Seperate bucket of starsan for sours?

[ja09]

I was recently talking sours with someone at my LHBS (Northern Brewer), and discussing separate equipment, best practices, yada yada, and he said something I've never heard before.. "Make sure to keep a separate bucket of starsan for your sour equipment".

Is this really necessary? Does starsan not kill sour bugs submerged in it? Could bugs really be transferred to my non-sour equipment?

He seemed knowledgeable, and was actually pretty emphatic about it, which is why I ask. Cheers

 

[BradleyBrew]

I dont see how a "bug" could survive being completely submerged in a bucket of solution meant to kill it. I'm 99.99% sure the only reason that people advise to separate plastic is the chance that the bugs are in a little scratch that is not completely in contact with the star san.

 

[ja09]

I dont see how a "bug" could survive being completely submerged in a bucket of solution meant to kill it. I'm 99.99% sure the only reason that people advise to separate plastic is the chance that the bugs are in a little scratch that is not completely in contact with the star san.

That's what I thought as well. Does anyone use a separate bucket?

 

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

That and your talking to someone who wants to sell you more equipment

 

[BradleyBrew]

I have done 3 different sours and have not used a different bucket with no problems.

 

[ja09]

That and your talking to someone who wants to sell you more equipment

He was quite sincere, I guarantee he was not trying sell me a bucket.. at least I hope not! He said they had a persistent bug with multiple batches at Northern Brewer's MPLS location, and they isolated it down to using the same starsan bucket, with totally separate equipment.

I walked away not really believing this, but thought I'd check with HBT, of course

 

[brewguyver]

I just use the separate bucket I ferment sour stuff in to soak in. I also use star San in a spray bottle most of the time, so it's a non issue.

 

[ja09]

Anyone else have knowledge about this? I'm still a little baffled by the thought. Are there any bugs/bacterias/yeast that startsan does not kill?

 

[brewguyver]

Anyone else have knowledge about this? I'm still a little baffled by the thought. Are there any bugs/bacterias/yeast that startsan does not kill?

Yep there are two main concerns. The first is that you are sanitizing not sterilizing so there could be some bugs that survived and some of these bugs are better in high acid environment than your typical bug.

Second a lot of concerns have been raised around the permeability of buckets as well as micropores or scratches where the bugs can hide from sanitizers.

If you do really good job of sanitizing, you're using a fast acting yeast, and your consume the beer quickly it should be fine. That said many sour strains are like the little engine that could - they think they can they think they can and eventually they are going to screw up your beer if you haven't consumed it first.

Now granted this isn't a sure thing and you may never have a problem. However at a cost between 20 and 50 bucks a batch and 3 to 6 hours of work plus TLC during fermenting it's not worth the risk for many of us.

 

[milldoggy]

Been making sours for 3 years, using the same bucket the whole time for starsan and never had an infection that I did not do on purpose. I have aged beers for up to year and a half.