Question for my fellow garage brewers..

The wife is pregnant with our first child and has developed smell aversions to my brewing hobby. In her defense when I used to brew in the house I could still smell "beer" two days later, so I can see her point.

Anyhow I've been banished to the garage. When she banished me I picked up one of these off Amazon for $54 with free shipping... flippen LOVE it. Never doing electric stovetop brewing again!

Eventually I'll get to my question. I have pretty much a full set up in the garage. It's like a man-cave with no air conditioning. I have a TV, surround sound, full size fridge (soon to be a keggarator), a table, some comfy chairs, etc. The only thing I am missing is a water source. So last batch I used the garden hose outside. It works really well, easy to control and no running back and forth. I refrigerate 2 gallons of water the night before to help cool the wort before pitching so only water that will be boiled comes from the hose.

Okay so finally my question... Is hose water safe? I let the water run for a while before filling up my pot. I didn't mind so much on brew day because the water would be boiled, but now I'm getting ready to dry hop and I like to rinse the starsan out of the secondary before I rack to it. I'm pretty sure it's safe for humans, g-d knows I drank out of it a lot when I was a kid and I'm still here, but the hose is synthetic and gets warm water left in it.

BTW.. I know they say not to rinse Starsan but it always comes out so strong, even when using half the amount suggested. So I like to give it a quick rinse. If this is an epic foul just let me know and my question will be null and void.

Pick up a potable water hose for a boat or rv, and use that instead.

You should probably get a food-grade RV hose (the white ones). It probably won't kill you, but in theory you could leach out some of the compounds in the garden hose and they wouldn't be good for you.

Quick aside: I had to buy a food-grade hose for an entirely different purpose a few months ago, and I bought it from Lowes. Apparently the manufacturer that makes their food-grade hoses decided they don't want to get sued, so stopped putting "food-grade" on the packaging and even put a warning in very fine print that you aren't supposed to use it for that purpose. But it has all the right specs to be food-grade, so don't worry about it. Really, you want a white hose which will most likely have a picture of an RV or something on the packaging, and it will be food-grade even if the company won't say so.

I am soooooooo jealous of your garage setup! And congratulations on the first kid! I've got a 2-year-old and a 3-month-old right now. Hard to find time to brew... :/

+1 i was reading a thread on it, the guy was sayin he was getting some off flavors from the garden hose.

all though, as far as safety? probably ok. i always drank out of the hose when i was a kid, never grew and extra appendage or anything. but thats just me

rycov said:

all though, as far as safety? probably ok. i always drank out of the hose when i was a kid, never grew and extra appendage or anything. but thats just me

Click to expand...

My guess is that it would probably marginally increase your risk of colon cancer or some other digestive system cancer. Like I said, it probably won't kill you, but it's not a great idea.

As for the Star-san don't rinse it, it kinda defeats the purpose if you do rinse. Remember don't fear the foam. It won't cause off flavors or harm you or your beer, the garden hose has more of a chance of producing off flavors. Good luck with the new member of the family and another future brewer.

I wouldn't hesitate for a second to use "garden hose" water.

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll definitely look for a "food grade" hose.

Jafo28 that is an awesome setup in your profile pic. Might be my next project after I get the fridge converted to a keggarator.

Thanks so much! This thread was my inspiration.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/show-us-your-sculpture-brew-rig-46578/

1 ounce per 5 gallons of water for Star San. And don't dilute it any farther. There is a reason that they specify that ratio. And don't rinse it. It's "no-rinse" sanitizer.

I know it can have a flavor at proper dilution, but once you dilute even farther with beer, and the yeast consume the remnants of the stuff (cause it is yeast food) you won't taste it in the beer. Many, many people use it for all aspects of their brewing and make award-wining beer with it.

My LHBS talked me out of Starsan, even though they carry it. I think I'm talking myself back into it

jsweet said:

My LHBS talked me out of Starsan, even though they carry it. I think I'm talking myself back into it

Click to expand...

Why would you not use it?? I kno wlots of people use iodophor, and that works great too, but I prefer Starsan for a number of reasons:

Tasteless (in finished product)
Cheap (once 5 gallon batch could probably last 1/2 a year if I wanted it to.
Easy to use (mix with distilled water. Pour into spray bottle. Spritz everything.)
Non staining (iodophor can stain your equipment over time)
Kills bugs dead

About the only downside I can think of is the cap is notorious for not staying tight, but you can substitute with a soda cap I think...

I love my Starsan. I don't have a problem with the cap staying tight. I have a 5 gallon water cooler. I make up a batch with distilled water and it lasts a long time. Works great. I even like the foaming. Makes me think it works better, I can see where it coated, and it stays in that spot longer (IMO).

Another thing you may want to look into is building a portable water filter, using one of those under counter carbon filters they sell at Lowes/HD/etc. You could then connect the filter to the end of your hose line, and have filtered water into the kettle. I use one in my garage, but have my line hard-run via PEX to my brewstation.

Homercidal said:

Why would you not use it??

Click to expand...

Eh, the guy sort of admitted he didn't have good reasons, he just said the idea of a no-rinse sanitizer made him uncomfortable. From the pro/con thread, I think the LHBS guy was basically in the "Some people still do fear the foam, and will rinse it out, despite manufactures instructions and HBT's best advice" category.

At the time I was asking this, I was so much of a n00b I had made my first batch using B-Brite as a "sanitizer" (yes, I know better now; the guy who walked me through my first batch told me to use it, and believe it or not he's never had an infection, so in large amounts it probably isn't that bad... but I won't be relying on it!) and was basically just like, "Tell me what do please!" heh... Now that I've gotten more information, I'm starting to think Starsan is the way to go.

I've been using C-Brite on the last two batches... It seems a lot of people are really down on that, not sure why, other than just the fact that there are better alternatives...?

GreenDragon said:

BTW.. I know they say not to rinse Starsan but I decide to ignore the manufacturers information and teh recommendation of everyone on this ofurm anyway and spray my freshly sanitized fermenter with non-sanitized city water that could possibly contain several contaminants. I also don't like the idea that the foam is actually good food for my yeast.

Click to expand...

Is this correct?

I think you know the answer. Quit rinsing your freaking starsan.

Homercidal said:

Kills bugs dead

Click to expand...

Really? I have been looking for another good way to get rid of these damned stink bugs. Do you just spray them with solution?

jsweet said:

Eh, the guy sort of admitted he didn't have good reasons, he just said the idea of a no-rinse sanitizer made him uncomfortable. From the pro/con thread, I think the LHBS guy was basically in the "Some people still do fear the foam, and will rinse it out, despite manufactures instructions and HBT's best advice" category.

At the time I was asking this, I was so much of a n00b I had made my first batch using B-Brite as a "sanitizer" (yes, I know better now; the guy who walked me through my first batch told me to use it, and believe it or not he's never had an infection, so in large amounts it probably isn't that bad... but I won't be relying on it!) and was basically just like, "Tell me what do please!" heh... Now that I've gotten more information, I'm starting to think Starsan is the way to go.

I've been using C-Brite on the last two batches... It seems a lot of people are really down on that, not sure why, other than just the fact that there are better alternatives...?

Click to expand...

I used B-brite when I started. I think it will still work "fine" as a sanitizer, but it's not no-rinse, and when you rinse, you run the (albeit very low) risk of getting an infection from the water. Star san and iodophor are just a ton easier.

kpr121 said:

Really? I have been looking for another good way to get rid of these damned stink bugs. Do you just spray them with solution?

Click to expand...

Yes, just mix it quadruple strength and spray right on them Be careful not to get in your eyes or breathe the fumes.

Very interesting. When I bottled the wheat beer in my sig I dipped the bottles into a properly diluted Starsan mixture after cleaning them. Some of them ended up with a "bubble" inside them. That made me nervous so I started rinsing them after dipping them. I thought maybe the acid in the Starsan would kill the yeast.

Glad to know that's not the case. Next time I'll stick with just the dip in the Starsan.

I got my white potable hose from Walmart. I bought a 25' one, then quickly realized the 50' was needed. Now I can connect them though if I need to reach really far. I also bought a whole house filtration unit from Lowes. It was pretty cheap, and I just run my hose to a shut off valve with a quick disconnect attached. Then I can swap between the spray nozzle and the filter. The metal bracket is to hang it over the side of the pot.

Yeah rinsing defeats the purpose of sanitizing ( a little bit anyway) since your're putting new microbes on your sanitized stuff. In regards to hose water, I used the 'if it tastes ok, use it' approach. I plan on getting my utility sink hooked up soon, but in the mean time I have no fear of hose water.

Your water heater wouldn't happen to be in the garage would it? If so that would be a super convenient place to tap into your cold water line.

I would get the white "RV" hose, I drank from the garden hose all the time as a kid and still do occasonally when doing the lawns/etc. but it has that garden hose rubber taste to it that I would think even boiling wouldn't get rid of. I think Palmer said it (correct me if I'm wrong) "if your water is good enough to drink, it is good enough to brew", and I wouldn't be drinking hose water unless I was covered in grass/mud and didn't want to take my boots off just for a quick drink.