How long will star san last?

[bcmeyer]

Hello all. I have two kegs and a kegerator. I was going to sanitize one keg with star San. Pump that through one of my faucets. Then I was going to put one of my beers that has completed fermentation into the sanitized keg, and put the star San solution in the other keg.

My question is how long will the star San solution last in the second keg? Will it start to break down? And is it even wise to keep the solution in the keg for a long period of time? Thanks for any help.

 

[BrewingGunner]

I've been told it's good until it looks cloudy. Of course that will be hard to tell in a keg. I always sanitize and then just seal the keg up under CO2 pressure instead of storing santizer in it.

 

[bcmeyer]

I've been told it's good until it looks cloudy. Of course that will be hard to tell in a keg. I always sanitize and then just seal the keg up under CO2 pressure instead of storing santizer in it.

So you don't sanitize again after you seal it? You just load it with your new beer?

 

[cooldood]

Star San will last much longer than that. Even cloudy it works. If you check the pH it will still be very low.

 

[Tupperwolf]

You can get some pH test strips and check the pH. Even if it looks cloudy if the pH is lower than 3.0 you can still use it.

Also check the similar threads below

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[IslandLizard]

Say the pH goes above 3.0, can we reactivate the Starsan by just adding some phosphoric acid to bring it back down to 2.4? The cloudiness seems to be caused by the surfactant. Not sure how long that will last.

Also, Starsan is not a cleaner, and pouring it into non-cleaned vessels will not guarantee sanitation. If you look at the dilution of Starsan, there is not much product in the actual working solution to do any bull work cleaning and sequestering.

 

[BrewingGunner]

So you don't sanitize again after you seal it? You just load it with your new beer?

Nope, I just pump the beer in. It's already sanitized.

 

[Wyrmwood]

Nope, I just pump the beer in. It's already sanitized.

Jack Kemp's (and others) mantra is clean after use, sanitize before use. Sanitizing then leaving it is going to allow it to become funky before use. Typically, I wash after use, and if I have any sanitizer sitting around, sanitize, then before use, sanitize (again).

There's tons of stuff in the air, so ideally, with a keg, clean it really well before you store it, then before you use it, sanitize, fill with co2 pressure, then add beer.

I'm not the best example, I've sanitized the wrong container and used the one I haven't sanitized on more than a few occasions and gotten lucky (for the most part), but just remember, sanitizing is momentary, not permanent.

 

[kirkosaurus]

I've been told it's good until it looks cloudy. Of course that will be hard to tell in a keg. I always sanitize and then just seal the keg up under CO2 pressure instead of storing santizer in it.

If you have hard water your starsan solution will become cloudy as soon as you add the starsan so this is no barometer of whether it is good or not.

 

[cpatel479]

Make the starsan with distilled water and it will last much longer.

 

[BrewingGunner]

Jack Kemp's (and others) mantra is clean after use, sanitize before use. Sanitizing then leaving it is going to allow it to become funky before use. Typically, I wash after use, and if I have any sanitizer sitting around, sanitize, then before use, sanitize (again).

There's tons of stuff in the air, so ideally, with a keg, clean it really well before you store it, then before you use it, sanitize, fill with co2 pressure, then add beer.

I'm not the best example, I've sanitized the wrong container and used the one I haven't sanitized on more than a few occasions and gotten lucky (for the most part), but just remember, sanitizing is momentary, not permanent.

Completely untrue. If you sanitize and then pressurize with CO2, there is no air to get in. You do not need to sanitize again. The CO2 keeps it sanitary. If it did not, then every time you pressurized a keg you would be infecting your beer. Sanitize and pressurize. As long as it maintains pressure, it will be sanitary, but by all means sanitize again.

 

[Wyrmwood]

Completely untrue. If you sanitize and then pressurize with CO2, there is no air to get in. You do not need to sanitize again. The CO2 keeps it sanitary. If it did not, then every time you pressurized a keg you would be infecting your beer. Sanitize and pressurize. As long as it maintains pressure, it will be sanitary, but by all means sanitize again.

Ah, my bad, I missed the part about pressurizing it with co2 after sanitizing. I thought you were saying once sanitized, always sanitized. Not allowing air in would definitely prolong the state of sanitation.

 

[RiverCityBrewer]

Say the pH goes above 3.0, can we reactivate the Starsan by just adding some phosphoric acid to bring it back down to 2.4?

I believe I read some 5 Star white paper that said if the pH rises above 3 you can sweeten the mixture with more StarSan or phosphoric acid to bring the pH back to 3 or below and the solution is then active again.

Found the paper - http://www.fivestarchemicals.com/wp-content/uploads/StarSanTech5.pdf - look on the 2nd page under "Part Soaking"