StarSan Bubbles In My Carboy

[hokenfloken]

Greetings fellow homebrewers!

I brewed a batch of ESB last week and used my new carboy for the very first time. I used StarSan to clean the carboy. I shook the solution all around in the carboy then poured it all out. There were tons of large bubbles in the carboy. I tried to shake the bubbles out, turn it upside, all kinds of stuff but I couldn't get the bubbles out. Not knowing what to do, I rinsed it out with just a tiny bit of water. I know, I know, I shouldn't have but....

Anyways, is it okay to put the wort in there with the StarSan bubbles or should I let it air dry completely to try to get the bubbles to go away?

Thanks everybody!

 

[opengun]

Don't fear the foam.

 

[ecancel]

the bubble are fine

 

[chumprock]

Foam is your friend.

 

[Revvy]

I tinhk my fellow compatriates are so tired of re-answering this question, that they are only giving you a piece of the answer.

First off, no rinse, wet contact sanitizers like starsan and iodophor, are just that no rinse, wet contact santizers.

Meaning you do not rinse them and you rack you beer right on top of the foam or remnants of the sanitizer....if you rinse the stuff off, first you run the risk of contaminating what you just sanitized with the water....and if you drain or let the sanitizer dry you also reduce it's efficacy greatly..because although the next micro organism that comes in contact with the sanitized object MAY be killed, the object may more than likely now be vunerable to the next organism...or may no longer be sanitized at all.

Next in the case of the starsan foam, it actually is neutralized by the beer and becomes food for the yeasties. it actually helps in fermentation (an is even good for the bugs in septic fields)

You will find more info and links to the podcast from charles talley the inventor of starsan here...https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/sanitizer-question-54932/?highlight=sanitizer+question

Also, as you can see, when you rack ONTO the foam, most of it is lifted out of the carboy or the bottle that had it in the bottom.

And it looks pretty cool.

If it's not too late, I would go back and resanitize wit the starsan and rack on top of it...but if not, DO that next time...what's the point of spending money and time on the sanitizer, if you do not use it properly to begin with.

 

[hokenfloken]

Thanks a lot Revvy. That's all I wanted to know. Next time I'll do it right. I have been keeping an eye on the carboy for the past week and everything looks fine. Nothing weird floating on top of the beer...just yeast. It smells fine too. I was just curious. Thanks a lot.

 

[Falcor]

if you drain or let the sanitizer dry you also reduce it's efficacy greatly

i'm not saying that i don't believe you, but the bottle does say to let it air dry.

 

[JDFlow]

I figured out how to get the foam out. Use your thief to capture some star san. Press the nozzle against the neck like normal and deposit the star san into the carboy. Since it's not splashing it won't bubble up, but you will notice that it rinses away the foam in the bottom so it can be poured out. Repeat until no foam remains.

 

[Phyrst]

I don't fear the foam, but I don't like a lot of it because of the mess you see in Revvy's picture above. I keep my starsan in a bucket and siphon a gallon into my carboy when I want to sanitize it. Then I put a plug on the carboy and gently roll it around to get all the surfaces wet without making a lot of foam. Then I carefully pour it back into the bucket not letting it just glug out of the carboy. I usually get very few bubbles if I'm careful.

 

[cpatel479]

Starsan bubble bath!

 

[stratslinger]

i'm not saying that i don't believe you, but the bottle does say to let it air dry.

I was going to call you out on that, then I looked at the instructions myself and saw that there sure are specific instructions for "homebrew use" that differ from everything else.

Every other instruction usage says to use it wet, since it is a contact sanitizer and all. But for homebrew use, you're right - the instructions FiveStar provide do indicate to let it air dry. WTF???

I've never done that myself - every one of my racking operations has turned out looking just like Revvy's picture above, and I've never had a problem with an infection or any kind of off flavors or anything like that, so I'm going to keep on doing what I've been doing (If it ain't broke and all that...). But now that I've read that instruction sheet, I'm really curious...

 

[malkore]

Everyone needs to go listen to the podcast with Charles the INVENTOR of star-san so that you can understand why it only takes 30 seconds of wet contact and doesn't have to dry first.

A lot of it has to do with FDA compliance, not scientific fact.

 

[half_whit]

Three years later, and this post just saved my butt. Thanks Revvy! Also saved people from hearing the same question all over again from me!

 

[xjedifishx]

Three years later, and this post just saved my butt. Thanks Revvy! Also saved people from hearing the same question all over again from me!

haha me too... this is the reason we have a search bar. for people like us :fro: