I always hear people talking about soaking their additives like orange peel, oak, chocolate nibs, blueberries, etc. in vodka or other hard liquors to sanitize before adding to secondary, why not just use a couple ounces of starsan solution?
I get that using burbon could be on purpose for flavor, but fail to see a reason to use vodka over starsan.
wouldn't the vodka up the ABV a little and possibly change the flavor?
it just seems weird to me to add liquor to a beer that you're making.
:rockin:
It's way, way weirder to add an acidic chemical sanitizer. Vodka, diluted to trace amounts in your final beer, is neutral (in something that already contains ethanol anyway). Starsan is safe to consume in these quantities (you're straining it off...right?), but it's not itself meant for consumption, like spirits. If you soak a pound of raisins or whatever you are adding a ton more starsan to your beer than you get from the fermenter surface, and at pH 3 starsan will do more to affect flavor than a neutral spirit. Probably neither will be noticed in these amounts, but why chance that?
My order of preference:
1) heat (160f for a few minutes if you don't want to boil, otherwise boil for just a few seconds to be sure it heats through.)
2) alcohol (neutral and strong, or complimentary flavors)
3-99) something else
100) starsan (for equipment, not ingredients. Gross.)
A little heat goes a long way, anyway, you're mostly just worried about heating the surface. Sanitary not sterile.
Porosity is not the main factor really, any chemical sanitizer is a little less effective on porous surfaces but that's just about it getting into the nooks and crannies so it can work on them (which heat doesn't have to do). Alcohol is less viscous than water, starsan is more viscous, so I guess that's another point to alcohol too--but not really key for this IMO.