Star-San cloudiness?

Hi Guys,
I just started using StarSan today and I noticed that the StarSan solution becomes noticeably cloudy in just a few minutes and very cloudy in about 15 minutes. I mixed the StarSan at a rate of 1/2 oz StarSan per 2.5 gallons of cold tap water

My tap water is well water, no chlorination or filtration. Recently tested and passed with flying colors - slightly high in iron and manganese. Beautiful tasting water.

Here are my questions:

1. Is this cloudiness normal and acceptable?

2. Is the StarSan likely still sanitizing once cloudy after 30 minutes or so?

Thanks in advance for your informed replies.

Ren

Well, you have hard water... and that is why you are getting cloudy Star San mixtures.

I have been told that Star San when cloudy, has lost is effectiveness. May be something to look into.

In Madison we have hard water. I get cloudy StarSan too. I am anxiously awaiting more info. I listened to the podcast with the StarSan inventor and test the ph to be sure it is below 3.
Still, I'm looking forward to the answer.

Use distilled water to create your starsan solution. 1.5ml per quart, I used one of those medicine dispensers from the pharmacy, they will give you one for free

Then, I never soak anything in solution. I wash everything with hot tap water and a little powdered dishwashing detergent (you don't want the water slimy feeling) and then let everything dry. Once it is dry I spray the starsan solution on with a spray bottle and cover the items with a trash bag until use. I can make a whole batch of brew only using about 1/4 of a quart size spray bottle from Sams Club.

No need to soak any thing.

I doubt that the efficacy of Starsan is immediately degraded in the presence of hard water, just the STORAGE POTENTIAL of it....It may be cloudy when it mixes with your tap but it still will more than likely still be doing it's job..IIRC someone did take a PH strip to a hard water cloudy batch of starsan and it was still fine...but the next day it had dropped to the useless range...

The only way to know for sure is to go to a drugstore and get a pack of ph strips and test it for yourself..but for immediate use...I wouldn't panic..
But if you wanted to store it in a squirt bottle or a carboy I would check tomake sure..or use distilled.

Are you going to take advice from some dude in an Arethra hat? Id panic!

I've stored StarSan for a couple weeks and it tested okay (less than 3 ).

Revvy said:

I doubt that the efficacy of Starsan is immediately degraded in the presence of hard water, just the STORAGE POTENTIAL of it....It may be cloudy when it mixes with your tap but it still will more than likely still be doing it's job..IIRC someone did take a PH strip to a hard water cloudy batch of starsan and it was still fine...but the next day it had dropped to the useless range...

The only way to know for sure is to go to a drugstore and get a pack of ph strips and test it for yourself..but for immediate use...I wouldn't panic..
But if you wanted to store it in a squirt bottle or a carboy I would check tomake sure..or use distilled.

Click to expand...

No kidding, take that hat off already.

Sit on this instead.

impatient said:

No kidding, take that hat off already.

Sit on this instead.

Click to expand...

Meh..you're just pissy because you asked what the deal about it was and we picked on you because it was in my sigline the whole freaking time....

How's this for a hat?

Actually, I couldn't get the bow edited to fit on my label girl's head. I must have been to druck. To shaky for editing in paint these days.

impatient said:

Actually, I couldn't get the bow edited to fit on my label girl's head. I must have been to druck. To shaky for editing in paint these days.

Click to expand...

The girl was a pita...how's this?

Iv heard when it gets cloudy that you can sweeten it up with a little more Star San. I dont know how much more. If any one knows that would be very helpful.

It's just the surfactant in the StarSan reacting with the minerals in the water. As long as the pH doesn't increase too much, it'll work just fine. I have kept it for over a month without any issues.

If you have a friend with a water softener in your area you can use that water instead. I have incredibly hard water, but after it goes through the water softener it works great for star-san (just not for beer!)

i've found it's easier for me to just buy an extra gallon of RO water at the store and use it to make a batch of starsan that stays around for about 3months before it's time to make another. and yes i have an extremely high iron content in my well water

My Starsan has always been cloudy. The PH has remained below 3 in batches I've kept for around two months. As far as i know, if the PH is OK, then the mix is OK. I'm not worried about it.

I also listened to StarSan's inventor on that podcast and he mentioned the correlation between cloudiness and loss of sanitization capacity - so it got me a little worried. I do have access to a pH meter, so I'll mix up a batch and check the pH over time to see if the cloudiness correlates to a change in pH.

Thanks for the replies. If I had a picture I'd put a bow on it. Honest, I would

Ren

I've got a lot of iron in my water (haven't gotten a report, I can just tell from the red stains in the dishwasher and from the smell/taste), and my star-san gets cloudy as soon as I mix it too.

Still works, though, I just dump it at the end of the brew session. Usually make 2.5 gal, so I don't feel like I'm wasting a lot. I do keep a spray bottle around with distilled water + star-san, though, which never goes bad.

Hi Folks-

I looked over my water analysis to see if something stood out WRT causing the StarSan cloudiness...but nothing does to me. Here are some of my test results (with max allowable concentration in parenthesis)

pH 6.6 (6.5-8.5) SU
Chloride 53 (250) mg/L
total hardness 114 (*)
calcium 33 (no max listed) mg/L
copper 0.045 (1.3) mg/L
iron 0.058 (0.3) mg/L
magnesium 7.4 (no max listed) mg/L
manganese 0.043 (0.050) mg/L
uranium 4.1 (30) mg/L

(*less than 150 considered softer than ideal)

I still need to collect data showing the pH of the StarSan solution over time, maybe on Friday.

Anyone see any red flags on my water analysis? Perhaps the calcium/magnesium?

Thanks,

Ren

ps: glad to see my URANIUM level is low!