Star San turns cloudy immediately

[winvarin]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread. So just to be sure though, I have hard water and turned off my softener because I need to use a large volume of water today that will mainly go down the drain. I made 5 gal of star san solution without the softener on, and it turned cloudy in about 5 min

Broke out my pH meter and I am getting 2.6 for my solution. Reading above, I should be OK. Right?

 

[m3n00b]

You'll be okay. I have the same issue and get 10 batches outta an oz of starsan

 

[Wynne-R]

It depends on what you want to believe. The conventional wisdom is that it’s all pH. If that were true we could use phosphoric acid and save a lot of money. Or vinegar. Or lemon juice.

There was a Brewing News podcast where Charlie Talley said if the pH went up or it got cloudy, throw it out.

There was a forum post where somebody quoted Five Star saying if it turns cloudy go ahead and use it, but throw it out at the end of the day.

They sent this one to me.

The official answer is that Star San solutions should be clear and a pH below 3.5.

If you used Distilled water the solution would not turn cloudy. The product can react with hard water and turn cloudy. The Minerals in the water can react with the anionic portion of the star san and cause it to go bad. Yes, when this happens you should consider making a fresh solution. The cloudiness usually forms after a dwell time or when people try and store the solution for multiple weeks. If this is the case then, yes always start with a fresh solution.

Jon Herskovits
Five Star

About a week after that somebody quoted them as saying, yeah as long as the pH is good.

So it’s up to you what to believe. People often ignore that Star-San has an ionic detergent that needs to work. Calcium and Magnesium bind with that, that’s the cloudiness, sort of a soap scum. I guess the punch line is that as long as the detergent is not completely neutralized it should work.

How can you tell? Beats me. I buy RO water for $.25/gal. A 1 qt spray bottle lasts about a month before it runs out. I’m going with Charlie. If it turns cloudy get rid of it.

 

[winvarin]

This is going in my better bottles until I rack my beer. Then I am going to run it through my pump and pitch it. I rarely keep any for more than a few hrs unless it is a solution I make with distilled and put it in a spray bottle

 

[Justintoxicated]

Mine does the same thing and turns cloudy within minutes. I have been using it over a year this way without issues. If I had to go tot he water store every time I wanted to sanatize something I think I would go nuts.

Typically I mix a new 2.5 gallons before I brew to clean out the carboy and I store it in a bucket. I will typically use it until next time I brew or need to clean a carboy at which point I mix up another 2.5 gallons.

If you want to re-use 5 gallons for a year it's probably worth getting RO, but convenience for me is key. As cheap as RO is, a bottle of starsan isn't all that expensive either

I have put cloudy solution into my airlocks and whats interesting it that after the Co2 bubbles through it, it will turn clear again, does that mean it goes from bad back to good?

How do you all mix it in low enough amount for a spray bottle? I usually just fill my spray bottles with solution from my bucket. But there is only 2 useful lines on the bottle 1oz and 1/2 oz?

 

[winvarin]

How do you all mix it in low enough amount for a spray bottle? I usually just fill my spray bottles with solution from my bucket. But there is only 2 useful lines on the bottle 1oz and 1/2 oz?

I have a medicine dosing syringe. Got a few frim the vet actually when my dog was sick. i held a couple back for brew use.

30 ml of concentrate makes 5 gal. So 6 ml would make a gallon. If a gallon is 128 ounces, then 1 ml of concentrate should make roughly 21 ounces of solution. I then just decide how much solution I want to make and measure that many ml of concentrate with my syringe.

Water in my spray bottle. Squirt the solution in, shake and spray. I even got those generic spray bottles from Lowes that have measuring marks on the side of the bottle

 

[Justintoxicated]

I have a medicine dosing syringe. Got a few frim the vet actually when my dog was sick. i held a couple back for brew use.

30 ml of concentrate makes 5 gal. So 6 ml would make a gallon. If a gallon is 128 ounces, then 1 ml of concentrate should make roughly 21 ounces of solution. I then just decide how much solution I want to make and measure that many ml of concentrate with my syringe.

Water in my spray bottle. Squirt the solution in, shake and spray. I even got those generic spray bottles from Lowes that have measuring marks on the side of the bottle

Nice maybe I'll use bottled water for my spray bottle next time and see what happens. I buy starsan in the large bulk bottle so it's much heaper than $1 per 5 gallons anyways though, as someone else mentioned.