Long soak in Starsan..

[Stauffbier]

Is it safe to soak my racking tubing in starsan for 24 hours? Will it etch the tubing or anything? I feel like my tubing needs a good, deep cleaning before tomorrows bottling. It's soaking in warm PBW right now, but I wanted to follow up with a long starsan soak...

Thanks in advance!

 

[DryTownBrewer2012]

You really only need to soak it in starsan for only 2 hours at the most... Fragrance free oxy clean should do the trick for 1 hour then starsan for 30 min. If tubing isnt clean or if you doubt it at all its best to get some new tubing. Better to spend a dollar on some tubing than to let $25-60 of ingredients go to the angels.

 

[H-ost]

If your surface is clean and free of debris, star-san is only supposed to take one minute to sanitize and anything longer than that doesn't help or hurt anything. However, if you soak vinyl in a star-san solution long enough it will turn milky, I did this to some of my tubing after a day or so of it sitting in the solution.

 

[Stauffbier]

Yeah, I really would be better with new tubing, but I'm bottling first thing in the morning and won't have time to go buy new stuff. It's not really all that dirty, per se. It's just kind of old, and I wanted to take all precautions. I'm sure the soak in PBW will be fine. I also plan on pulling a string with a cotton ball tied to one end thru it to ensure that it's good and clean. I figured if there are any nasties hiding in it that a long starsan soak would help, but I guess I'll just do the usuall 30 minute soak while setting up and sanitizing bottles... Thanks for the input guys! Oh, and welcome to the site DryTownBrewer!

 

[Stauffbier]

So......... Yeah............. I'm going to Lowe's in the morning! I did the cotton ball on a string trick and that thing came out the other end with a rusty brown color. That tube was disgusting! I can't believe it, because I've only used it to rack about 4 or 5 batches. I clean it with oxiclean or PBW every time I use it, and yet it was still nasty! Now I'm even worrying a little about the last batch I bottled with this tubing a week ago! Hopefully it's ok. It's an IPA, so I'll drink it all young before anything can set in. There has got to be a better way for me to clean this stuff when I use it so I don't have to keep buying more every time I think it's dirty. It just seems wasteful. Maybe I should use a cotton ball to clean after every use!

 

[matt99004]

Sanitized gunk is still gunk. What you see visually is not necessarily an indication of potential infection. All the same, it sounds like you have a good sanitization regimen.

 

[Dan]

Hey Mike!

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I'm real suprised to hear 4-5 batches your tubing is so nasty. One trick I do (maybe you do and didn't mention it) is to use my auto-siphon after racking a beer or draining the brew kettlle.

I connect the sipon to my tubing, rinse away the easily rinseable (is that a word?) stuff inside it. Then do the same procedure with an Oxyclean solution with the input and output in the same vessel. I do that until the tube looks good and clean.

Then I fill a glass of water and stick the siphon in it and do the same process except the water expelled goes down the drain and the glass is sitting under a running faucet so it stays filled with fresh water.

Then I run StarSan through the tubing using the same vessle to pull the starsan as it is returned to. When I'm finished I store the StarSan and use it next time. I don't hav pH strips but just use the solution untill it starts getting cloudy. Has worked so far.

No nasty beer lines. When I get ready to use the autosiphon and tubing again I repeat the sanitization process, the equipment is clean I just sanitize for piece of mind.

 

[Stauffbier]

Thanks Dan! That's great advice! I have indeed done that a few times, but to be honest I usually just run hot water thru with the kitchen faucet and then soak it in a bucket of oxi or PBW over night and then rinse with the faucet again. I should use your method every time I think!

This also spawned another question... Do you think it would be safe to soak my autosiphon in oxi over night to make sure that the check-valve is good and clean?

 

[MisterTipsy]

yes it is safe

 

[DryTownBrewer2012]

Thanks for the welcome Stauffbier!

 

[BobBailey]

I know it isn't always feasible, but I always rinse everything within a few minutes of use and just give it a couple of minutes in Starsan. The only real negative I've seen when leaving tubing in sanitizer too long is that the tubing gets cloudy. BTW, my transfer tubing usually only gets replaced about once a year and I've never had an infected beer.

Bob

 

[Stauffbier]

I always do the quick rinse thing, as well, but after the tubing gets older that doesn't do the trick. I actually came up with a better wire/cotton ball method last night. After soaking my nasty old tubing in oxiclean (With Dan's recommendation of using the autosiphon to circulate) I ran the wire/cotton ball through it a couple times, and it cleaned it up beautifully! I will do this from now on, and I believe it will make my tubing last for years.

 

[bkl63]

Starsan is a sanitizer and not a cleaner. While it can and will turn you tubing milky for prolonged contact anything more than a few mins isn't necessary. As others have said, and as you were doing, use warm water and PBW to clean your tubing. I clean my equipment, and don't worry about Starsan until shortly before I need to use it. Anything that will contact bioling wort is cleaned only, anything that comes into contact with cooled/cooling wort is cleaned and sanitized.

Is it safe to soak my racking tubing in starsan for 24 hours? Will it etch the tubing or anything? I feel like my tubing needs a good, deep cleaning before tomorrows bottling. It's soaking in warm PBW right now, but I wanted to follow up with a long starsan soak...

Thanks in advance!

 

[Stauffbier]

Starsan is a sanitizer and not a cleaner. While it can and will turn you tubing milky for prolonged contact anything more than a few mins isn't necessary. As others have said, and as you were doing, use warm water and PBW to clean your tubing. I clean my equipment, and don't worry about Starsan until shortly before I need to use it. Anything that will contact bioling wort is cleaned only, anything that comes into contact with cooled/cooling wort is cleaned and sanitized.

Thanks for the input! I know my initial post sounded like a noob question, but just for the record I do realize that star-san is a sanitizer. I'm aware of how to use it in regards of contact time when sanitizing. I just wondered if an overnight soak would benefit by exposing the inside of the tube to high acidity for an extended period of time. I've read where people have used it to strip or clean things by mixing a stronger (more acidic) batch. A long soak in hot water and PBW wasn't getting the gunk out of the tubing. Even after repeated attempts. Now that I've managed to come up with the wire/cotton ball trick I think my problems are solved

Thanks again!

 

[bkl63]

Now that I've managed to come up with the wire/cotton ball trick I think my problems are solved

Thanks again!

Be careful to not score the inside of the tubing as it can create a place for nasties to hide which could come back to haunt your brew. Same with your plastic buckets.

I've heard stories of Starsan etching glass over long term contact (I'm kind of new to it as I also use iodophor, plus been using it since I began brewing). I have had iodophor sitting in my glass carboys for extended time with no ill effect and prefer to keep using it for glass. I use Starsan for short term brew day type use.

 

[Stauffbier]

Be careful to not score the inside of the tubing as it can create a place for nasties to hide which could come back to haunt your brew. Same with your plastic buckets.

I've heard stories of Starsan etching glass over long term contact (I'm kind of new to it as I also use iodophor, plus been using it since I began brewing). I have had iodophor sitting in my glass carboys for extended time with no ill effect and prefer to keep using it for glass. I use Starsan for short term brew day type use.

Yeah I kept the "no scouring" thing in mind. The wire is insulated and the cotton ball is, well, a cotton ball!

I've stored star-san in glass long term without issue. I started with star-san when I first started brewing, so I've got a good amount of experience with it as a sanitizer. I've just been curious as to other uses for it as a cleaner since it is an acid. The fact is, it's not a sanitizer by nature. It's an acid! We have adopted it as a sanitizer, because it's food safe in small amounts and kills bacteria. In reality cleaners are made with different types of acid, which is what gave me the idea of using a stronger solution of it on my tubing. I've heard stories of using strong dilutions of star-san to clean imerssion chillers and other objects..

 

[dnslater]

I usually fill one of my plastic fermenters with starsan solution when done and let sit with the autosiphon and tube immersed. Sometimes for a week or two until the next brew time.

 

[Stauffbier]

I usually fill one of my plastic fermenters with starsan solution when done and let sit with the autosiphon and tube immersed. Sometimes for a week or two until the next brew time.

No problems with the tubing or autosiphon getting cloudy looking?

 

[dnslater]

No problems with the tubing or autosiphon getting cloudy looking?

The tube gets a bit slimmy/cloudy but not the autosiphon. I usually run fresh hot water/sanitizer through it before using. I assume the slimy residue doesn't hurt?

 

[Stauffbier]

I believe the cloudy look of the tubing means the acid of star-san has etched it, which makes it more porous. This creats more areas for bacteria to hide. Or at least this is my theory, but I could be wrong!

 

[Greenbasterd]

i've left star-san inside a serving hose for oveer 48 hours and it didn't dule it.. but i had a hose in some star san in a container about 2 inches deepth with star san, some parts in some out. i didn't fill the hose just kinda tossed it in after using and forgot.. the next day any part of the hose that was in star san was now dull non see thru and where it was sticking out to the air it was the same see thru hose.. so maybe it was a star-san air mix that did it i donno..

 

[rideincircles]

Why does starsan make things cloudy? Is it dissolving the plastic then? I usually have a bucket of starsan sitting around and i regularly leave things soaking in there for days if not weeks at a time. Most plastic stuff and stainless has no issues, but some aluminum things will start pitting, and tubing will turn milky and will have a slime on it that is hard to get off your hands if you get it on there.

Is the slime due to vinyl dissolving? Is my food safe plastic bucket slowly dissolving?

Also, over the long term, starsan can etch glass. I found out that a double starsan mixture can be effective for taking off stubborn labels if letting it soak a few days, but I left some bottles in for weeks and there was a white film on them that wouldn't come off and all the bottles got chunked.

 

[Stauffbier]

Yeah, the acid breaks down the tubing. Food grade buckets will hold up to long term exposure, though. I've been using the same bucket to store my solution for almost 3 years now. Some plastics are fine with long term exposure, like airlocks, etc. Softer things like tubing and rubber don't hold up as well. I certainly don't recommend leaving aluminum in contact for extended periods of time..