hard water stains in my carboy or something

I left my carboy with starsan in it for a couple weeks and now I have what kind of looks like hardwater stains in it. Am I safe to use a little CLR to clear that up and then rinse with starsan again?

I don't yet have a brush long enough to reach the bottom of my carboys as it hasn't been a problem yet with crusties on the bottom.

i doubt they are hard water stains. remember star san solution has a pH of about 3, and hard water stains are from calcium carbonate deposits.

CLR is an acid too. So I think those spots are actually just residue from star san's detergent.

if it bothers you, some hot water will pull the residue into solution, and dilute it down to nothing.

also it doesn't work to do a star san rinse, and then leave the carboy empty for weeks. you'd still need to re-sanitize it prior to putting anything in it.

Remember, clean after use, sanitize before use.

Even with a carboy cap on it, there's 5+ gallons of air space in there that could be full of wild spores and a fast-drying star san residue on the walls may not kill it all.

with my luck, every time i do the 1 table spoon per gallon, i never get it fully diluted, always a little bit at the bottom. If that's all it is, and it won't hurt the beer any, i wont worry about it and do as you said with some hot water to get it to dilute. I usually do splash around about 1 gallon of starsan solution in there before I pour wort into them.

ummm, Star-san is done at a volume of 1 oz per 5 gallons of solution.

1 fluid tablespoon is .5 fl oz, which would make 2.5 gallons of star san solution. This would be why you're getting so much residue.

malkore said:

ummm, Star-san is done at a volume of 1 oz per 5 gallons of solution.

1 fluid tablespoon is .5 fl oz, which would make 2.5 gallons of star san solution. This would be why you're getting so much residue.

Click to expand...

Er I mean 1-step, not star san though if it's also 1 table spoon per 5 gallons of water... i'm wasteing enough of it .

that explains it. One-step is indeed 1tbsp per gallon. I used to use it til I found Star San. cheaper, works faster, solution lasts longer if stored right, and its non-toxic enough you can drink it....which I've done for teh sake of beer science.

replace the one step. those white spots are probably just leftover residue, but can affect beer flavor if they aren't removed.