Dreaded oxyclean free film...

[chungking]

I used oxyclean free for the first time. I put the recommended amount for a 5 gallon bucket and soaked my fermenter and equipment in it all afternoon. I then rinsed everything off with hot water. I then whipped up a 5 gallon batch of starsan in the fermenter and let it soak for a hour or so and sprayed everything down with the starsan. Afterward, I noticed some of the tubing and utensils had a white powdery film on it. I am worried now the fermenter wasn't cleaned good enough. Will the starsan save me? How would the film effect the taste of the beer?

 

[Bensiff]

From my understanding the white residue, if not the result of improper rinsing, is a result of contact with hard water. The best thing to do is to make your oxy solution with hot water and rinse with hot water thoroughly to minimize the residue. As far as it hurting you or impacting the final product, you will be fine at the small concentrations you are dealing with. FYI, you don't need an hour of contact time with starsan, only takes a minute per directions and seconds in reality.

 

[chungking]

I rinsed everything thoroughly with hot water. I think I do have hard water though. I only left the starsan in for a hour cause I wanted to make a batch I could store, and figured it wouldn't hurt anything by letting it sit in the fermenter until my wort was ready.

I moved the starsan mixture into another bucket and dumped the wort in and pitched the yeast.

Didn't really notice the white residue until everything else dried and it was too late. That and the fermenting bucket it white, so the residue would not have been that evident.

 

[Pappers_]

You could try soaking the equipment with the residue in diluted vinegar.

 

[rhamilton]

The white film or deposits are minerals. Acids like StarSan or a vinegar solution should redissolve the minerals. Rinse after with water and you should be good to go.

 

[Bensiff]

Its just some carbonate, no big deal at all.

 

[TopherM]

I got the oxyclean residue on my boil kettle once and couldn't get it out with hot water rinse, starsan, or other cleaners. I ended up having to boil water in the kettle and scrub it during the boil to get the film and scale off the stainless steel.

In the end, I switched to PBW and have never had this kind of problem. It's a few bucks more than Oxyclean, but worth it, IMO. You may want to look into it once you use up all of your Oxyclean.

 

[greyhoundbrewing]

Like pappers said. I've also used diluted vinegar and it works. All you have to do is a good couple of rinses to get the smell out

 

[helibrewer]

I've always had luck neutralizing the OxyClean with StarSan, it's much more acidic than vinegar. I suspect the residue is from the rinse water, not the OxyClean.

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

I think you'll be fine I've noticed spits in my carboy after I had a beer pitched in it, that look like water spots or droplets. My beers turned out fine. As long as you sanitized before putting your wort in I think you'll be fine spots or no.

 

[Bensiff]

Yeah, hard water causes that residue. PBW is pretty similar to oxy but it has metasilicate in it which helps with hard water reactions that cause that residue. You can always add in some of the phosphate free TSP which uses metasilicate instead of trisodium phosphate into the oxy and pretty much make your own PBW.