Milky Star San

Hi, I'm pretty new with star san and I'm having an issue with the milky look of the product. I use 1/2 oz in 2.5 gallons. Everything is fine the first day, but 48 hours after, the liquid turns milky. I tried to make another batch, same thing. I don't have phpmeter to check it. Is it possible that my star san is bad after only 48 hours? I store it in plasic bottles (used for acid products before but well rinced).

Thanks for your help!

When it turns milky it should not be used because of PH levels. You should be able to store it for a very long time though! Could be your water.

Changing colors doesn't necessarily mean its bad. The only way to be sure is take the pH. Mine will turn opaque after about 48 hours too and still be good.

If you are unsure, either mix smaller batches or buy distilled water to mix with. I mix about a gallon at a time, sometimes less. 1 tsp is about the right amount for 1 gallon.

Is it supposed to stay cristal clear all that time? Should I use distilled water to prepare it?

Ok thanks Edcculus. I'll try distilled water. We have very hard water here.

Star San will turn milky as the pH rises, indicated lack of effectiveness. It's your tap water that is the culprit, depending on hardness, tap pH, etc it can lose effectiveness quicker and turn cloudy - We have great water here, so mine will stay good for a couple weeks. You can sweeten the mix by adding a little more after it turns cloudy. If you want to keep it around longer, use distilled water. I've had Star-San last for over a year that way (probably could've been longer, but I spilled beer in it). You'll find more in here
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/charlie-talley-five-star-chemicals-notes-brewcasts-58928/

Starsan turns milky when it reacts with magnesium or iron in your water. Most people that want to store large quantities for a long time will make it with reverse osmosis or distilled water. This keeps it from becoming "milky" or opaque and therefore the efficacy of the product is not degraded. If you want to know EVERYTHING about starsan check out this podcast.

The solution turning opaque does not always mean that the pH is above 3.0 which is where Starsan stops working as it should. I have had starsan turn opaque and took pH readings with a meter and it was still around 2.3. They talk about this in the podcast below. The notes that are posted above are from this podcast.

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/469

IrregularPulse said:

When it turns milky it should not be used because of PH levels. You should be able to store it for a very long time though! Could be your water.

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WRONG WRONG WRONG...

Sorry, milky doesn't Necessarily mean that the ph level has changed, there was a thread here not too long ago that proved it. The person tested various waters and milky starsans and found out that the PH was still withing good usage range.

Sometimes the presences of certain minerals in the water chemistry render the color milky in only a few hours, but the ph level is still high enough to do it's job.

That's why it is a good idea to use RO water, and/or at least seal the container if you plan on using it the next day..and to use ph strips to test the level.

But don't assume if your starsan is cloudy and it's been under 24 hours that it is automatically bad.

also might want to store it in glass. star san goes bad faster if left in an open container and plastic is not an oxygen brier. pick up an acid test kit from your LHBS and make sure its bad before you dump it. it should say right on the bottle what PH range the solution should be.

2 tablespoons = 1 ounce. 1 tbsp would be good for 2.5 gal. Not nitpicking to be a jerk, trying to be economical. Two teaspoons would be a good measure for 1 gal as 1 teaspoon = 1/6 of an ounce and that's still a little over the recomended 1/5 of an ounce. Sorry to be such a geek.

TipsyDragon said:

......and plastic is not an oxygen brier.

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So then by this we can take that 5 Star is full of idiots for packaging the product IN PLASTIC?

rcrabb22 said:

2 tablespoons = 1 ounce. 1 tbsp would be good for 2.5 gal. Not nitpicking to be a jerk, trying to be economical. Two teaspoons would be a good measure for 1 gal as 1 teaspoon = 1/6 of an ounce and that's still a little over the recomended 1/5 of an ounce. Sorry to be such a geek.

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Hey, no problem. I meant to write 1 TSP.

I have super hard water and it turns cloudy in a matter of hours (overnight at least). The first time i used it though i didn't know that it may or may not be a problem and went ahead and used cloudy star san weeks after it had turned. I never tested the pH but I never got an infection so I'd have to agree that cloudy does not always mean useless.

That said, I've switched to just mixing a gallon batch with RO water from my drinking water system and storing it in a glass carboy (at the moment it's actually in a plastic water jug, all my glass jugs are full of stuff ) plus keeping a liter in a plastic spray bottle.

I think I usually use about 1.5 tsp per gallon, maybe a few drops less

I mix up a 5 gallon batch a year. At this rate, my 32oz bottle will (theoretically) last 32 years.

I store the RO solution in a Culligan plastic carboy and for the first year I tsted the solution every time I opened the bottle and never saw a variation from the originaly mixed solution pH.

I also keep said plastic carboy in a non-heated 2 car garage that gets hot enough in the summer to condensate the inside of the carboy and cold enough in the winter to develope some top surface slushing. I always grab the carboy and shake to cause some foam. Despite these conditions, the pH still doesn't change.

Wow, I keep my starsan in a 4 gal bucket for a couple weeks and its still clear as day. I only change it depending on the pH or just the use, lots of use and ill change it just because it gets stuff in it. Could also be the container that you are storing it in, starsan is mildly corrosive, if you have a really weak container that could be the issue.

I bought some ph strips at my local Friar Tuck's and a gallon of distilled water at Wal-Mart because I wanted to have some Star San that would actually last a while. When I first mixed it, the pH levels looked good, but it's only been a few days and it almost looks like the pH is over 4 now. I just left the mixture in the gallon jug that the water came in setting in my garage. Is there any reason that the distilled water mixture of star san would have a shelf life of less than a week? Could it be a problem with the strips?

I was hoping that I wouldn't have to mix up more solution every time I needed to take a sample, but this has not been very promising so far...