Milky Filmy Starsan? (Not just cloudy)

Hi all, I was wondering if any of you ever had your Starsan and water solution turn milky and filmy (not just cloudy) on you? In prep for a bottling day I soaked about 25 bottles in a spare 6 gallon bucket with 1oz of starsan and 5 gallons of water for approximately 24 hours (assuming I would re-use the solution with the remaining bottles the next day). Well, 24 hours later I pulled the lid off the bucket, and my bottles were extremely slippery to the touch and had a white milky/filmy haze on them. It took a bit a washing to get rid of the film, comparable to rinsing off Oxiclean/PBW/Sun. ...As a test-repeat type of thing, this has also happened to me once before.

Has anybody has a similar experience or know what might be causing this?

Never had this. I wonder what your tap water is like. My Starsan solution may cloud after several uses, but nothing milky....

I thought about it, but haven't tested it. Good call. The SWMBO and I recently moved to Tallahassee, FL a few months ago and the water here definitely has a more "beach"/salty type of taste to it (at least compared to MS and NJ). But I really don't know what implications a "salty" water would have. Any ideas?

Could be the sodium, but not sure.....

Hard water will make starsan leave a residue. I suspect that is what you are experiencing. You probably have a higher mineral concentration in your water than your previous location.

Well, that sucks. Do you have any idea whether it effects sanitization? The residue is just nasty, but if it stills works, then so be it I guess.

...Thanks guys.

BTW, I'll try to remember to take a picture next time (because I'm sure I'll do it again, mistake or not). It's definitely a clear white residue, but I understand it might be hard to diagnose without actually seeing it.

I have seen another thread about this exact problem somewhere else in the forum, but I do not remember exactly where. The poster spoke about soaking a batch of bottles in starsan overnight to find them coated with a very stubborn white coating. I believe the end result was that he had to soak the bottles in oxyclean and scrub to remove the residue. You may want to try searching the forums and see if you can find it... If I can find the thread, I will post a link.

Thanks DrummerBoySeth, I'll do a search in the morning.

OOPS, It looks like I may have it backwards... I found some posts where oxyclean left a residue, and starsan was used to remove it. I guess I am no help whatsoever.... Sorry about that!

When I use it, it does turn the milky white and is very slippery on the bottles. I don't know why tho, but you are not the only one with the problem. I don't know id it hurts sanitation, but I have two batches bottled with starsanned bottles.

No, I still think you're on to something. In my case at least, I didn't use oxiclean. I rinsed my bottles as soon as i popped them, so i just used starsan right before using them to re-bottle. Still . Thanks though.

I have the exact same issue right now and posted about back at the end of 2011. Mixed up star San and it turned milky. I thought maybe my bucket I mixed in wasn't clean so I dumped it, cleaned the bucket, and mixed it again. Yep, still milky. I have never had an issue before but this milky issue started with a new bottle of star San. Not sure what the issue is.

Well, at least I'm not alone. Still , maybe one of the resident experts could help. Revvy, I'm looking at you.