Academic Question regarding sanitizing

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william_shakes_beer

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Starsan is an example of sanitizers that can be used to sanitize clean surfaces, IE kill bacteria.

Starsan is a no rinse sanitizer and in fact the sanitizing action stops when the product dries.

Yeast is a microscopic creature similar to bacteria

Why is Yeast not killed by sanitizer? Or is the starsan so diluted by the (wort, beer) that it is not longer dangerous to Yeast (and Bacteria?)
 
Starsan starts to loose it's effectiveness when the pH gets above 3.0. Since wort/beer pH is higher than 3.0, and since it is only a residual amount of Starsan solution mixed in with the wort/beer it is rendered ineffective.

If you were to pitch your yeast into a concentrated Starsan solution, then they would most likely die. But I'd like to believe those bastards put up a good fight first.
 
Skaggz said:
Starsan starts to loose it's effectiveness when the pH gets above 3.0. Since wort/beer pH is higher than 3.0, and since it is only a residual amount of Starsan solution mixed in with the wort/beer it is rendered ineffective.

If you were to pitch your yeast into a concentrated Starsan solution, then they would most likely die. But I'd like to believe those bastards put up a good fight first.
Click to expand...

someone do an experiment with cheap yeast. maybe bakers yeast
 
Well, if you pitched yeast into 5 gallons of starsan, yes it would kill it. Starsan works at a pH of around 2.5, when small amounts are diluted with a higher pH wort, the star san is neutralized. Here's another thread about it:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/star-san-vs-iodophor-ph-176159/

There's also a podcast around somewhere with an interview with Charlie Talley of Star San, that should answer all your questions as well.
 

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