Star San

If I use Star San to sterilize my fermenting bucket, top, air lock, stirring spoon, etc. and I pour it out to get ready to ferment my wort, do I have to wait until the equipment is dry or will the Star San not affect my beer?

Its fine. Plenty of threads about racking right on top of the foam even.

boomtown25 said:

If I use Star San to sterilize my fermenting bucket, top, air lock, stirring spoon, etc. and I pour it out to get ready to ferment my wort, do I have to wait until the equipment is dry or will the Star San not affect my beer?

Click to expand...

If mixed correctly starsan is a no-rinse sterilizer. Don't fear the foam.

Awesome! Thanks!

Similar discussion on this thread...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/starsan-carboy-do-i-have-toss-my-beer-247790/. There's a link there of Charlie Talley on the Brewing Network talking about his invention of PBW and Starsans...

I just can't imagine doing that. I just have to rinse it. Just have to. I know i don't need to..but I have to. Oh well

Kyricus said:

I just can't imagine doing that. I just have to rinse it. Just have to. I know i don't need to..but I have to. Oh well

Click to expand...

I have to admit I do the same lol. I just can't bring myself to pitch onto a carboy full of suds. I guess you just have to do it once and see that everything goes well before you trust it.

I just rack on top of foam all the time. people say it works, and I am trying to keep everything as easy as possible, so one less step sounds good for me.

Rinsing it out is actually worse, because anything in your tap water is now on your equipment. I top off with tap water, so I am not worried about a rinse, but YMMV.

Kyricus said:

I just can't imagine doing that. I just have to rinse it. Just have to. I know i don't need to..but I have to. Oh well

Click to expand...

During my last trip to my LHBS, I was asking the guy about iodophor vs. Star San, and the one guy said he just can't get used to the foam, and he doesn't use it.

The other guy that was working said he uses it all the time and racks right onto the foam.

The guy who doesn't use it even admitted it's mostly a mental thing, and that he's had the other dude's homebrew numerous times and never tasted any off flavors.

I just thought it was funny having them both there, the two sides of the debate, to argue it out for me.

I went with the Star San. :rockin:

Kyricus said:

I just can't imagine doing that. I just have to rinse it. Just have to. I know i don't need to..but I have to. Oh well

Click to expand...

I'm the exact opposite, I'm more concerned by what's in my water and have to use a product like this!

it seems like rinsing the star san out would defeat the purpose of sanitizing in the first place...

If you think the foam is scary, try having a batch ruined by a chlorine-based sanitizer (C-Brite) that you failed to rinse sufficiently. Now that will keep you up at night!

Starsan is the most awesome thing ever. Bleach and chlorine-based sanitizers are the worst thing ever. Iodophor is somewhere in between I guess -- and a perfectly good second choice for people outside the US who can't get Starsan, or I guess if you just can't get over fearing the foam.

jsweet said:

If you think the foam is scary, try having a batch ruined by a chlorine-based sanitizer (C-Brite) that you failed to rinse sufficiently. Now that will keep you up at night!

Starsan is the most awesome thing ever. Bleach and chlorine-based sanitizers are the worst thing ever. Iodophor is somewhere in between I guess -- and a perfectly good second choice for people outside the US who can't get Starsan, or I guess if you just can't get over fearing the foam.

Click to expand...

Yeah, man, that really sucks.

Iodophor seems pretty good too (haven't used it, or the Star San yet). The only reasons I really went Star San over Iodophor are as follows:

Iodophor can stain plastic.
Star San can last a *really* long time (forget how long exactly) if you use distilled water to mix it.

At least, that's what the LHBS guys said.

onipar said:

Yeah, man, that really sucks.

Iodophor seems pretty good too (haven't used it, or the Star San yet). The only reasons I really went Star San over Iodophor are as follows:

Iodophor can stain plastic.
Star San can last a *really* long time (forget how long exactly) if you use distilled water to mix it.

At least, that's what the LHBS guys said.

Click to expand...

i use both and iodophor has not left any permanent stains on my buckets.

Kyricus said:

I just can't imagine doing that. I just have to rinse it. Just have to. I know i don't need to..but I have to. Oh well

Click to expand...

Then your just wasting money on star-san.

I had a big issue with it at first. Then I got over it by my second batch.

eastoak said:

i use both and iodophor has not left any permanent stains on my buckets.

Click to expand...

Yeah, i think they said for it to stain you'd have to leave it soaking for a while, or mix a too-concentrated batch. I wasn't too worried about staining, but I figured the Star San would last longer. I'll probably give Iodophor a go too.

Don't fear the starsan at all. I did a math explanation as to why you shouldn't fear the left over starsan in your fermenter/keg/bottles. As long as you dilute it properly you would have to drink thousands of pints of beer santized by starsan for it to be toxic.

The thousands of pints has to be all at once, and it is not a lifetime accumulation of starsan.

Take a look at my thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/don-t-fear-starsan-foam-math-explanation-207887/

pretty sure rinsing starsan defeats the purpose. its meant to not be rinsed and is still working while its drying. do not fear the foam.

While I wouldn't say that rinsing defeats the purpose of StarSan, you do lose the benefits of having residual wet-contact sanitizer protecting the surface of your fermentor/equipment against any airborne spores and bacteria, and you run the small risk of introducing potential sources of infection via the water that you rinse with. In other words, rinsing increases the risk of infection.

If you don't like StarSan, just use Saniclean. It's a very similar product that doesn't foam.