to rinse or not to rinse. that is the question

i tend to rinse star san. do i have to?

No need to rinse... better if you don't...

If you rinse Starsan you are reducing it's efficacy by half.....

When we use a wet contact/no rinse sanitizer the way God and Charlie Talley intended (Not rinsing OR letting the sanitizer dry on the surface of the object) we are also creating a protective barrier on the object which prevents and subsequent micro organisms from rendering it unsanitized. It's like a double edge sword...it kills whatever's on there, but also kills anything that comes into contact with it after the initial kill, for as long as the surface is wet.

When you rinse off your starsan, you have elected to give up HALF of it's sanitization power, AND by rinsing it off with water, you also MAY be opening yourself up to infection from the very material you've used to rinse away the sanitizer.

RonPopeil said:

i tend to rinse star san. do i have to?

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Don't

Star San is a no rinse sanitizer. Don't fear the foam! Rinsing just introduces contaminants again.

yeah i definitely fear the foam. i'll try not rinsing on the next batches.

DON'T FEAR THE FOAM LOL. Cheers.

The purpose of the foam is to reach into every nook and cranny of your system, to sanitize everything. Why would any be scared of that? Seriously? It's probably the best thing we have to keep the nasties at bay, BECAUSE of the foam.

REV is exactly right. The idea of the foam is that it expands and is also thinner and more cohesive than water. This means that as it expands it will fit into cracks so small that water will not fit into it them, and as it expands it pulls along more sanitizer. If StarSan does dry out it will reactivate when it becomes wet again so I don't worry to much about that but I would agree the "best" answer is to not let it dry

I blame Star-San. They should have called it 'Don't-Rinse' Sanitizer instead of 'No-Rinse' Sanitizer.

It's very confusing.

Ya... they are right, no need to rinse. but I have been doing it for years when kegging.

I rinse with water from the tap and it is clean and have never had a problem.

We clean our beers stuff because it can have residue left over that the "little beasties" can grow in. If they are still present when we toss new wort in they have a "field days" and start reproducing...

Not really a problem for most people and their municipal water system...

What if its not dry? Lets say I have an inch of foam left in the bottom my Better bottle is it ok just to dump the wort on top of it? Or a couple inchs of foam left in the bottom of my corny keg?

chris_ce said:

What if its not dry? Lets say I have an inch of foam left in the bottom my Better bottle is it ok just to dump the wort on top of it? Or a couple inchs of foam left in the bottom of my corny keg?

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Yes, as I said in my first post in here, it becomes yeast food.

Yes, as I said in my first post in here, it becomes yeast food.

Not in this thread you didn't. But anyway that was the answer I was looking for thanks.

Not said yet: If you rinse the Starsan off you are then relying on how sanitary your tap water is. In other words why bother with the Starsan in the first place if you are going to rinse it off.

chris_ce said:

Yes, as I said in my first post in here, it becomes yeast food.

Not in this thread you didn't. But anyway that was the answer I was looking for thanks.

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I answer at least 5 starsan questions a day, I know I mentioned it in other threads about it. But yeah it breaks down into many of the same benign compounds found in most soft drinks, especially colas.

what an awesome product.

mjdonnelly68 said:

I blame Star-San. They should have called it 'Don't-Rinse' Sanitizer instead of 'No-Rinse' Sanitizer.

It's very confusing.

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Haha. What part of the English language don't your understand? I believe no-rinse just about covers it.

Should be called "Don'tBleepingRinseThisTheFoamIsGoodForYourBeer-San".