Star San use w/ alkaline, hard water

[p_p]

Hi all,
My water comes at around 350ppm hardness and 250+ ppm alkalinity.
Star San turns cloudy almost immediately though pH seems to remain at 3 for a while.
I've been using bottled soft water to make sanitizing solution on the brew day, but that means I cannot fill containers to soak big stuff (would be too expensive).

Can I neutralize the water's alkalinity to pH 4.3 and then add Star San as indicated? Is the harness going to be a problem?

Thanks

 

[dkeller12]

Someone may correct me but I was under the impression that the cloudiness was not an issue as long as the pH is correct. When I had hard water I used distilled water and mainly use a spray bottle to sanitize. Saves wasting tons of Star San. A small bottle of the stuff lasts me years this way. You shouldn't have to soak anything in the solution.

 

[mabrungard]

In my opinion, both hardness and alkalinity are problems with StarSan. Hardness creates a slimey calcium phosphate coating on equipment that soaks in the solution. Alkalinity creates additional demand for the StarSan concentrate in order to produce the desirable low pH. The best option is to use very low hardness and alkalinity water to mix up your StarSan solution.

 

[p_p]

In my opinion, both hardness and alkalinity are problems with StarSan. Hardness creates a slimey calcium phosphate coating on equipment that soaks in the solution. Alkalinity creates additional demand for the StarSan concentrate in order to produce the desirable low pH. The best option is to use very low hardness and alkalinity water to mix up your StarSan solution.

Once again, thank you all for your time.

I am happy to keep using bottled water w/ Star San, soaking small parts and spraying/splashing big parts (ie, SS wort chiller and plastic FV), in which case is it worth increasing the bug-killing potency of the spraying solution, if that would help in my situation?

Can I do that by bumping up the acid in the spraying solution by the addition of extra phosphoric acid? (probably not worth the effort) Alternatively, I can just be very thorough when spraying :]

 

[castillo556]

Get a bucket and mix up a few gallons of StarSan with distilled water. It should stay good for a loooong time. Just continue to reuse it. That's what I do.

 

[RM-MN]

In my opinion, both hardness and alkalinity are problems with StarSan. Hardness creates a slimey calcium phosphate coating on equipment that soaks in the solution. Alkalinity creates additional demand for the StarSan concentrate in order to produce the desirable low pH. The best option is to use very low hardness and alkalinity water to mix up your StarSan solution.

What do you expect to achieve by soaking equipment in Starsan? Starsan will sanitize in just a couple minutes so I just wait for brew day and sanitize then.

 

[IslandLizard]

What do you expect to achieve by soaking equipment in Starsan? Starsan will sanitize in just a couple minutes so I just wait for brew day and sanitize then.

A few of us always have stuff soaking in Starsan. My racking tubes never get dry.

But I agree, long contact time (days, weeks, years) can play havoc on the appearance of certain items.

 

[p_p]

What do you expect to achieve by soaking equipment in Starsan? Starsan will sanitize in just a couple minutes so I just wait for brew day and sanitize then.

I am not thinking of soaking for weeks at a time, but if I want to sanitize my wort chiller prior putting it in the kettle, I rather submerge it instead of spraying it in order to be sure the totality of its surface was in contact with the sanitizing solution .. It is just a thought, I'll probably keep going at it with the sprayer anyway.

 

[dkeller12]

I am not thinking of soaking for weeks at a time, but if I want to sanitize my wort chiller prior putting it in the kettle, I rather submerge it instead of spraying it in order to be sure the totality of its surface was in contact with the sanitizing solution .. It is just a thought, I'll probably keep going at it with the sprayer anyway.

Why not stick the wort chiller in the boiling wort for the last 10-15 minutes to sanitize? I thought that was the standard thing to do. I know some don't even do it that long. As long as it is in the wort before it goes below, I want to say 170f, it will be sanitized and you can forgo needing the have a huge amount and just use the spray bottle. Of course you can do what you want, but I found that having a spray bottle of Star San is much easier on brew day than lugging around a pail of it.

 

[logdrum]

I am not thinking of soaking for weeks at a time, but if I want to sanitize my wort chiller prior putting it in the kettle, I rather submerge it instead of spraying it in order to be sure the totality of its surface was in contact with the sanitizing solution .. It is just a thought, I'll probably keep going at it with the sprayer anyway.

Most don't even bother sanitizing immersion wort chillers, other than removing obvious debris & dropping it in the boiling wort for 15 minutes. I use distilled water (@ ~$.60/gal) for my Star San, & it remains crystal clear.

 

[RM-MN]

I am not thinking of soaking for weeks at a time, but if I want to sanitize my wort chiller prior putting it in the kettle, I rather submerge it instead of spraying it in order to be sure the totality of its surface was in contact with the sanitizing solution .. It is just a thought, I'll probably keep going at it with the sprayer anyway.

Why do you want to sanitize the wort chiller? Within seconds of dropping it into boiling wort it will be better sanitized than soaking in Starsan. Even as low as 160 degrees only takes about a minute to pasteurize it.

 

[Queequeg]

I have very hard and alkaline water and though I do get the slime it is only with prolonged soaking. For the brief contact times used on brew and bottling days this isn't an issue

 

[PlexVector]

I use distilled water for the spray bottle, and well water which is a little hard for the general soak (throw it in the 5 gal blue or orange bucket till I need it.) With the bucket covered it takes about a week before it starts clouding up and getting snot trails in it. Once it gets the snot trails in the bottom I throw it out even if the pH is okay. Just doesn't give me warm and fuzzies after that even if the pH is okay.

I now have a white food grade bucket with a gamma lid to start using distilled water for a star san solution and a pH meter to keep it checked.