Does star san dry out your skin?

I've been brewing and bottling a batch every weekend. Besides spraying down my equipment with diluted Star San, I've also sprayed my hands before taking a hydrometer reading or taking the temp of the wort. I've noticed my skin has become very very dry. My skin has always been dry in the winter, but my hands seem drier than normal. Has anybody else blamed star san for dry skin?

Never did it to me!

Drys out my hands bigtime.

If I play around in it a lot in one day they'll be dry and nasty looking the following day.

Last week I was cleaning bottles in PBW and using Star San for sanitation. My hands were so dry they were itching and burning. I used Eucerin for 2 days and that got me back to normal.

I do the same thing - sanitize my hands working with brewing stuff. At the end of the day I gotta use some kind of lotion on them. But no long-term issues.

gannawdm said:

I've been brewing and bottling a batch every weekend. Besides spraying down my equipment with diluted Star San, I've also sprayed my hands before taking a hydrometer reading or taking the temp of the wort. I've noticed my skin has become very very dry. My skin has always been dry in the winter, but my hands seem drier than normal. Has anybody else blamed star san for dry skin?

Click to expand...

Yes,My hands will crack they are so dry.

Yea, it dries my hands out big time. Thats just from being in contact with it during bottling etc. Do yourself a favor. Stop spraying your hands! Just wash them well with soap and water. Starsan is only labeled to sanitize non porous surfaces. If you are really worried, wear gloves and sanitize them. If you feel you must spray your hands, or you just come in contact with it, I find that a good wash with warm water and soap will rinse it all off. Then use a little lotion and you will be good to go.

The dilute form of StarSan WILL dry out your hands. The concentrated form will peel layers of skin from your hands.

Use common sense and wear gloves whenever you are using chemicals.

Keep dilute StarSan in a spray bottle and spray down your surfaces and gloves. DON'T LET STAR SAN COME IN CONTACT WITH BARE SKIN. It won't kill you, but it will make you uncomfortable.

It's an acid, chances are you are getting mild chemical burns. Get yourself some hand sanitiser and use that. The little bottles are everywhere since H1N1.

I can't be the only one that wears latex gloves, safety glasses and a lab coat when I brew.

Yeah, I do feel a burning sensation when I spray my hands with StarSan (it is acid afterall). I stopped doing it the last time I brewed.

I don't ever spray my hands, just wash them, but on brew day after my hands have been in and out of the bucket with Star San in it they get dried out. Lotion helps. Maybe I will go to gloves...

I agree with BellTap. I wear powderfree nitrile exam gloves when brewing, racking, bottling, etc. And an exam mask incase I sneeze/cough.

OK. No more washing my hands with Starsan. Why stop there? I do need some new brewing apparel...

Timely topic. I just bought these today. Im so tired of itchy dry hands and splitting skin on my fingers. Just gotta make sure I use them every time I dip my hands in the bucket of Star San, which is very often.

Wayne1 said:

The dilute form of StarSan WILL dry out your hands. The concentrated form will peel layers of skin from your hands.

Use common sense and wear gloves whenever you are using chemicals.

Keep dilute StarSan in a spray bottle and spray down your surfaces and gloves. DON'T LET STAR SAN COME IN CONTACT WITH BARE SKIN. It won't kill you, but it will make you uncomfortable.

Click to expand...

For those who don't know, Wayne1 worked at Five Star chemicals for several years. Listen to him when he talks about Star San.

Yuri_Rage said:

For those who don't know, Wayne1 worked at Five Star chemicals for several years. Listen to him when he talks about Star San.

Click to expand...

That's good to know! If I ever have a question about Star-San I can't find answered through a search, I'll be sure to PM him.

Use Bag Balm or Udder Cream to sooth hands dried out by Star-San. No Kidding.

yep, dries my hands out.

The acid denatures the proteins in your skin cells. Good for sanitation I guess, but your skin is being eaten off. Find a different way to sanitize your hands (wash them with soap and water!).

I've never noticed any drying out or other side effects from getting it on my skin... I spray it on my hands to sanitize.

I really don't bother sanitizing my hands. I just wash with soap and water. Haven't had a problem yet. I'll dunk my hands in StarSan from time to time to fish out things I had soaking, but I usually dry my hands with a paper towel right after. I haven't noticed any significant hand damage.

Sanitizing your hands seems like overkill. So long as whatever you touch is wet with StarSan, it should kill whatever your hand transmits to it, right?

Glad I checked this thread! Bottled on Friday night, did pottery for several hours yesterday and woke up this morning with the skin flaking and peeling off the palm side of my hands. I thought chemical burn, my fiancee thought it looked like fungus and made me soak my hands in lemon juice and then scrub with salt. Now I have nice lemon scented hands with no fingerprints.

You should certainly red the MSDS - Material safety data Sheet before using StarSan as it specifically tells you not to put in contact with your skin. Every time I wash bottles i get some diluted starsan on my skin and usually i end up with flaky skin and swollen painful joints for a couple days afterward. I have experimented with rubbing my hands with oils and such beforehand. It helps but wont really protect your hands.

Starsan seems relatively gentle on my skin compared to the lab glassware cleaner that I use, Alconox. I also found PBW to be hard on my hands when I was using it for hours at a time.

Star San doesn't bother my hands at all, guess I'm lucky. It's kinda scary though, when you read the label with all the warning signs.

One thing I have learned thru experience, is that Star San and rubber gloves don't mix. It's like greasing a pig, then trying to catch it. Makes everything way to slippery!

harleybug88 said:

One thing I have learned thru experience, is that Star San and rubber gloves don't mix. It's like greasing a pig, then trying to catch it. Makes everything way to slippery!

Click to expand...

I'll second that. The most annoying thing is trying to use a Starsan soaked rubber stopper in a glass carboy. It just slides right out. You either need to let it dry completely or rinse off the Starsan or it won't stay in. I've started wrapping cling film around the top of the stopper to hold it in place.

Yup sure does. It's an acid, and techincally your killing the outermost skin cells(chem burn), which flake off. Some people are much more sensitive to it than others, and you can also develop an increasing sensitivity to it. One way to avoid it is to wear latex gloves.

riderkb said:

I'll second that. The most annoying thing is trying to use a Starsan soaked rubber stopper in a glass carboy. It just slides right out. You either need to let it dry completely or rinse off the Starsan or it won't stay in. I've started wrapping cling film around the top of the stopper to hold it in place.

Click to expand...

Use a paper towel to dry the stopper and the inside of the bung hole. ( yeah, I said it, "bung hole" ) lol... but it works great!

harleybug88 said:

Use a paper towel to dry the stopper and the inside of the bung hole. ( yeah, I said it, "bung hole" ) lol... but it works great!

Click to expand...

That's what I did until until I had a batch that started to blow off. The foam moistened the stopper enough to let it slide out. Could have been a big mess if I hadn't noticed it in time. Now I go with "belt and suspenders" by drying off the stopper and strapping it down with cling film.