First time sanitising bottles uisng Star San

So I was sick of sanitizing and rinsing, so I finally bought some Star San. I did some math and came up with 1/4 of an ounce for 4lites of water. I added half this water to one of those red, pump action bottles washers and started my regular routine, within five minutes I had a mound of suds about 5inches high.

Is this normal, how do others sanitize their bottles?

Iodophor....

about 1 tsp per gallon/4 liters of water, no suds, always sanitized bottles for over a year and a half of bottling.

On the rare occasion I bottle (not from the tap) I take a bottle that's been stored clean and dry, dunk it in a bucket of sanitizer til it's about half full, give it a couple shakes and dump it out. Then I do the same thing in a bucket of plain water, and bottle.

unionrdr said:

Rinsing off the sanitizer is counter productive,unless you're using one that needs rinsing.

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In which case it's still counter productive!

Is ok to say rinse the bottles and only actually bottle 24hrs later? They remain upside down on the bottle tree.

timcadieux said:

Is ok to say rinse the bottles and only actually bottle 24hrs later? They remain upside down on the bottle tree.

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Rinse with sanitizer then bottle 24 hours later? I've read that Star San and Iodophor lose much of their effectiveness if it's left to dry, they're meant to be used when wet. But also a lot of people sanitize their bottles in the oven, then wrap the tops with aluminum foil and keep them for a little while. I'd say you should probably be good to go...

damn, ok, well that's good to know.
Thx

I assume that's why you see the bar people dip into 2 different sinks of liquid...

sok454 said:

I assume that's why you see the bar people dip into 2 different sinks of liquid...

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I really don't know but if I was to guess I would say the 1st sink is a cleaner and the 2nd would be a sanitizer?

I guess. Never really asked... but now that I see the process we use here I think that is a safe bet.

First is soap

Second is rinse water

Third is chlorine based sanitizer often blue in color. Comes in tablets

This might sound dumb, but are people keeping their Star San more multiple uses, ie, after sanitizing my bottles and equipment, I throw my batch down the sink. Is it reusable for multiple occasions?

I and a lot of people here will make up a 5 gallon batch of a Star San solution and use it over and over and over and over. Seems the better the water, the longer it can last.

After using it for ....... whatever, I transfer it over to a carboy and stopper it until I need it again.

MANY MANY times can it be used.

Starsan will go cloudy when it's supposedly less/no longer effective. At least that's what I've read, anyway. And you want to keep the mix somewhat enclosed if you intend to keep it, like in a spray bottle or sealed bucket. Personally, I've never tested it. A few cents worth of santizer is proper insurance for insuring clean beer, in my opinion. I don't think twice about mixing up a fresh gallon or two of the 'san.

Bubbles are totally normal and 100% harmless. Learn to like them and you'll be fine.

I just bottled my first batch as well.

I filled my bucket with 5 gallons of water and added an ounce of StarSan, per the instructions. Then I put 6 or so bottles in the mixture for a couple minutes. My friend then poured the bottles back into the bucket while I added new bottles to the bucket. Created a nice little assembly line. I put the bottles on my dishwasher rack (after spraying it down with StarSan really well) until I was ready for them. Then I just filled with beer despite the foam, since everyone here says "Don't fear the foam". It remains to be seen if it'll kill us all.

I have a large stainless pegboard in my basement. I have a 5 gallon bucket of star san on hand at all times.
I occasionally check the ph, and if under 3 still good to go.
Just submerge the bottles in the buckets for a minute or so, then up on the rack, mostly to let the bubbles fall out, not to dry.

I dont fear the foam, but when beer is shooting out of the bottling wand, it makes a huge foamy mess that i like to avoid.