Sanitation, keg lube, "dirty star san"

[EscapeArtistBrewing]

Some musings I had questions about:

1. When applying keg lube to "sanitary" surfaces, is there a best practice for not contaminating things? The CIP Film tube I uses isn't necessarily sanitary but I spray it when I uncap it. and I spray my finger before putting a sample on it. Is there anything else to consider to avoid an infection? Probably not much will grow in the tube of lube, but still....

2. I keep a bucket of Star San at the ready. During boiling, I rest my stir spoon in the bucket, adding small but present material with each dip. When bottling, let the start of the siphon dump into the bucket, then keep the bottling wand in the bucket. In each case, material is added to the Star San. Is "contaminating" the Start San with these small additions a problem for it, or will Star San still be as effective?

 

[Broken Crow]

Some musings I had questions about:

1. When applying keg lube to "sanitary" surfaces, is there a best practice for not contaminating things? The CIP Film tube I uses isn't necessarily sanitary but I spray it when I uncap it. and I spray my finger before putting a sample on it. Is there anything else to consider to avoid an infection? Probably not much will grow in the tube of lube, but still....

2. I keep a bucket of Star San at the ready. During boiling, I rest my stir spoon in the bucket, adding small but present material with each dip. When bottling, let the start of the siphon dump into the bucket, then keep the bottling wand in the bucket. In each case, material is added to the Star San. Is "contaminating" the Start San with these small additions a problem for it, or will Star San still be as effective?

Thanks for bringing this up! It was actually a revalation to me recently that most who use fermentation gas to purge their kegs, do so in a keg that has already been emptied of Star San... When I tried it, I used the gas to push the Star San out of a 99.99999% Star San filled keg and because of the bubbling, I got stinky Star San that I threw out.
I'm not familiar with the 'spray lube' you mention, can you share details?
When boiling, the boil itself will kill everything, so I don't bother putting utensils in it. I have, when bottling, Flushed hoses and wand with Star San, or later my Beergun, but then I dispose of it.
Star San can take a bit of foriegn matter, but the essential thing is not altering the pH...you dilute it and it immediately breaks down...that's pretty much been my guide post.. As to contamination, I just accept tossing it before I do anything that might contaminate it.
Looking forward to how this thread fills out.

 

[wsmith1625]

1. When applying keg lube to "sanitary" surfaces, is there a best practice for not contaminating things? The CIP Film tube I uses isn't necessarily sanitary but I spray it when I uncap it. and I spray my finger before putting a sample on it. Is there anything else to consider to avoid an infection? Probably not much will grow in the tube of lube, but still....

2. I keep a bucket of Star San at the ready. During boiling, I rest my stir spoon in the bucket, adding small but present material with each dip. When bottling, let the start of the siphon dump into the bucket, then keep the bottling wand in the bucket. In each case, material is added to the Star San. Is "contaminating" the Start San with these small additions a problem for it, or will Star San still be as effective?

1. Break down and clean the kegs and then let them air dry. Once dry, lube the o-rings and reassemble. Then before kegging, everything gets sanitized with Stasan before filling and sealing. Once the kegs are filled, don't take the lids off again until they're empty and need cleaning.

2. I always use Starsan on clean surfaces so that I don't contaminate my batch. If you need to sanitize anything that's not clean, get a cheap spray bottle and spray it instead of dunking. As for Starsan that has come into contact with organic matter, it may still be good, but it grosses me out and would get dumped and replaced with a fresh batch.

 

[EscapeArtistBrewing]

I'm not familiar with the 'spray lube' you mention, can you share details?

Sorry, @Broken Crow, what I should have said is I that for my tube of CIP-Film (solid grease in a tube), I uncap it, then spray the open end of it with Star San before I put a dab on my finger. (I spray my finger too!) I'm not using "spray lube". Bad typing on my part!

For that matter, I usually give everything a Star San spray--from the outsides of bags of hops or yeast, to quick disconnects, to fermenter or keg lids, to whatever.

 

[Broken Crow]

Gothcha.. I have a sanitary pack of cotton swabs on my electronics bench I'll usually break out for keg-lube application.. I hate having to wash my hands again because of the massive rinse times to get the scent of soap off my myself when I'm not using glycerin soap. (I'm both on a very tight budget and my skin 'prefers' me to alternate the type of soap I use with each bar change, so I'm often stuck with a Unilever product that has been excessively smelly since they outsourced all it's production to a nation with more lax environmental and health laws....lifelong brands have stunk to high-heavens since the mid-00's.)
Have you tried just using a separate container for Star San that'll have other stuff touch it so you can toss a small portion, or do you mix and use it all in one specific bucket?

 

[EscapeArtistBrewing]

Gothcha.. I have a sanitary pack of cotton swabs on my electronics bench I'll usually break out for keg-lube application.. I hate having to wash my hands again because of the massive rinse times to get the scent of soap off my myself when I'm not using glycerin soap. (I'm both on a very tight budget and my skin 'prefers' me to alternate the type of soap I use with each bar change, so I'm often stuck with a Unilever product that has been excessively smelly since they outsourced all it's production to a nation with more lax environmental and health laws....lifelong brands have stunk to high-heavens since the mid-00's.)
Have you tried just using a separate container for Star San that'll have other stuff touch it so you can toss a small portion, or do you mix and use it all in one specific bucket?

Ditto on smelly soap! Good tip on the q-tips.

I'm pretty liberal with the Star San. I have a 5-gal bucket for the immersion chiller, another for swishing the fermenter or rinsing spoons, and sometimes one more for just-in-cases. The spray bottle is always in use. For me, an ounce (per bucket) is worth a pound of (potential) cure.