Sanitation: How long does Star-San stay good for (mixed up)?

[olie]

What if I've had a couple gallons of starsan in a bucket for, say, two years roundabout. Is the BUCKET still ok? Smells good, looks good. ???

StarSan (acid) does not harm plastic. It slowly eats away at metal. So it depends on what your bucket is.

 

[day_trippr]

Yeah, that's actually not true. I don't know what kind of plastics Star San (or perhaps more on target - phosphoric acid) will consume but the plastic spigot I use on my Star San bucket will reliably be eaten up over a couple of years of constant soaking exposure to the point that the nylon lock nut will slip over the reduced spigot threads.

Also, years ago there was a practice of stuffing Delrin "mixing sticks" down corny keg dip tubes to compensate for too-short beer lines. One curious HBT member left a couple of sticks in Star San and noticed they were getting eaten up...

Cheers!

 

[Dog House Brew]

Interesting thread. My LHBS says as long as the stuff foams up during use, it is good. And mine always starts out cloudy! He lets his keg and carboy washer run for minutes. Not sure how long. I do know that using kmeta for sanitizing is good only momentarily.

That are not accurate. If it is cloudy and mixed with tap, you have to check ph. Distilled/StarSan mix will last an unknown time. Mine is over a year and still unchanged ph.

 

[ChandlerBang]

StarSan (acid) does not harm plastic. It slowly eats away at metal. So it depends on what your bucket is.

Bottle bucket. That one bottle bucket everyone has.

Yeah, that's actually not true. I don't know what kind of plastics Star San (or perhaps more on target - phosphoric acid) will consume but the plastic spigot I use on my Star San bucket will reliably be eaten up over a couple of years of constant soaking exposure to the point that the nylon lock nut will slip over the reduced spigot threads.

Also, years ago there was a practice of stuffing Delrin "mixing sticks" down corny keg dip tubes to compensate for too-short beer lines. One curious HBT member left a couple of sticks in Star San and noticed they were getting eaten up...

Cheers!

Well it isn't leaking yet, I'll inspect all components carefully.

 

[zache19]

I have a bunch of sanke kegs and I'm considering making about 10 gallons of sanitizer and using an old keg coupler and CO2 to extract it as needed. I would only need to invest in a regulator.

I'm planning on brewing minimum of 8 times this year. Bad idea?

 

[olie]

FWIW, this is what we do, and it seems to work quite well. If nothing else, it's a convenient way to rinse-out bottling gear and similar.

I drive my sanitizer at pretty low pressure and bleed the keg, but sometimes still end up with mild carbonation, which I find annoying (bubbles in the line means sanitizer isn't touching that spot. Easy work around, but I'm lazy ).

 

[Brewbuzzard]

I stumbled onto this thread and it hit upon an issue I've been thinking about. I keep my starsan mixture in a 6 gal food grade bucket and I've noticed the bucket gets a bit sticky on the inside and hoses and beer line get foggy. Is this eating away at my buckets and hoses?

 

[LokiM4]

I stumbled onto this thread and it hit upon an issue I've been thinking about. I keep my starsan mixture in a 6 gal food grade bucket and I've noticed the bucket gets a bit sticky on the inside and hoses and beer line get foggy. Is this eating away at my buckets and hoses?

I think it imparts an off flavor to hoses if they’re left to soak for extended periods. I’d wash, run thru Star San and remove to drip dry.

 

[Brewbuzzard]

I think it imparts an off flavor to hoses if they’re left to soak for extended periods. I’d wash, run thru Star San and remove to drip dry.

Yeah I don't let them set anymore.