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Creepersale · 08-17-2012, 10:27 PM

Brewed a batch of beer last Sunday. Used star-San. For first time so I saved it and put what I had left I put in my car boy. So I'm wondering when it comes time to rack it. Can i not worry if the sanitizer is not working anymore what. Brewed Sunday plan on racking about sun-Tuesday. So star-San will have been in my carboy for over a week about 3.5 -4 gallons.

**Stauffbier** · 08-17-2012, 10:32 PM

Starsan will last for months. It will likely get cloudy and dirty before the pH gets high enough to stop working. I usually use mine for about 4-6 weeks before dumping it and making a fresh batch.

**BainbridgeBrewer** · 08-17-2012, 10:37 PM

Yeah I keep mine in a bucket with a lid for a few months until it starts to look funky and super cloudy. Mine clouds up almost instantly though probably due to our water chemistry.

**unionrdr** · 08-17-2012, 10:48 PM

Also,don't rack to secondary after only one week. Damn those instructions & their overly quick time tables. And unless you're oaking or adding fruit & such,secondary really isn't needed.
Racking too soon can cause it to stall too. Just leave it in primary till it settles out clear or slightly misty. Then rack to keg or bottling bucket.
Also again,Craigtube has a video he did on litmus tests (PH) on new & old cloudy starsan. PH was the same. So cloudy doesn't mean gone (up past 3). Iow,to alkaline,& you gotta pitch it.

Creepersale · 08-18-2012, 01:11 AM

Thanks thought I've heard it was good for a while. And I hardly ever rack to carboy. But this was a big porter nice healthy fermentation resorted to my blow off tube. Will prolly rack after I cold crash. Maybe. And by the way I was looking to do something different in 2 nary. Like a few drops of vanilla extract ( all I can think of that might go with this Porter. Any ideas??

**dannyhawkins** · 08-18-2012, 06:35 AM

Buffalo Trace bourbon!
Or your favourite bourbon is good for big porters.

mike20793 · 08-18-2012, 08:32 AM

If you use distilled water, Star-San can last six months or more. The ph is critical to sanitizing but the surfactant property helps clean and remove gunk. I think I saw a video that explained when it becomes cloudy, the surfactant property is negated (due to calcium in the water) and the creators don't recommend using it anymore (I may be wrong). Of course, plenty of people still use it when it's cloudy and have no problems. Personally, I have kept it for about 8 months with distilled water and it wasn't cloudy and I had no infections. I'd say you're fine.

zeg · 08-18-2012, 12:27 PM

I have a different opinion from those expressed above.

Star-San is cheap. Is it really worth any risk to make another gallon or two every couple weeks, or for each batch?

I use Sani-Clean (they were out of Star-San when I bought it), and I mix it up with hard tap water. It only keeps a couple weeks before things actually start growing in it (boy was that an unpleasant discovery). So I just mix some up with every batch, and usually keep one spray bottle for about a week so I can sanitize when I swap the blow-off tube for an airlock.

It's possible that Sani-Clean and Star-San are different in this regard, or that my water's pH is screwing with it, but I really don't see it as a big enough expense to take any risk with regards to a batch of beer.

Slainte-brew · 08-18-2012, 12:33 PM

I'm with zeg here, a small bottle of star San will last me for about 50 batches. That is brew day and bottling. I only make a squirt bottle at a time, if it goes cloudy I get rid of it. You only have to sanitize the surface of things not all of the empty space inside them too, filling up everything takes up too much time.

MisterTipsy · 08-18-2012, 12:57 PM

My star san is cloudy after the first day of use, but I still re-use it about five times.