Starsan

Starsan is the sanitizer that I chose to use.

It seems likes once mixed with water this stuff is extermely bubbly. Anything that goes it and comes back out of the sanitizer is covered in bubbly residue. It seems counter intuitive to stick something with bubbly soapy mess into a batch of beer.

Thoughts?

Also, I had seen another post where a guy put sanitizer instead of water into his airlock. I tried that. Again, a big bubbly mess.

How many people put plain old water in their airlocks?

Don't fear the bubbles. I often have the same concern as my brew buddy makes it look like a freaking bubble bath, but StarSan is fine for beer. I think I've read it even acts as a yeast nutrient. So again - bubbles are fine.

Don't put water in your airlock. The airlock should be sanitized, to be sure bacteria doesn't grow in there. I use StarSan in that as well - although I just grab it from the middle of a bucket full of StarSan I have setup, so no bubbles there. Many people use vodka for this task though.

You want the foam. The purpose of it is to get into all those hard to reach crevices and sanitize them. It's a no-rinse, WET CONTACT sanitizer and that foam is what you want to insure that your beer stays healthy.

I use it exclusively in my airlocks and I don't have any issue, perhaps you're using too much? And even if it does bubble, so what, it's santizing around the airlock grommet and even the airlock itself.

Besides foam is fun...






"Stupid Starsan Tricks" or why you shouldn't fear the foam...

The foam in star-san contains proteins that yeast consume and use to build cell-walls. Even if there's a little left in the fermenter when you transfer the wort in there, that's a GOOD thing, and will help the ferment.