Sanitation Shelf life?

[EALynx]

Hi, I have a question about my powder sanitation mix. I have been brewing for a year now and I have heard that you can mix a batch of this solution in a 5 gal. bucket and use it over and over. I did buy a new bucket and I tried it for 1 month and used it for three batches including brewing, racking, and bottling. Then I read on another forum that this is not a good idea if you use tap water. They claim that the chlorine will wear down the effectiveness of the solution. What do you guys think about this topic? BTW I use ID Carlson Easy Clean. Thanks for any help on this topic.

 

[todd_k]

Not sure about the shelf life but I used to use that stuff, I recommend switching to Star-San. Star-San is good as long as you can mix it up and it makes bubbles. I use a whole lot less Star Stan than the ID Carlson so it's way more cost effective.

 

[EALynx]

Todd, do you reuse your starsan? If so, how often?

 

[todd_k]

Yeah, and it lasts a while. Some have told me it lasts 2 weeks but I get bubbles longer then that. I usually keep a 5 gal bucket of SS for an entire batch from brew day to bottling day, unless it gets too dirty from throwing equipment into it.

 

[EALynx]

Todd, Thanks for the imput. I'll look for some starsan next time i buy buy sanitizer.

 

[Schlenkerla]

I always use tap water for my sanitisers. My water is city water and is relatively clean. I use two sanitisers. One-Step & Idophor. My decision on which one I use is based on much I think I need. One-Step by the gallon, BTF-Idophor 2.5-5.0 gallons at a time.

I only use sanitser one day. I have read One-Step can last a week in the fridge, however as cheap as it is and as how costly the other ingredients are now I don't think saving it is worth the bother.

If the sanitiser in the course of one day looks dirty, I will pitch it and make more. Whatever is sanitized should be clean from the start

I one time left Idophor in a covered pail with siphon hoses in the bottom. The solution was very slimey and discolored the hoses. This was a couple weeks later. Into the trash they went and off to hardware store I went!

I also use bleach 2 oz per 5 gal water. When mixing the two you need to use warm to cool water. Hot water will flash off the chlorine gas rendering the sanitizer/cleaner less effective. Sunlight will degrade it too. I store all of my empty carboys with bleach water so nothing funky grows in them. This is the only thing I save and my only use for bleach.

I don't know how using tap water would render sanitiser less effective unless it from a poor well or if its hot and you are drawing sediment from the hot water heater. Special water treatments could be a factor. If you have RO water in the house and you have the copper anode in your water heater it will make the water sulfury, more so worse for brewing. If you have soft water with added salts that may increase the PPM of disolved solids thus lowering the affinity for free particals to attach moleculary or go into solution. Soft water is more saturated with salts so mixing sanitizers with such water won't stay insolution as well or will settle to the bottom sooner. You might have to work harder or wait longer to blend them or continue to do so with time. Think of what happens if you mix sugar into iced tea and it won't disolve quickly after so much is added it won't hold any more and it settles out to the bottom. In my opionion I don't think that soft water is really a problem most city water is softened to some degree.

The only bottled water I use is for brewing, usually just the top-off and the airlocks. Sometimes I use sanitiser in the air locks too.

 

[user 4295]

Sanitizer should never look dirty because you are not supposed to sanitize something that has not been properly cleaned with the detergent of your choice. I prefer PBW myself.

Star-San is an acid sanitizer and remains effective as long as the pH is below 3. I bought some cheap pH test strips to check it. Even if the pH rises above 3 all you have to do is "sweeten" it up a little with some more concentrate to drive the pH back down. Star-San will cloud up some when mixed with tap water. This is due to the mineral content. The pH is the deciding factor in determining if Star-San is still effective.

I usually keep a batch of Star-San around for about 4-6 weeks before making up a new batch. Even when I get around to throwing the current batch of SS away the pH is still below 3. I just feel better knowing I have a fresh batch.

John

 

[Schlenkerla]

Sanitizer should never look dirty because you are not supposed to sanitize something that has not been properly cleaned with the detergent of your choice. I prefer PBW myself.
John

Good point! - Just last weekend I bottled my last batch and started a new one. When I was done with the bottling I noticed some floaties in the sanitizer, so I dumped it out before doing anything else. Anyhow its a good visual aide to know its time to dispose of the stuff.

Further thought is it puzzles me where that came from because I had rinsed everything well. I clean & air dry everything before storing. Must have missed something...