Homer Bucket and Starsan

madnetter1 · Feb 2, 2014

I just picked up a 5 gallon homer bucket and lid from home depot to use for storing a batch of starsan just to have it ready on demand. I mixed it up the other day and noticed today that it is completely clouded up today. I know these homer buckets are not food grade but thought it would be ok for some sanitizer. Is the starsan no good now? Also, anyone have experience using these buckets for that?

Cheers.

Hello · Feb 2, 2014

Something must be wrong, I use the same bucket and lid and my lid is slightly damaged and it's not cloudy. I use distilled water but for the first two times, I used tap. No difference that I could tell. Did you rinse the bucket before you mixed the batch?

ram5ey · Feb 2, 2014

I've been using homer buckets for starsan with my tap water and it keeps for months without getting cloudy or raising PH.

madnetter1 · Feb 2, 2014

I mixed up a batch of PBW in it before and rinsed it out but maybe it was not good enough. I will rinse everything real good and try making up another batch.

IvanTheTerribrew · Feb 3, 2014

The cloudiness is due to hardness of water. I can't recall what specific chemicals but it's water based. There has been much discussion about whether starsan stays good and the general consensus is: if the pH is at or below 3.0, the StarSan will sanitize. When I make my batches they are guaranteed to be cloudy the next day and I keep them for 3-4 months. No issues at all. Plus I've read somewhere StarSan is suppose to wear away plastic containers, never noticed anything.

I don't think it is your bucket it's your water. Unless you have a real problem with the cosmetics, I would simply invest in some pH strips and keep checking it. The buckets aren't food safe but that's only important for storing wort/beer. Besides that those buckets are great for sanitizer/grains/equipment, etc.

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madnetter1 · Feb 5, 2014

IvanTheTerribrew said:
The cloudiness is due to hardness of water. I can't recall what specific chemicals but it's water based. There has been much discussion about whether starsan stays good and the general consensus is: if the pH is at or below 3.0, the StarSan will sanitize. When I make my batches they are guaranteed to be cloudy the next day and I keep them for 3-4 months. No issues at all. Plus I've read somewhere StarSan is suppose to wear away plastic containers, never noticed anything.

I don't think it is your bucket it's your water. Unless you have a real problem with the cosmetics, I would simply invest in some pH strips and keep checking it. The buckets aren't food safe but that's only important for storing wort/beer. Besides that those buckets are great for sanitizer/grains/equipment, etc.

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Thanks Ivan. Not worried about cosmetics at all, just want funtionality. I will just go with it. Next time I get a chance I will also pick up some ph strips.