Idophor ... Wort tastes like butt

[ECBrew]

Why do some people prefer idophor to star San?
Seems to be slightly more annoying to work with. Is it cheaper?

Been using it as my only sanitizer for 11 years and never had a single issue. I remember many years back reading an article someone wrote about taste threshold with differing levels of iodophor in beer. The titrated differing amounts into a beer to determine where you'd get any off flavor. The taste threshold was so high that you'd have to really use a lot higher concentration than you'd ever need to be able to taste it in a finished beer, and even then I think it came out slight. Further, iodophor will not damage stainless steel as star san can. I always asked myself why everyone seemed to flock to starsan, I never really got it, and why they didn't use iodophor. But that's why we have choices.

 

[OZZ]

Well.... The damage on stainless steel is a good point. The batch is bubbling away nicely at the moment so I'll be taking a sample once fermentation slows down, I'm guessing in another few days. I'll update this accordingly

 

[ECBrew]

Well.... The damage on stainless steel is a good point. The batch is bubbling away nicely at the moment so I'll be taking a sample once fermentation slows down, I'm guessing in another few days. I'll update this accordingly

I'm not saying it will damage your stainless and with as popular as it is I assume it's not much of an issue unless you leave it sitting in there for an extended time (though I find it troubling that some sites sell it noting that it will not damage stainless). It also won't discolor your pastic bits, if that's an issue visually for you, as iodine based sanitizers can with extended time. They both have their place, and their fans. I think contact time is shorter with star san as well. I just started with iodophor and never had an issue so why switch.
Cheers!

 

[OZZ]

I was keeping star San in my kegs for months, and wonder if that could be a problem? I've heard of many people doing that with no issues though so I'm not sure.

 

[Hopper5000]

I don't think you have to worry about it in stainless

 

[mredge73]

Good luck man, I quit using Idophor for this same reason.
I got just a little bit of solution in my beer due to carelessness and it ruined the entire batch.
What I did is crash cool my brew and the blowoff tube sucked in some of the Idophor solution, lesson learned since every sip tasted like iodophor.

StarSan is tasteless and IMO is superior to Idophor. Contact time is short and I reuse my starsan solution over and over again, 6 months or longer when made with RO water. I always have a keg full at all times, no issues whatsoever. It doesn't weaken much over time and is super easy to check it's effectiveness with a PH meter since it is just a acid wash (PH 2.0 is all that is needed). Because it is reusable like this, it makes it the cheapest option overall for a home brewer. It however is not very safe for aluminium, the acid can/will remove the protective oxidation layer.

Idophor has a strong taste that doesn't go away; I was very anal about draining out every drop when I was using this stuff. Solutions don't hold very long, a few days at most when sealed in a opaque container and will stain equipment if kept a while. It also is a weak oxidizer so if you already have surface rust it will make it worst. I don't believe either will pit SS or initiate the damage. Many breweries use an iodine wash instead of an acid wash because it is much cheaper when used as a rinse. StarSan will hurt your wallet if you dump it every brew; Idophor won't.

 

[ECBrew]

Idophor has a strong taste that doesn't go away; I was very anal about draining out every drop when I was using this stuff...

Like I previously stated I've used it for a very long time and never had this issue, and even mentioned a taste threshold test that I read indicating that this is not an issue at the recommended strengths.

edit: I found the taste threshold test I read way back
http://www.franklinbrew.org/wp/?page_id=384

Summary

Both testers easily detected iodophor in distilled water when the level of iodophor was 4 times “normal”.

Neither tester could find the iodophor in distilled water at twice the “normal level”.

Neither tester could detect iodophor contamination in SNPA at 8 times the “normal level”.

I think you guys might be mixing it too strong or having interactions with chlorine?

More info (2008 probrewer): http://discussions.probrewer.com/archive/index.php/t-10400.html

http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/234-bleach-and-iodine-mr-wizard

 

[OZZ]

Ding ding ding!

I thank that right there is the cause of all my problems I've been having really weird metallic flavors that I started a thread on here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=541228

I have been trying to eliminate the problem but it seems it's all over the place. Beers taste fine when under carbed at 8psi. When I go to 12 I get a weird metallic iron like taste that can get undrinkable.

Now this with the iodophor.... I'm on a community well and didn't have these problems previously but I'm seriously suspecting they did something different with the water recently that is causing my problems. Monday I'll be brewing a batch with all amended RO water. Hopefully this will eliminate the problems. As seen in the other thread I've been through a bunch of troubleshooting but this situation with the iodophor is different, this was immediately upon transferring the wort.

Previously all batches tasted fine until carbed. Then I used the iodophor again and had a different taste. A strong iodophor taste.

I really wonder if I'm having interactions with crap that's in my water. This next batch should tell me if that's the case.

All that said... I'm still gonna stick with star San from here on out and it will be probably Monday that I try this batch to see if the iodophor taste is still there.