Kegging and Star San question

[HeavyHandedBrewing]

I kegged my first batch last night, 10 gal of hefeweizen! I cleaned and then sanitized my kegs with Star San. After using the cleaner, I filled the keg with 2.5 gal of water and 1/2 oz Star San. I shook for like 30 seconds, let it sit of a min, then shook again. I then pressurized and using the party tap, sent the sanitizer from the first keg to the second. After the transfer, I opened the first keg and the thing was filled with foam (maybe 2/3's of the way full). I shook the thing to get out as much of the foam as possible, but there was still a lot in there. I had no option but to rinse it out, using as little water as I could. Is there any way to avoid this crazy amount of foam from the sanitizer? Should I be using a different sanitizing product?
On a side note, it use to take me about 3 hours to clean, sanitize and bottle ten gallons of brew. It took under an hour to clean, sanitize and keg the 10 gallons. I can't believe it took 7 years of bottling before I started kegging. I do not think I will ever look back. Next project - collar for the keggerator (7.0 GE chest freezer fom HD)

 

[BendBrewer]

Don't fear the foam. I fill one keg up half way with 1/2 oz of starsan, swirl and then dump it into the other keg. I let it sit upside down for a couple of minutes. I scoop out the foam at the very top of the keg with my hand and fill'er up.

Should be able to knock another 15 - 20 minutes off of that time. I don't think using co2 to move the solution is doing you any favors.

 

[Gunfighter04]

Don't fear the foam. I fill one keg up half way with 1/2 oz of starsan, swirl and then dump it into the other keg. I let it sit upside down for a couple of minutes. I scoop out the foam at the very top of the keg with my hand and fill'er up.

Should be able to knock another 15 - 20 minutes off of that time. I don't think using co2 to move the solution is doing you any favors.

This is pretty much my method. If I've gotten lazy I'll let the starsan sit for a while in the keg, when I walk buy I'll shake and flip the keg over.

If you give the keg a good sloshing and rinse with water right after it kicks you really won't have a problem. Just don't open the lid and leave it with trub on the bottom for any length of time.

 

[impur]

I do the same as the guys above. I actually kegged a Belgium golden ale last night. Filled the keg half way with water and 1/2 oz starsan and shook er up. I turned it upside down for a few min while i readied the bucket and siphon then filled it up. I don't worry about the foam any longer, never caused a problem for me.

 

[KevinM]

The only issue with foam that I've heard of, was when it pushed some guy's dry hops out of a carboy when the beer was being racked in.

To get less foam, just shake less, or after shaking, let it sit for a day then get the starsan out.

Again, no issue with the foam, it's just our conception and our equating them with soap bubbles (we know a little bit of soap taste goes a long way). Think of it more like beer foam. Do we fear beer foam?

 

[wildwest450]

I keep my star san (3 gallons) in a covered bucket. I pour a cup or so in a keg, hit it with a little burst of co2 so I can sanitize the dip tube. Give it a few shakes and drain it back in the bucket. Foam is fine, you need to depress the poppet by hand as star san will stay in the diptube.

Really no need to put 2.5 gallons in there.
_

 

[erikpete18]

Like everyone else said, no reason to fear the foam and don't bother rinsing. I do the same as the OP with ~1 gal of starsan and like to use the CO2 to make sure my lines are sanitized (I also like to have the CO2 blanket in there, but not sure if it really makes any difference). As you siphon the beer into the keg the foam will just rise up the siphon tubing and out of the keg.

Also, if you've got an extra keg, I like to store some diluted starsan in mine so its always available. If you make it with distilled water and make sure the pH stays low, you can store it indefinitely.