A little nervous

Well I am going to keg an IPA recipe that has been dry hopping for 2 and a half weeks.
I'm nervous because I used cloudy starsan on brew day. I discovered later that's a sign
it's not effective anymore. So it's with some trepidation that'll I'll try a sample while
kegging to find it sucks...z

I have hard water and have since corrected the problem by using distilled water
to mix up a batch of sanitizer.

That happened to me the first time I used starsan. I used tap water and it went really cloudy. All my bottles for that batch were sanitized in it and it was fine. I think the cloudy is caused by the hard water and not a sign of the actual PH. As long as you mixed the proper amount the PH would have been right.

I have been using well water and it is cloudy within a week. I have PH strips that start at 4.0 (needs to be 3.0) but they show at the lowest level so I assume it is OK. No infections yet.

I reuse my Starsan untill it looks bad enough to not want to continue using it. I store it in a 5g carboy. It is usually cloudy, I hit my fermenters, hoses, ect. with it and have never had a contamination problem? Don't fear the foam.....or cloudyness in this case.

Well I racked into a keg on Saturday. Just before I started to siphon I pulled a sample.
It wasn't half bad. For an IPA it was a bit maltier than I would have expected but over all
not bad. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more hop aroma after dry hopping for
two and a half weeks. I don't quite get that.

On a different subject, my auto-siphon didn't do such a good job... need to figure that out.

I didn't like my auto siphon. Have switched to a stainless racking cane and tubing. Just doing a gravity siphon. Works much better for me. I guess the problem with those auto siphons are the rubber seal. Mine started sucking air after about 10 batches.

One thing EVERYONE needs to know, the 'cloudy starsan = bad starsan is NOT ENTIRELY true...it gets repeated verbatum, but what people seem to leave off is the CONTEXT under which it is cloudy .

IF you mix it fresh and it turns cloudy, that doesn't mean it is not working, or that the ph has changed. If you mixed it fresh and it is cloudy immediately then the starsan is reacting to the minerals in the water and it is effective, at least then.



It's if your starsan is mixed clear, then turns cloudy after a few hours or days, THEN the PH has changed and it's no longer uselful.

Many of us have water that turns starsan cloudy immediately, but it is still working. You just use it quickly.

There was a thread on hear a couple years ago where someone tested it with PH strips, and came to that conclusion that freshly mixed starsan is still viable if it mixes cloudy.

Relax or get some PH strips and test for yourself.

Please, if you perpetuate the info about cloudy starsan, please get it right.....

Homebrewers,

Is there any way to test Starsan to evaluate its effectiveness? Ph strips, etc?

NRS

NorthRiverS said:

Homebrewers,

Is there any way to test Starsan to evaluate its effectiveness? Ph strips, etc?

NRS

Click to expand...

I beleive it was covered already....

Revvy said:

One thing EVERYONE needs to know, the 'cloudy starsan = bad starsan is NOT ENTIRELY true...it gets repeated verbatum, but what people seem to leave off is the CONTEXT under which it is cloudy .

IF you mix it fresh and it turns cloudy, that doesn't mean it is not working, or that the ph has changed. If you mixed it fresh and it is cloudy immediately then the starsan is reacting to the minerals in the water and it is effective, at least then.

It's if your starsan is mixed clear, then turns cloudy after a few hours or days, THEN the PH has changed and it's no longer uselful.

Many of us have water that turns starsan cloudy immediately, but it is still working. You just use it quickly.

There was a thread on hear a couple years ago where someone tested it with PH strips, and came to that conclusion that freshly mixed starsan is still viable if it mixes cloudy.

Relax or get some PH strips and test for yourself.

Please, if you perpetuate the info about cloudy starsan, please get it right.....

Click to expand...