I have no foam. Why have I no foam to fear?!?

My starsan doesn't really foam. I get a thin film of foam, maybe an inch or so if i'm lucky in the bottom of my carboy....racking onto it, I never get a snake, it never even comes close to the top of the carboy...and this is while using the "cheap and easy aeration" gadget!

As far as I know, my water isn't excessively hard, (though it's not soft either)....it's city water, last i checked around 200 ppm caco3 or something like that....

So why no foam? Is it still effective?

How hard are you shaking the StarSan? You gotta shake to get the foam.

Also, how much volume are you putting into the carboy? Maybe you're not putting enough in to get the epic foam?

-Steve

Are you adding water? You shouldn't have an inch just sitting in the bottom, you should be draining that out before you rack into the carboy. The foam that people refer to is the stuff that fills the carboy after draining.

This may be a stupid question, but why do you want it to foam? I know it's a no-rinse solution, but I always rinse briefly and the foam takes forever to get out of the carboy. A real pima.

I just read in John Palmer's How to Brew yesterday that Starsan gets cloudy when it is no longer effective... just in time to notice my three week old carboy getting cloudy.

I guess the foam does make it easier to clean more surface area with less product. I mix a little thick - 1/2 oz to 2 gal and have plenty of foam, especially when splashing alot.

So, I put 1 oz in a 5 gal bucket, fill with 5 gal of water, and use that for everything. I dump stuff in there to sanitize. I fill my two spray bottles out of there to spray the living shiznit out of everything as I go, I dump about 1/2 gallon into my carboy and shake it around a bit to wet the inside of the carboy down, then dump it out.

Just curious why I only get some slight suds, and other people have 5 foot foam snakes?

I know not to fear the foam, but should I fear not HAVING foam??

Sounds like you are doing fine with the stuff. I wouldn't fear the non-foam. I would actually appreciate the non-foam because a 5 ft foam snake is a big mess and kind of a pain to clean up.

(Just a tip - I only make a gallon or so of star san solution when starting my brew (or bottling) day. It is plenty enough. 5 gallons seems way excessive. Why so much?)

dontman said:

Sounds like you are doing fine with the stuff. I wouldn't fear the non-foam. I would actually appreciate the non-foam because a 5 ft foam snake is a big mess and kind of a pain to clean up.

(Just a tip - I only make a gallon or so of star san solution when starting my brew (or bottling) day. It is plenty enough. 5 gallons seems way excessive. Why so much?)

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5 gallons because that's the size of the bucket, and that's the size of the 1 oz measuring thingie on the starsan bottle....

Plus, having a larger volume makes it easier to sanitize things like autosiphons, siphon tubing, brew paddles, etc....

I figure it's 15 bucks for 32 oz, and 1 oz per batch, so 50 cents a batch for plenty upon plenty of starsan....easy insurance

I don't fear the foam, but I certainly appreciate no-foam! I try to minimize the foam I leave behind in carboys and kegs.

I, too, make up 5 gallons at a time and keep it in a bucket in the kitchen. Easy to dunk stuff in it and draw off a quart or so when needed.

-Steve

Not to rub salt in... But, according to John Palmer, the foam is just as effective at sanitizing as the liquid. That means a very small amount (with adequate foam) could be used to clean a variety of items.

Instead of a beer trade - you and I need to do a foam trade, shorty!

I dont get the foam either .I mix up 6ml to a gallon of distilled water I use it in a hand sprayer and a garden sprayer . I just coat the inside of the carboy/corny with maybe a quart of starsan and swish it around a few times let it sit and do it again till the inside is all coated then dump it back into the sprayer. It foams a little but not all that much .

The foam only occurs with agitation. If you pour the Star-San into a 5 gallon bucket of water and stir it you will not have foam. Take that same bucket and pour the contents into a Carbor/Better bottle and you will have foam all over the place.

They do make a low foam version the LHBS near me sells it, I haven't tried it or heard of anyone one who has though.

Grizzlybrew said:

I just read in John Palmer's How to Brew yesterday that Starsan gets cloudy when it is no longer effective...

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From what I understand, cloudy=mineral content of the water; ph=effectiveness
of the product.

I use Saniclean to avoid the foaming that Starsan has.

Munsoned said:

From what I understand, cloudy=mineral content of the water; ph=effectiveness
of the product.

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A member here with access to a chemistry lab did an experiment awhile back. What he found was that cloudyness isn't a positive indicator of starsan's failure. Meaning it's cloudy if it's bad but not necessarily bad if it's cloudy.

springer said:

I mix up 6ml to a gallon of distilled water I use it in a hand sprayer and a garden sprayer . I just coat the inside of the carboy/corny with maybe a quart of starsan and swish it around a few times let it sit and do it again till the inside is all coated then dump it back into the sprayer. It foams a little but not all that much .

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It's easy to mix a gallon at a time and that way it never sits around that long and you don't waste a lot of it. 1 gallon will almost do two brew days for me and I repeatedly spritz it on everything. A pint or so in a BB will easily cover the entire surface and foam up a bunch in the bottom if you swirl/shake aggressively.

jldc said:

It's easy to mix a gallon at a time and that way it never sits around that long and you don't waste a lot of it. 1 gallon will almost do two brew days for me and I repeatedly spritz it on everything. A pint or so in a BB will easily cover the entire surface and foam up a bunch in the bottom if you swirl/shake aggressively.

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I never mix up more than a gallon at a time. I guess I don't shake or swirl aggressively I just move the BB around till the inside is coated and invert it a couple of times to get the neck .. Next time I'm gunna shake the crap out it..

I fill my vessel 1/2 full (2.5gal) then add 1/2oz of starsan and give it a swirl 2 seperate times to make sure everything gets in contact, and it is fully dispersed, this will give me less foam.

If i add starsan then fill with a hose, the thing is full of foam before i get a galon of water in.

My only "Fear of the Foam" comes from having too much foam in a corny, and not knowing that I was going to overflow and dump a quart of beer on the ground.

Munsoned said:

From what I understand, cloudy=mineral content of the water; ph=effectiveness
of the product.

Click to expand...

The effectiveness of StarSan comes from the combination of its acidity and surfactants. The surfactants will react with minerals in the water, making it cloudy. If too much of the surfactants are bound up with the minerals, StarSan loses its killing power even though the pH may still be in the proper range (< 3.5).

StarSan + distilled or RO water = highly effective sanitizer for a long, long time.

-Steve