Bottling with Star San

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RLinNH

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So, I used to fill the Bucket up with a Bleach/Water solution, rinse, then siphon into the bucket. Now I have Star Sans. Just fill the bucket up, empty it, leaving the bubbles and NOT rinsing the bucket, then siphon on top of the bubbles. Sound about right? Also, the Caps. Can I dunk them in Star Sans, and WITHOUT rinsing them put them directly onto the Bottles? Or should I be rinsing the Star Sans off the Caps before I use them?
 
RLinNH said:
So, I used to fill the Bucket up with a Bleach/Water solution, rinse, then siphon into the bucket. Now I have Star Sans. Just fill the bucket up, empty it, leaving the bubbles and NOT rinsing the bucket, then siphon on top of the bubbles. Sound about right? Also, the Caps. Can I dunk them in Star Sans, and WITHOUT rinsing them put them directly onto the Bottles? Or should I be rinsing the Star Sans off the Caps before I use them?
You're pretty much on target. I'd let the bucket drain awhile and allow most of the bubbles to drip out. Don't rinse the caps, just soak em for at least half a minute and put them right onto your filled bottles.
 
You don't have to fill up the bucket- just mix up a smaller amount of Starsan and then put the lid on the bucket and shake it up so it coats the whole thing. And make sure you open the tap of the bottling bucket to sanitize the tap.

I just put the caps in the sanitizer in a small bowl before I rack and pull them out one at a time and put on the bottle.
 
BlindLemonLars said:
Yooper, just looking at your x-ray avatar gives me the chills! :eek:

Hope it healed up okay!!

Haha, no it didn't. It was way worse than that originally, actually. But, it healed about 85%, so I'm only a little worse for wear. Hockey starts in about 2 weeks, so I've been doing some conditioning and I'm doing ok.
 
BlindLemonLars said:
I'd let the bucket drain awhile and allow most of the bubbles to drip out. Don't rinse the caps, just soak em for at least half a minute and put them right onto your filled bottles


so when bottling (after sanitizing) do you need to allow star san to completely dry (bottles, caps, buckets, tubes) before letting beer come into contact?
 
ρ®ïMσ said:
BlindLemonLars said:
I'd let the bucket drain awhile and allow most of the bubbles to drip out. Don't rinse the caps, just soak em for at least half a minute and put them right onto your filled bottles


so when bottling (after sanitizing) do you need to allow star san to completely dry (bottles, caps, buckets, tubes) before letting beer come into contact?

no...30 sec contact time then you are good to go
 
yep 30 seconds is all it takes, and you don't have to let it air dry. i just sanitize my bottle tree first, then let my bottles drain off a few minutes, then start filling.
 
If I'm using Star San to sanitize my bottles, is it ok to have some foam still in them when I go to siphon the beer into them?
 
I use StarSan and probably go overboard but here is basically what I do. I fill a vessel with StarSan and a gallon of water. I then fill the bottles and empty them, spray some StarSan on the bottling tree drain the bottles hang em and let em sit. I throw all the caps in there as well. I then use my siphon and bottling cane (which both have been soaking in the sanitizing solution as well) to siphon my sanitizing solution into the bottling bucket. Slosh it around in there and all, drain it via the spigot, invert (the bottles have been inverted this whole time) while I prepare my priming sugar and then rack and bottle. The bottles will still have some faint bubbles in em... I just don't worry about em. Hope that helps.
 
Well worth the money
Once its primed a pump or two is all it takes.
Fits right on top of the bottling tree

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bottlerinser.jpg
 
For the longest time, i would fill my bottling bucket 1/2 way with starsan. Dunk all the bottles (straw method), then empty (spin method), and placed on a sanitized dishwasher rack I bought at homedepot. Entire process only takes 10 minutes or so.

Very simple, though it is a bit of a waste to make that much starsan. Last time I did that using distilled water, and then re-jugged it for the next bottling session.

I do risk the chance of scratching my bottling bucket, though the bottles do not touch the sides.

Edit: I was petrified of the foam at first. It still seems so strange. But the owner of starsan had me convinced after I listened to his BN podcast. He says it only kills if at a SPECIFIC solution strength. When diluted (ie beer on foam), it actually acts as a yeast nutrient.
 
For what it is worth, I just bottled a wit and used the spray bottle method. Basically I started out by spraying 4 squirts into a bottle and sloshing it all around. Then before putting on the bottling tree I poured the remaining StarSan from that bottle into the next bottle, continued with the process for all the bottles adding a spritz here or there as needed. Beer turned out great )no infection) and I used very little StarSan compared to what I used to. I also got no bubbles this way.
 
So Yoop, guess the leg's all better eh? Was this thread back when you were getting started? (guessing your avatar was an X-ray of the broken leg?)
 
I never mix up more than a gallon of Star San at one time (per directions, at an ounce per 5 gallons H2O). I pour it into my carboys, swish it around to cover the inside, pour out. I use a dedicated sponge to go over the inside of fermenter & bottling buckets & lids. I use the sulfiting pump shown above to do the inside of the bottles, then run the bottles through the dishwasher. I dump my caps into a container with about an inch of the Star San solution in it, and cap directly out of there. In no case do I fear the foam.

Star San is very water-conserving, economical, long-lasting when mixed in solution, and, as has been mentioned, 30 seconds contact for effect. Add that to no-rinse, and I put my Clorox bottle aside and never looked back.
 
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