Nebraskan
Assoc. Winemaker
Star-San is diluted 1 fl/ 5 gal water. For me that is a lot of working strength sanitizer. I bought the smaller 8 oz bottle and lasts a long time, and here is what I do.
1 fl = 29.57353 ml so 1 gallon need 1/5 of this amount 29.57373/5 = 5.9147 ml. Round to 6 ml for the sake of convenience. You get a 10ml blowout pipette, glass, TD (to deliver) and simply suck up 6 ml into the pipette (which is at the 4ml mark) and blow it out into the gallon of water, and use some of that water, to draw up into the pipette again to get all of it out as it is thick. I have a 1/2 gallon growler, clear, that I put 3ml into and filled with water. This is the equivalent of having 5 gallons of the sanitizer sitting around, and with spray bottles and going from container to container a little can go a long way.
Since it is a blow out pipette in 10ml YOU draw up just a little over 3, which would be to the 6ml mark and put your finger tip of the end of the pipette and release a little pressure allowing the Star-San to go back into the bottle until you have the bottom of the meniscus at the 7ml mark. Remember, you are going backwards, and the bottom of the pipette represents 1 ml as it is not finely graduated at that point. Just count up the marks from 10, 9, 8, etc of ml and that is what you would need. Example: you need 5 go to the 5ml mark; you need 8ml go to the 2ml mark; you need 10ml go all the way to the 0 ml and when you let the fluid drain out of the pipette, blow the last of it in. WAIT for a few seconds, usually 7 sec on most fluids and blow again. Star-San, however, is rather viscous, so you will have to blow a few times, or merely draw up some water (sucking carefully) from your container and let that "rinse" out the pipette.
10ml blow out pipette is a wonderful investment and not overly expensive. Glass makes it easy to clean and sanitize. As your beer/cider/wine progresses, you can get out the pipette, make sure it is clean and sanitized, and then draw out 10ml + to a small glass to "taste" how things are going. Much better than a turkey baster. Useful in other ways for making up solutions or adding small amounts of fining agents (liquid) to beer/wine/cider.
1 fl = 29.57353 ml so 1 gallon need 1/5 of this amount 29.57373/5 = 5.9147 ml. Round to 6 ml for the sake of convenience. You get a 10ml blowout pipette, glass, TD (to deliver) and simply suck up 6 ml into the pipette (which is at the 4ml mark) and blow it out into the gallon of water, and use some of that water, to draw up into the pipette again to get all of it out as it is thick. I have a 1/2 gallon growler, clear, that I put 3ml into and filled with water. This is the equivalent of having 5 gallons of the sanitizer sitting around, and with spray bottles and going from container to container a little can go a long way.
Since it is a blow out pipette in 10ml YOU draw up just a little over 3, which would be to the 6ml mark and put your finger tip of the end of the pipette and release a little pressure allowing the Star-San to go back into the bottle until you have the bottom of the meniscus at the 7ml mark. Remember, you are going backwards, and the bottom of the pipette represents 1 ml as it is not finely graduated at that point. Just count up the marks from 10, 9, 8, etc of ml and that is what you would need. Example: you need 5 go to the 5ml mark; you need 8ml go to the 2ml mark; you need 10ml go all the way to the 0 ml and when you let the fluid drain out of the pipette, blow the last of it in. WAIT for a few seconds, usually 7 sec on most fluids and blow again. Star-San, however, is rather viscous, so you will have to blow a few times, or merely draw up some water (sucking carefully) from your container and let that "rinse" out the pipette.
10ml blow out pipette is a wonderful investment and not overly expensive. Glass makes it easy to clean and sanitize. As your beer/cider/wine progresses, you can get out the pipette, make sure it is clean and sanitized, and then draw out 10ml + to a small glass to "taste" how things are going. Much better than a turkey baster. Useful in other ways for making up solutions or adding small amounts of fining agents (liquid) to beer/wine/cider.