Should you let star san dry before bottling?

i have all my bottles filled with star san ready to bottle. i have my bottling bucket filled with beer. my plan is to dump the bottle in the fermenting bucket then bottle immediately. is this a good idea or will the foam in the bottle cause problems?

You'll be fine with that method.

Don't fear the foam. Strictly speaking, StarSan is only actively killing pathogens while it's wet. Most of the foam will be displaced by the beer when you bottle, the small amount that's left is actually used by the yeast as a nutrient.

Never let StarSan dry! Always use the equipment for whatever you are using it for when it is still wet with StarSan.

alright done bottling did exactly as planned hope it turned out well

Make sure you are really emptying out the starsan. If too much is left behind it will kill the yeast and your bottles won't carbonate.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

Make sure you are really emptying out the starsan. If too much is left behind it will kill the yeast and your bottles won't carbonate.

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huh? I have had foam snakes coming out of my bottles from the starsan while bottling. never had an issue???

ReverseApacheMaster said:

Make sure you are really emptying out the starsan. If too much is left behind it will kill the yeast and your bottles won't carbonate.

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What kind of backup do you have for that statement? That's completely counter to my own experience, and the experience of every other homebrewer I know of that uses Starsan. Hell, I've heard stories of brewers who have racked on top of literally one or two gallons of Starsan, and it had no negative impact on the yeast (must have diluted the beer, but that's a separate issue).

I use star San in one of those "push down. And it sprays up" bottle washer. Give it a couple pumps. Shake it out and immediently fill with beer. No problems yet.

Beer-Baron said:

I use star San in one of those "push down. And it sprays up" bottle washer. Give it a couple pumps. Shake it out and immediently fill with beer. No problems yet.

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VINATOR, and that is exactly what I do

ReverseApacheMaster said:

Make sure you are really emptying out the starsan. If too much is left behind it will kill the yeast and your bottles won't carbonate.

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Starsan needs a very specific pH to sanitize. The instant you add beer to it the pH is changed and it's sanitation power is neutralized. At that point it is merely nutrients for the yeast.

But you're not new here so I am going to guess you are having a bit of fun?

ReverseApacheMaster said:

Make sure you are really emptying out the starsan. If too much is left behind it will kill the yeast and your bottles won't carbonate.

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WTF?? WHere'd you hear that BS??? Quite the opposite, starsan becomes yeast food when in contact with wort/beer. It actually is HELPFUL for your yeast. If you are blaming that for some carbonation issue, I can unequivocably say that you need to look eslewhere for your issue.

Now back to the OP's oringal and quite often answered question. Most of the sanitzers we use, especially Starsan and iodophor are No rinse/wet contact sanitizers. They are literally double edged swords. They kill two ways. They kill everything on the object prior to sanitizing, and then as long as they are still wet they form a sanitizer barrier that kills everything that comes into contact with object.

If you let the sanitizer dry any micro organism that comes in contact with the sanitized object, rather than being killed by it, makes the object no longer sanitzed.

If you let it dry you are reducing it's efficacy by 50%

You really want to sanitize right at the time you are using the thing you are sanitizing. And let the wort/beer flow on top of it.

I put a lot of good info and tips of effectively using sanitizers in here. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/sanitizer-question-54932/[/QUOTE]

In starsan's case it becomes yeastfood which is really good for fermentation.

Plus it is fun to look at.

"Stupid Starsan Tricks" or why you shouldn't fear the foam...

StarSan is a pH-based, acid sanitizer, which mens that it only kills pathogens when the pH is below [a number that escapes me]. When it's diluted, whether by beer or water or whatever, so that the pH is higher, it's no longer a sanitizer, but is actually utilized by the yeast as a nutrient (not quite food, more like vitamins). The main ingredient of StarSan is phosphoric acid, which is a preservative/flavoring they put in soda.

alright cool so leftover star san won't cause bottle bombs will it? too much yeast food won't cause too much carbonation? i used 4 muntons tabs per bottle as per instructions for medium carbonation. fg was around 1.01

dooh.. all these posts about star san made me wanna get one... 16oz 51$ with delivery from USA to EU! where 31$ is delivery

mojotele said:

Never let StarSan dry! Always use the equipment for whatever you are using it for when it is still wet with StarSan.

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So I'll be doing my bottling with a Vinator bottle washer and a bottle tree. Let's say I wash 50 bottles and put them on the tree. By the time I get through half of my bottling the remaining bottles on the tree may have partially or all the way dried out inside. Do you really think that is going to be a problem?
An easy solution would be to just wash a few bottles at a time, but I would prefer to wash them all at once.

What up Revs?! Long time, no see man? Anyway, I have the 45 bottle tree & avinator. By the time I get a lil more than half way through bottling that number +, the bottles are fairly dry. but upside down at a steep angle. And wild yeasts & other nasties settling straight downward, they can't get in the bottles. They're not ninja acrobats or anything. Never a problem for me.

unionrdr said:

What up Revs?! Long time, no see man? Anyway, I have the 45 bottle tree & avinator. By the time I get a lil more than half way through bottling that number +, the bottles are fairly dry. but upside down at a steep angle. And wild yeasts & other nasties settling straight downward, they can't get in the bottles. They're not ninja acrobats or anything. Never a problem for me.

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That good to hear guys thanks. Last thing I want is for those little boogers getting into my brew.

unionrdr said:

What up Revs?! Long time, no see man? Anyway, I have the 45 bottle tree & avinator. By the time I get a lil more than half way through bottling that number +, the bottles are fairly dry. but upside down at a steep angle. And wild yeasts & other nasties settling straight downward, they can't get in the bottles. They're not ninja acrobats or anything. Never a problem for me.

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That good to hear guys thanks. Last thing I want is for those little boogers getting into my brew.

apezz said:

So I'll be doing my bottling with a Vinator bottle washer and a bottle tree. Let's say I wash 50 bottles and put them on the tree. By the time I get through half of my bottling the remaining bottles on the tree may have partially or all the way dried out inside. Do you really think that is going to be a problem?
An easy solution would be to just wash a few bottles at a time, but I would prefer to wash them all at once.

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I'm confused. Are we talking about washing the bottles, or sanitizing the bottles? I wash my bottles weeks ahead of time and leave them on the tree.

On bottling day, they're bone-dry. I fill the Vinator bowl with StarSan, and pump the bottle on it a few times to shoot StarSan up inside. I let most of it drain out, then fill the bottle. While that bottle is filling, I grab the next one and do the same thing, but leave it inverted on the Vinator "shaft."

By the time the first bottle is full and it's time to swap bottles, there's just a thin film of StarSan bubbles in the upside-down bottle, with very little StarSan left inside. I just repeat this over and over until I've bottled the entire batch.

I also use o2 barrier caps. Regardless, I dunk'em in Starsan right before placing them on the bottles. That works fine too. Heating 2C of water for priming solution now, speaking of which. Made fresh Starsan batch yesterday afternoon. Last batch was a few months old. Lasts a good while if kept clean & sealed, but enough was enough. 8oz bottle of Startsan I got 4 years ago finally getting low. That stuff lasts a long time!

unionrdr said:

What up Revs?! Long time, no see man? Anyway, I have the 45 bottle tree & avinator. By the time I get a lil more than half way through bottling that number +, the bottles are fairly dry. but upside down at a steep angle. And wild yeasts & other nasties settling straight downward, they can't get in the bottles. They're not ninja acrobats or anything. Never a problem for me.

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That good to hear guys thanks. Last thing I want is for those little boogers getting into my brew.

kombat said:

I'm confused. Are we talking about washing the bottles, or sanitizing the bottles? I wash my bottles weeks ahead of time and leave them on the tree.

On bottling day, they're bone-dry. I fill the Vinator bowl with StarSan, and pump the bottle on it a few times to shoot StarSan up inside. I let most of it drain out, then fill the bottle. While that bottle is filling, I grab the next one and do the same thing, but leave it inverted on the Vinator "shaft."

By the time the first bottle is full and it's time to swap bottles, there's just a thin film of StarSan bubbles in the upside-down bottle, with very little StarSan left inside. I just repeat this over and over until I've bottled the entire batch.

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Sanitizing

I keep a batch of starsan made with RO water in my bottling bucket. On bottling day I drain the starsan into a plastic dish washing tub and submerge the bottles for at least a minute before putting them on a bottling tree that was previously sanitized. System works well for me and allows me to use starsan for about a month before I make a new batch.