Starsan and chalky water

[Insomniac]

I live in an area where our water is about a ph of 8, which I have just found out turns starsan instantly cloudy.
Is a mixture like this completely useless, or will it work for one session? If not, is there anything I can do to make it work? I can buy distilled water but its not exactly cheap to do so!

 

[unionrdr]

Idk what it costs you folks over there,but I get a gallon of store brand distilled water for about 79c. It sounds like the ph is too far off,& maybe even microbial activity in it. I've even found Amoeba's in ours. So you may have to use the distilled water,I do. It'll last a good amount of time that way. I even use a coffee filter & funnel to filter mine into old vodka jugs to clean it up before pouring it back into the cleaned milk jug.

 

[Insomniac]

The water is chlorinated, so shouldn't be too much swimming in it. The internet tells me about £6 for 5 litres. I'm guessing I can find better if I actually go to the shops though, will have to have a hunt around and see what I can find.

 

[mabrungard]

If your house has a salt-based ion exchange water softener, the softened water is excellent for making the sanitizing solution. Its just not good for beer brewing.

 

[theredben]

The only issue with star-san and cloudy is a reduction of shelf life. If the solution turns cloudy you can only keep it for a day or two, instead of keeping it for months like people with soft water can.

For me it is cheaper just to make a fresh batch of star-san each time.

This is stickied at the top of this forum: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/charlie-talley-five-star-chemicals-notes-brewcasts-58928/

 

[Insomniac]

Ah thanks! Always forget the stickies when using the phone app!
will have a listen to those