Star-San alternative
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And your "neck of the woods" would be where? 
Iodophor, Saniclean, One-Step, B-Brite, among others...
Cheers!
Iodophor, Saniclean, One-Step, B-Brite, among others...
Cheers!
FloppyKnockers
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I'll die on this hill.
Been using Lysol no-rinse sanitizer for about 10 years now with no problems. A fraction of the cost of StarSan.
Been using Lysol no-rinse sanitizer for about 10 years now with no problems. A fraction of the cost of StarSan.
$62 a gallon is a fairly large fraction of $78 a gallon (at Amazon anyway). Is there someplace where you get it cheaper?
Doesn't look like it's available in Canada. Maybe I'll just bite the bullet and stick with Star-San. The upside is, unless that stuff expires, I might never have to buy it again.
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FloppyKnockers
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Fixed it for ya
(it's a 4-pak for that price)It used to be at my local Cash & Carry / Smart and Final, but they stopped carrying it. I Amazon it up now.
FloppyKnockers
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Well, darn... Maybe there's a no-rinse sanitizer at a local restaurant supply? Only problem there is finding one that's open to the public - here, anyway.
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https://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/star-san-16-oz.html
https://torontobrewing.ca/products/...oz?_pos=2&_sid=58c98c240&_ss=r&_fid=decc08e6d
Cash is always tight for me, but since it has a long shelf life I'd rather spend the once in a blue moon cash just for the security of having it on hand when I need it. Personal choice I guess, but I can't imagine buying only a small quantity.
https://torontobrewing.ca/products/...oz?_pos=2&_sid=58c98c240&_ss=r&_fid=decc08e6d
Cash is always tight for me, but since it has a long shelf life I'd rather spend the once in a blue moon cash just for the security of having it on hand when I need it. Personal choice I guess, but I can't imagine buying only a small quantity.
It better have a long shelf life, the 16oz lasted me 8 years.
Know any brewers in your area who might split the cost of that 32 oz Starsan?
FloppyKnockers
Well-Known Member
HOLY HELL!!It better have a long shelf life, the 16oz lasted me 8 years.
If you really want to go cheap, chlorine bleach can be a very effective no-rinse sanitizer. 1/2 oz per gallon; 1-5 minutes contact time. Bear in mind that it really doesn't keep at all when it's that dilute, so you have to make it fresh for each use. Higher concentrations require rinsing.
Nope. On the plus side I won't need to be so stingy with it.
Are you sanitizing kegs, plastic buckets, vials...? Chlorine bleach... eg Clorox... works well for buckets. Not ok for kegs, though.
It better have a long shelf life, the 16oz lasted me 8 years.
I’m on my second bottle, about half full. I started seriously brewing, graduating from One Step, in about 2004 or so. So 20 years now, so I’d say it lasts a long time.
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Paracetic acid. 1 oz per 5 gallons of water, never above 95°. No foam, no rinse. Can’t let it sit in a bucket like you can star san, it breaks down too quickly. Use nitrile gloves and eye pro, it stings pretty bad at full strength when you get it on your skin, but it doesn’t last long. Try not to breathe it. Although if you do once, you won’t do it twice. Pretty harmless when at solution strength.
I am interested in how you use this? Same as StarSan by diluting it in water? I think it would be much more cost effective than StarSan and would be easy for me to get as my wife is an Amazon Prime member.
Check out the dairy supply stores. I use products available at our local Fleet Farm, Stearns products. I use the cleaner sanitizer, cip cleaners and an utensil cleaner.
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FloppyKnockers
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It's very similar to StarSan as use goes. It still foams, but doesn't have that off putting egg smell StarSan does.
To treat kegs and fermenters, I fill halfway with water and a jigger of sanitizer (label calls for 1/4 to 1/2 oz per gallon depending on application). I invert the keg after a few minutes to get the whole keg. I'll slosh the fermenter around a few times to keep wet several times while chilling wort.
I use a little bucket to pour some solution into for small parts sanitizing.
Not really any different than using StarSan.
Whether we know it or not, most of us have used sanitizers similar to the Lysol no-rinse before. Hint - there's no Clorox in Clorox wipes.
Can you elaborate a little bit on the products you use. I also live in Wisconsin and have looked at the utensil cleaner you mentioned and wonder if you use the acid rinse also. Thanks
Great to hear from other Wisconsin folks or those close by.
I don't use the acid rinse. I have three products from Fleet Farm that I use in my brewery, pictured below.
The first is iodine for sanitizing and it does stain. I use it on all my stainless steel, which is just about every I use except silicone tubing.
The middle one is a cleaner and sanitizer but I use it mostly as a sanitizer. You wouldn't need the iodine is you bought that one. I had the iodine first.
The third one is my cleaner only. It foams a lot so I don't use it with my keg cleaner pump. Only with hand cleaning, sloshing around inside of kegs and my fermenters. I use PBW with the keg washer.
Let me know if you need more details on any of them. They are very concentrated so a gallon goes a long way. If you don't use much maybe split a gallon with someone else who brews.
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I have always used pH buffered bleach.
Never lost a brew, be it wine or beer
This has likely been posted before, but here is the chemist that developed Starsan discussing the good virtues of buffered bleach for brewing sanitization. In proper amounts, 30 second contact time and no rinse.
Audio interview
Bleach dilution calculator
Works great and you can’t get any cheaper unless you use heat to sanitize (oven or maybe on the sanitization cycle of a dishwasher, but these limit equipment size).
Never lost a brew, be it wine or beer
This has likely been posted before, but here is the chemist that developed Starsan discussing the good virtues of buffered bleach for brewing sanitization. In proper amounts, 30 second contact time and no rinse.
Audio interview
Bleach dilution calculator
Works great and you can’t get any cheaper unless you use heat to sanitize (oven or maybe on the sanitization cycle of a dishwasher, but these limit equipment size).
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Dancy
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I found this on the BeerCreation.com website:
“Star San is a reusable sanitizer. Undiluted Star San has a shelf life of 1-2 years as long as the PH level is below 3. Diluted Star San stored in an open container should be used within an hour or so. When stored in a sealed container it should last you 3-4 weeks with a PH level of less than 3.
As with many consumer goods, it is often much cheaper to buy Star San in bulk. This may just mean opting for the 32oz bottle over an 8 oz bottle, but it’s still a lot of sanitizer given the ratios you need to mix it in.
Even if you could brew every day, you may never make it through the largest bottle of star san available on the market”
I have the seen/heard the same or very similar info from other sources over the years — hope it’s helpful.
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