San Star Question

[amcwi69]

I recently bought a Heavy Duty Rubbermaid tote to hold all my smaller brewing equipment in and figured since it’s like a smaller tub then maybe it could be used as a washing station.

Now does anyone know if using San-Star in a plastic tote will give me any ill effects in sanitizing my equipment/carboys?

I also read that if I’m going to be cleaning multiple pieces of equipment then I should be using 2 oz. of San-Star per 5 gal. of water….any truth to that?

 

[JakeTheHopDog]

I’m looking at the label of the brand new bottle I picked up Thursday. It say 1 oz to 5 gals. I've been using 2 oz, but I think I'm going to cut it back to 1 oz. It doesn't keep very long once made, so I end up throwing it out. I make 5 gals on brewday, and sanitize everything with it.

As for the tote, fermentation buckets are plastic, so you should be fine.

 

[Ohio-Ed]

1 oz / 5 ga is the correct amount per the label. If you use more, you may impact the "no-rinse" idea.

Mixed Starsan will last indefinitely... as long as the PH is stable.
I buy 2.5 gallon jugs of distilled water and add 1/2 oz of starsan. I then fill and re-fill spray bottles from the jug.

On brew day (usually with a group), I mix 5 gallons of starsan with tap water in a plastic tote to use for "communal" sanitization then dump at the end of the day.

Read the sticky about cleaners / sanitizers, all the info you need is there.

 

[wildwest450]

It doesn't keep very long once made, so I end up throwing it out. I make 5 gals on brewday, and sanitize everything with it.

Why do you say it doesn't last? If you don't get two to three months easily out of it, make it with distilled water. I have been using a half ounce to 3 gallons for the past two years. Plenty strong enough.

 

[JakeTheHopDog]

I use good old Hernando County Florida tap water for cleaning and sanitizing, but bottled water for my brewing. I'm taking a sample tomorrow to my pool store and have them test it. Should be able to get a ph reading from them.

 

[SOB_OCDAVE]

Anybody have issues with Star San getting cloudy? I use a water softener system made by Kinetico and i use a secondary carbon filter for chlorine/chloramine. It seems that this issue just started recently. I use the recommended ratio of 1 oz to 5 gal. Any chemists have an answer?

 

[amcwi69]

I'm not a chemist. but I play one on tv....

Some people in this forum have said that the water is "NOT" supposed to be cloudy but honestly everytime I've used San-Star the water in the bucket gets cloudy for me.

The problem I have now is that my rubber stopper fell into my carboy as I was putting on my airlock (was capping off my primary). I was thinking since its rubber that it shouldn't effect the taste/process of my beer at all....am I correct in that assumption???

 

[SOB_OCDAVE]

amcwi89,
As long as it was sanitized before it fell in you should be OK. The question that I would be asking is, "How am I going to get the stopper out of the carboy?".

 

[JayInJersey]

Done the stopper thing many many times with my old glass ones...

No worries about the taste, just the embarrassment


And a coat hanger works wonders for getting it out

 

[Scimmia]

Star San gets cloudy because of the ions in your water. These can throw the pH out of whack as well. I've found that the tap water in my area has pretty high alkalinity, and Star San would go cloudy pretty quickly. I switched to distilled water because of it.