StarSan suck back?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

whoaru99

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2012
Messages
2,363
Reaction score
953
So I cranked down the temp on the frementation chamber to cold crash and forgot to consider suck back. Now I have two cups, give or take, of StarSan solution in my beer (light lager).

Yeah...yeah...should use cheap vodka, but I didn't.

It's roughly 5 gal batch. Is it a lost cause now?
 
Should be fine, just allow a little extra time for the Starsan to be eaten up by the yeast. I just had the same thing happen a month or so ago, and it was more like a quart of Starsan. Beer is fine, I'm drinking it now as a matter of fact. :)
 
Doesn't sound too horrible then. I topped up the jug I was using for the blowoff/airlock reservoir. Pretty sure it was more than two cups suck back. More like 3-4 cups; close to that quart you mentioned.
 
I've been told that it will reactivate the yeast as they will eat it. That happened to a buddy of mine and he froze the beer and scraped off the ice/water/sanitizer as it crystalized... Sounded like a drawn out project to me but he probably got a higher ABV beer by doing it. I crashed a porter 2 weeks ago from 70-55 and it sucked it up the blow off tubes until we caught it about 3" from the carboy neck. Physics sucks!
 
More like three or four cups.

Pressure differential, I suppose, started a siphon that was eventually broken when the liquid level in the airlock reservoir was drawn below the diagonal cut in the end of the tube.

I'm thinking there is room for improvement in my blowoff setup by raising the carboy and lowering the airlock reservoir relative to each other.
 
So I cranked down the temp on the frementation chamber to cold crash and forgot to consider suck back. Now I have two cups, give or take, of StarSan solution in my beer (light lager).

Yeah...yeah...should use cheap vodka, but I didn't.

It's roughly 5 gal batch. Is it a lost cause now?

I've done that twice now. I finally put a note on my temp controller that says "switch to airlock for cold crash". The first time it was a cream ale. Added apricot extract and won a silver. Second time was on an Azacca pale ale, I think it stand a chance in an upcoming competition.

Don't give up hope!
 
Done it twice 😂 Beer was fine. Now I have a big reminder by the temperature control.

Proof :cross:

tube.jpg
 
I've done that twice now. I finally put a note on my temp controller that says "switch to airlock for cold crash". The first time it was a cream ale. Added apricot extract and won a silver. Second time was on an Azacca pale ale, I think it stand a chance in an upcoming competition.

Don't give up hope!

I just use an undrilled stopper. Nothing to suck back, no fooling with an airlock, and no implosions yet (knock on wood).
 
New brewer with a question.

Everything was going perfectly well with my first 5 gallon batch. 17 days in the fermenter, FG was where it should be.

Put the sanitized priming bucket under the fermenter, opened the siphon and quietly began to fill it. Looked great until I heard a sucking sound and saw that the I forgot to remove from the blow off tube and the liquid in the cup had been sucked into the fermenter. It was about 2-3 inches of water/Star San that was there for the whole fermentation time that got into the fermenter. I siphoned about 4 1/2 gallons from the bottom (no trub) leaving 1/2 gallon in the fermenter figuring if anything bad got in the fermenter it was on top. Do I need to worry for the next 2 weeks while it bottle conditions?

Thanks.
 
Nah don't sweat it, it sounds like you did the right thing and made the best of the situation by not siphoning all of it into the bottling bucket.
 
As far as leaving notes to yourself before cold crashing, just use an s-style airlock that doesn't suck sanitizer juice into your beer.
 
Do you guys keep your sanitizer/blowoff container higher up than your fermenter? When crash cooling, I've had enough contraction to suck liquid a few inches up the tube, but not cups or pints worth. If your vessel is higher than the fermenter, then yes, probably enough to start a siphon...I always keep the blowoff vessel lower than the fermenter.

Or yes, changing to an airlock works.

I lost a carboy due to implosion using a solid stopper. Luckily it was only filled with sanitizer and not beer, but it can happen.
 
I use a cork stopper that will let a little bit of o2 in.

I use a small fridge for cold crashing and I just realized that with a few fittings I could hook up my gas to the fridge itself and completely flush the thing with co2 and use a loose lid on the fermenter.

That way avoiding o2 contamination.

Sounds crazy probably cause it will work
 
I started putting a cotton ball in the stem of my 3 piece airlock to absorb the suck back sanitizer.
 
Back
Top