I'm always having to bring the pot back to a boil for ~1 min after adding in the IC.

DrawTap88 · 11-02-2010, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by funkswing

Nope, StarSan is a phosphoric acid-based sanitizer with a form of a pesticide in it (it causes cells to exploded, hence the sanitation and the warning label on the bottle).

Soap is a dispersant, and a lot of old soaps contained phosphorus, but its not allowed to the general public anymore because of the water quality problems it poses (algal blooms and eutrophication).

I am still confused: did you run out of star san and try using dish soap as a sanitizing solution? I would never do that again, b/c 1) it won't sanitize anything and 2) soap destroys head retention in beer and can act as a laxative.

You could just put your IC in the boil for the last 10-15 min to sanitize it. I thought that was what everyone did?

Thank you Cheezy and funkswing.

JonK331 · 11-02-2010, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonK331

Star San does bubble up quite a bit on its own and the bubbles are harmless. Are you sure it wasn't just the star san bubbles.

Oh, sorry I didn't realize you were there.

schwinn · 11-03-2010, 02:40 PM

Thanks for all the feeback guys.
I always hate that nervous feeling when you think something might have gone wrong.
I've settled down a bit now- Will just sit back and relax and wait until time to keg and give it a try.
Might give me an excuse to may another batch this weekend (as a backup).

funkswing · 11-03-2010, 02:41 PM

Hell yes, you should make another batch this weekend!