Star San turns cloudy immediately

My metro Phoenix-area water chemistry seems to turn Star San cloudy pretty much instantly after mixing. Initially I assumed it was still fine, but looking at posts it seems it may not be. What do you think?

If you are just making enough for a spray bottle, just use bottled water for it.

i make all my starsan with distilled to avoid any issues with tap water chemistry. If you have a pH meter, check the pH, its the only way to be sure.

Mine does the same thing, I'm not about to go drive 5 miles to get bottled water to make my sanitizing solution. I have found that when used in an airlock it turns back to crystal clear after a couple days.
I'm in Escondido San Diego.

I have not had any issues yet but maybe I should be concerned?

put a ph strip in it and if its < 3 your good. you might have to up the concentration a bit.

Do what the manufacturer says to do in order to keep it effective: use distilled water. Do this and it won't turn cloudy.

I had that problem with my exceptionally hard water out here in vegas. I just started using the soft water from the house and it's still clear about two weeks later.

It will still be effective as long as you properly follow the directions.

Going cloudy can be a sign that it's lost effectiveness, but when it does it pretty much immediately, it only means two things. One, that you have hard water, and two, that you can't use clarity/cloudiness to gauge effectiveness with that water. It'll still be good to use though, end of story.

If you're still concerned, then test it with a pH meter. If you're an all-grain brewer, it's really something you should have anyways.

I buy 5 gal of RO water and make a batch of StarSan solution in a 5 gal pail which last close to a year. Don't mix it with your tap water, there is too many chemicals in there

paraordnance said:

I buy 5 gal of RO water and make a batch of StarSan solution in a 5 gal pail which last close to a year. Don't mix it with your tap water, there is too many chemicals in there

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This is what I do as well.

I used my tap water for star San and left it for two weeks, I put a siphoning tube in there and. It like coated the tube in white. Is that unusable?

thesmithsera said:

I used my tap water for star San and left it for two weeks, I put a siphoning tube in there and. It like coated the tube in white. Is that unusable?

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It's just calcium deposits. It can be removed with fresh Star San, CLR, or any other decent acid.

emjay said:

It's just calcium deposits. It can be removed with fresh Star San, CLR, or any other decent acid.

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Awesome!!! Thank you!

I use tap water and have very hard water. But I mix a fresh batch of starsan every time I need it since I have no idea if it is bad or not... It really seems pretty cheap anyways. I think this approach is cheaper than buying distilled water or driving to the store to get reverse osmosis water etc. I wouldn't trust it for a year no matter what I mixed it with. It must be the Ph or hard water making it cloudy since once it is saturated with CO2 in my airlocks it turns clear again.

I still ponder the mixing habits of others. hell if I mix a couple gallons and flush an already clean carboy I might re-use it that same day, but if I have to sanatize my keg later that week I mix up another fresh batch. Am I over doing it?

distilled water really stretches the longevity of your star stan.

Same thing happens to me. For me it is the CaCo3 (335ppm) in my water. I mix a fresh batch every month and test with strips to make sure it is effective. For things that can have no leeway (i.e. yeast starters and culturing) I use Iodophor. My water is so hard I precipitate out calcium by adding Phos. acid before brewing, t is the same thing the acid in the star san is doing.

mbauer013 said:

Same thing happens to me. For me it is the CaCo3 (335ppm) in my water. I mix a fresh batch every month and test with strips to make sure it is effective. For things that can have no leeway (i.e. yeast starters and culturing) I use Iodophor. My water is so hard I precipitate out calcium by adding Phos. acid before brewing, t is the same thing the acid in the star san is doing.

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This.

I tried Iodophor with tap and it'd go from tea to clear instantly. I tried StarSan and it would cloud instantly. So, I made a call to the chemists at Five Star with water report in hand and they explained it was due to the calcium content in my water.

Have used RO ever since. A 5 gallon batch with RO held pH 3.0 for well over a year until it was all gone.

Thanks for all the replies! It's cheap enough to just make fresh each time, but I feel weird pouring that much sanitizer down the drain (not an environmentalist, it's just odd). I think I'll get a bucket to store it in and mix some up with distilled for reuse.

Justintoxicated said:

Mine does the same thing, I'm not about to go drive 5 miles to get bottled water to make my sanitizing solution. I have found that when used in an airlock it turns back to crystal clear after a couple days.
I'm in Escondido San Diego.

I have not had any issues yet but maybe I should be concerned?

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If your not willing to pick up some bottled water just to be sure...well, I don't know.

Mine turns cloudy instantly as well. Has anyone notices a slick feel coating their items or the container holding the solution after several hours of soaking? I'm not worried as I haven't had a bad batch yet, just curious...

Bamsdealer said:

Mine turns cloudy instantly as well. Has anyone notices a slick feel coating their items or the container holding the solution after several hours of soaking? I'm not worried as I haven't had a bad batch yet, just curious...

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Yes, it makes things feel slick until they're rinsed properly.

whitehause said:

If your not willing to pick up some bottled water just to be sure...well, I don't know.

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I mix up so much starsan I would probably be spending more on bottled watr than the beer if I did that.

Justintoxicated said:

I mix up so much starsan I would probably be spending more on bottled watr than the beer if I did that.

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Man, you use a lot of starsan if that's the case. i would guess a gallon lasts me through at least 3-4 batches from brew day to bottling.

careful what you store it in. It will eat through plastic.

b-boy said:

careful what you store it in. It will eat through plastic.

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Well, it hasn't eaten through any of the plastic I've store it in, at least not in any observable way.

Would be curious to hear more about your experiences with it eating through plastic, particularly what type of plastic.

I've had mine in the same spray bottle for over a year, no problems.

I think many people think you have to soak everything in Star San. It's a contact sanitizer, so you just wash everything well, then spray it with Star San right before you use it and your good to go. The only time I even open the gallon jug is to put my auto siphon in it and pump some through the line right before I transfer. I wash my fermenter, and dry it well, then just spray the inside of it making sure to get the whole inside wet. Dump out any extra that runs to the bottom of the bucket, and then do my transfer.

On my first batch I went somewhat overboard and filled the sink with 2.5 gallons of it, soaking absolutely everything for at least a couple minutes.

emjay said:

Yes, it makes things feel slick until they're rinsed properly.

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Why would you rinse, a no rinse sanitizer? Defeats the purpose...

To add. I mix up a bucket full and use a lid. I'll make it last a week or two, between brewing, rinsing bottles, buckets/carboys, funnels, and siphons.

I also mix up some in an extra keg. I use it to clean and sanitize lines, as well as putting a faucet tap on top of it, I can fill larger things straight from the tap with it. Keeps longer too.

If it's cloudy, I dump it in the yard. It's $1 per 5 gallons.. Not going to break the bank if I mix up a batch each time I brew.

FATC1TY said:

Why would you rinse, a no rinse sanitizer? Defeats the purpose...

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No argument there, I'm just saying it will be slick until it you do so, or let it evaporate *completely*. In other words, it will be slick as long as it's effective. And if you dunk things in sanitizer, you may want to rinse and/or dry off the outside of certain items (or part of them) for handling.

emjay said:

No argument there, I'm just saying it will be slick until it you do so, or let it evaporate *completely*. In other words, it will be slick as long as it's effective. And if you dunk things in sanitizer, you may want to rinse and/or dry off the outside of certain items (or part of them) for handling.

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Agreed.

If you left vinyl in the starsan for an extended period of time, it will break down the vinyl, hence the slick and gummy texture of the acid attacking the plastic.

emjay said:

No argument there, I'm just saying it will be slick until it you do so, or let it evaporate *completely*. In other words, it will be slick as long as it's effective. And if you dunk things in sanitizer, you may want to rinse and/or dry off the outside of certain items (or part of them) for handling.

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I've never had Star San be overly slick on anything. Other than a stainless spoon or a hydrometer, I'm not sure what I would have it on that I'd have to worry about it being slick.

whitehause said:

I've never had Star San be overly slick on anything. Other than a stainless spoon or a hydrometer, I'm not sure what I would have it on that I'd have to worry about it being slick.

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There's really nothing to "worry" about. Except the seal on autosiphons, sometimes.

OK...maybe not "worry", I just don't know what I would rinse or dry before I used it.

I also make sure my auto-siphon is good a lubed up with Star San before I assemble it. Makes that "sliding" action nice and smooth.

whitehause said:

OK...maybe not "worry", I just don't know what I would rinse or dry before I used it.

I also make sure my auto-siphon is good a lubed up with Star San before I assemble it. Makes that "sliding" action nice and smooth.

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Sometimes it compromises the seal on mine somehow, letting air through and forcing you to "pump" the whole batch through

emjay said:

Sometimes it compromises the seal on mine somehow, letting air through and forcing you to "pump" the whole batch through

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Oh man...that would suck(or not in this case). I've never had mine do that.

whitehause said:

Oh man...that would suck(or not in this case). I've never had mine do that.

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Not sure why. I've experienced it with probably 5 different autosiphons. Some day I'm going to make a peristaltic pump and be done with them all together.

emjay said:

Not sure why. I've experienced it with probably 5 different autosiphons. Some day I'm going to make a peristaltic pump and be done with them all together.

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Beer dialysis....

I only notice the slick feel after an hour or more. I usually fill a stainless pot with a gallon solution and use it to hold items as I need them on brew, transfer or bottle day. stainless spoon, tubing, airlock, caps, etc. If they're in there for an extended period of time they tend to develop a slick feel. As noted above, rinsing would be counter productive. When the items get "slick" I usually rinse them in tap water to remove the coating then dunk them back in the sanitizer for several seconds before using. Not sure if it's necessary, but that's what I've been doing...

emjay said:

Not sure why. I've experienced it with probably 5 different autosiphons. Some day I'm going to make a peristaltic pump and be done with them all together.

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It's funny, mine used to do that and then it stopped. Not sure what changed. Maybe the seal broke in or something.

As far as the cloudy Starsan, yeah mine does that. I keep 10 gallons in a rubbermaid tub at all times because I like to just immerse and soak buckets and things, spritzing it out of a spray bottle never gave me much peace of mind. Then again, I've never had an infection. It lasts around a month before I dump it. I noticed a pretty good layer of what I assume are minerals that have precipitated into the bottom of the tub. Also, I've noticed that tubing gets eaten up pretty good with clouding happening fairly quickly, while PET and other hard plastics don't seem to be as effected.