Sanitizing gear

[chumpsteak]

Does anyone know if Starsan can kill all the bugs? Sach, Brett, lacto, pedio? I know separate gear is recommended but I usually keep a bucket with Starsan and want to know if I need 2 buckets now, one for clean fermentation gear and one for mixed ferm gear?

 

[IslandLizard]

Starsan will kill all the same, no need for separate sanitation vessels. Remember, your equipment should be clean and rinsed first before dunking in your Starsan bucket to sanitize it.

The buffering capacity of Starsan is relatively small, so dumping a few ounces of yeast, a quart of wort or beer, or any other chemical overload (PBW, Oxiclean, etc.) in it, will render it ineffective.

 

[chumpsteak]

Need to keep pH around 2 right?

 

[IslandLizard]

Need to keep pH around 2 right?

Not quite.
A freshly mixed working solution (1 oz / 5 gallons) is between pH 2.65 and 3.0, depending on the mineral content of the water. In distilled or RO water it is toward the lower number.

As long as you keep it under 3.0 by adding some Phosphoric Acid (or more concentrate) it will keep working fine, for weeks, even months. Cloudiness doesn't automatically mean it's become inactive. I have 8 years of proof for that.

Now the surfactant component can become depleted too, and is not as easily measured and restored. Adding more concentrate will fix it, but then you may as well dump the old and make fresh.

That's one of the reasons everything needs to be clean and rinsed before the Starsan treatment.

 

[chumpsteak]

Thanks!