Starsan mixing ratio

[eastbaybrewer]

I made a starter last night and just realized that I added enough starsan for 1 gallon into a 1/ 2 gallon of water. I'm guessing it's good just a waste of starsan.

 

[myelo]

So you used the super-starsan to sanitize your container for the starter? It should be fine.

From this point forward, you could add another 1/2 gallon of water to the starsan.

 

[springinloose1]

Foam city! But don't fear the foam, it has the same sanitizing properties as if it was in the liquid. I use a 5 gallon bucket for star san to keep on hand... not sure of the shelf life premixed like that but I'll usually refresh the bucket the next brew day and just use the premix for keg parts, soaking my plate chiller, etc. So in other words, you can always save it for later.

 

[schoellhorn82]

I use 1.25 gallon ro water to 1/4th oz marking on the bottlr reservoir. Keep it in a bucket with lid and as long as the water stays clear and the ph is under 3.5 then i use it indefinitely

 

[flars]

I use 1.25 gallon ro water to 1/4th oz marking on the bottlr reservoir. Keep it in a bucket with lid and as long as the water stays clear and the ph is under 3.5 then i use it indefinitely

Star San solution can be cloudy if this is due to minerals in the tap water used. Clear or cloudy, Star San is an acid sanitizer. The pH needs to be 3.0 or less for it to be effective.

 

[schoellhorn82]

Star San solution can be cloudy if this is due to minerals in the tap water used. Clear or cloudy, Star San is an acid sanitizer. The pH needs to be 3.0 or less for it to be effective.

Yes you are correct on the ph after researching. Ive always seen when it went cloudy the ph levels went up. Use it how you use it. Mine stays good for months

 

[ncbrewer]

In this podcast
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/post1827/ Charlie Talley stated that some hard water has high alkalinity and raises the pH - therefore, the star san is not as effective. You can add some white vinegar to drop the pH back down. This discussion started at about 54:40. I guess you would need to check the pH if you used the vinegar - and I wonder if it would affect the taste. When my local water started to get more alkaline, I went to distilled water.

In the same podcast at about 44 minutes, he stated that a higher concentration is ok, but didn't say how much more is ok. But this website https://www.brewuk.co.uk/starsan8.html shows making up star san in the range of 1 oz/5 gal to 1 oz/3 gal. I'd feel better if Five Star would show the full range, but I feel that this should be reliable. I use 1.5 tsp per gallon.