storing in star san

ok, got some star san in my bottling bucket and its been there since march. ph has dropped in that time...from around 3 to less than 1. i had a rubber stopper in there and it turned brown...? whats up with that?

There's been discussion on here before about Star San turning cloudy when the pH is still in the acceptable range. I believe Funkenjaeger emailed 5-Star about it and they replied that, indeed, when it becomes dirty/cloudy but the pH is still that low, it still may not be doing its job to the best of its abilities.

Their advice was to always use distilled water when making up a solution of Star-San, IIRC, to ensure the longest shelf life once it is diluted to solution.

In your case, since you're saying it's brown, I'd toss it and make up a fresh batch.

PseudoChef said:

There's been discussion on here before about Star San turning cloudy when the pH is still in the acceptable range. I believe Funkenjaeger emailed 5-Star about it and they replied that, indeed, when it becomes dirty/cloudy but the pH is still that low, it still may not be doing its job to the best of its abilities.

Their advice was to always use distilled water when making up a solution of Star-San, IIRC, to ensure the longest shelf life once it is diluted to solution.

In your case, since you're saying it's brown, I'd toss it and make up a fresh batch.

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should have clarified: the stopper turned brown. solution is clear

Well, it is an acid solution, so it sounds like the rubber corroded.

What's the need to store your stuff in star san? So long as its clean, it just takes 30 seconds for fresh star san to sanitize so why not just do so on brew day. I sanitize everything during my boil and then again right before use, that should be more than enough.

I'd be more worried about growing bacteria in a solution of star san that becomes old and ineffective (not to mention it destroying yoru equipment such as your stopper).

after sanitizing in star san I toss my stuff into a cardboard box that I mounted an UV light in. the light is shielded on the top side to protect my eyes and I am always wearing sunglasses that have UV protection anyway. as long as the insides of my parts are already sanitized, then the uv keeps all the little buggers outside the box and i can reach in and pull out what ever I need without re-sanitizing. probably a bit overboard but the parts were cheap and I feel better.

I wash my stuff before putting it away, rinse and sanitize with a spray bottle of Star-san before using again. Spray bottles only require a small amount of star san be used, you can clean EVERYTHING from bottles to buckets with it, it's not heavy, it's easy to remix when you run out and it can be used to spray down a boiling kettle to prevent boil overs.

It's the perfect solution, IMO. Doesn't get any better than that.

what I meant was on brewday after the initial cleaning I threw it all the the uv box. I don't use it for storage. I should have stated that.

The UV light is bad for germs...but it can also be bad for plastic, if you have any plastic gear in that box. A lot of plastics will degrade in sunlight because of the UV unless they are made to be resistant, and clear tubing/autosiphons/better bottles etc. are probably not. If you see stuff getting yellow, brittle, or cracking it may be that the UV light is trashing the plastic.

I leave my kegs full of star-san, but otherwise I agree with previous posters. Wash everything up well in hot soapy water when done, and sanitize everything just before use on brewday. I normally use one-step for this purpose except when bottling...one-step makes bottle caps rust in about 10 minutes.

Kevin Dean said:

I wash my stuff before putting it away, rinse and sanitize with a spray bottle of Star-san before using again. Spray bottles only require a small amount of star san be used, you can clean EVERYTHING from bottles to buckets with it, it's not heavy, it's easy to remix when you run out and it can be used to spray down a boiling kettle to prevent boil overs.

It's the perfect solution, IMO. Doesn't get any better than that.

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I've been wondering anout this. How bo you sanitize the inside of your racking cane and transfer tubing with a spray bottle?

Sea said:

I've been wondering anout this. How bo you sanitize the inside of your racking cane and transfer tubing with a spray bottle?

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I read here to get a wallpaper roll bucket...you know...the long thing you soak rolls in? Works great...I use to make one out of aluminum foil but it would not hold up very long...(ghetto I know):cross:

twst1up said:

ok, got some star san in my bottling bucket and its been there since march. ph has dropped in that time...from around 3 to less than 1. i had a rubber stopper in there and it turned brown...? whats up with that?

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ummm, 3 is fairly acidic...1 is so corrosive you can't touch it. when Star san's pH is not good, it RAISES closer to 7.0 neutral pH...not dropping.

and yes, the acidic nature of pH 3.0 will eat away at rubber bungs.

Sea said:

I've been wondering anout this. How bo you sanitize the inside of your racking cane and transfer tubing with a spray bottle?

Click to expand...

I just spray it in the end until it's about half full, then swish it back and forth then pour it out. Same thing with carboys.