Starsan suckback leaving white film on beer

[Sudstud]

Odd thing has happened to my last 2 batches.

I made a dubbel 3 wees ago, left it attached to a blowoff in my ferm chamber. The beer finished fermenting and was perfectly clear, I let it sit for another week and at some point at least a pint of Starsan from my blowoff got sucked back into the carboy. I wasn't too happy about this but I've had some suckback before with no issues, just not this much! 2 days later I noticed a thin oil-like film developing on the beer and some splotches of white. At this point I hadn't stuck anything in the beer to introduce an infection, so its got me thinking the film is some sort of starsan residue because it hasnt gotten hairy or thicker in the last week but its still there and it covers some more of the surface now. I've seen plenty of yeast rafts and residual CO2 bubbles but this film and white splotches look way different, almost like ice. I would take a picture, but its so thin and difficult to see so there is no way it would show up. The beer doesn't smell or taste funny to me (for a Belgian anyway) so I'm gonna bottle it tonight.

Now this is where it gets odd, I have a 70 shilling going right now and this time I just used an airlock because I was worried about the huge suckback in the last batch. Everything was going smoothly and after a few days fermentation came to an end, the kraussen started to fall and a tiny amount of starsan (like 1/4 of the airlock) dropped into the beer, no big deal, right? Well, guess what? That same film has developed right where the starsan dropped into the carboy. Once agian, I haven't taken the bung of the carboy for any reason, so its not like I'm introducing new infectious things into the beer.

Has anybody else noticed this? I have extremely hard water, does this have something to do with it? Reaction the the minerals in my water that make the starsan do this? I'm gonna ride these batches out to see what happens, and switch to Vodka in my airlocks.

One final thought, I am in the middle of adding a bathroom to my basement so there is some sheetrock work going on down there in a separate room. Is there any chance the dust from sheetrock, and mud sanding is what I'm seeing?

Thanks all!

 

[bierhaus15]

A picture would help, but generally speaking any type of white film that increases in size over the surface of the beer is indicative of an infection. One of my recent batches got infected because of suckback - I went to move the beer and sure enough it sucked in about 1/2 of the airlock starsan. A week later, total infection.

If the 'film' breaks up into smaller and ragged prices when you disturb it, it's infected.

 

[Sudstud]

That's kinda what I was afraid of but its more of an unconsolidated oil slick with small white-ish areas. I will Try to get a photo of it later. I was just hoping it was Starsan floating on top!

 

[Cape Brewing]

I would be interested to see the results of a "non-star-san" airlick 'cause while I'm sure someone will disagree, i can't see the star-san being the problem.

You're basically saying, "i added sanitizer to a wort that has touched a dozen different things and the sanitizer infected my beer".

I've never heard of star-san reacting with heavy water or anything else and produce any kind of film and when you get suck-back, you're talking... What? A tablespoon of liquid? Of diluted star-san in a five gallon carboy? Folks rarely rinse carboys or let them dry completely before racking onto it (dont fear the foam) so I can't imagine the amout you're getting in suck-back is much more than what everyone else commonly has in their carboys.

I would be willing to bet there is an infection somewhere in your process.

 

[unionrdr]

It does sound like a lacto infection. Maybe your racking tubes,etc weren't clean & sanitized?

 

[Sudstud]

I would be interested to see the results of a "non-star-san" airlick 'cause while I'm sure someone will disagree, i can't see the star-san being the problem.

You're basically saying, "i added sanitizer to a wort that has touched a dozen different things and the sanitizer infected my beer".

I've never heard of star-san reacting with heavy water or anything else and produce any kind of film and when you get suck-back, you're talking... What? A tablespoon of liquid? Of diluted star-san in a five gallon carboy? Folks rarely rinse carboys or let them dry completely before racking onto it (dont fear the foam) so I can't imagine the amout you're getting in suck-back is much more than what everyone else commonly has in their carboys.

I would be willing to bet there is an infection somewhere in your process.

Believe me, I understand and agree with what you are saying here. But with my dubbel (which got over a pint of 2 week old starsan in it) the problem only appeared after the suckback occurred and my current batch only shows signs where the starsan fell into the carboy (right under the neck). I was under the impression that some tap water makes starsan go bad faster than others and thats why I brought it up. I wouldn't call it a raging growing infection, but something is there. My fear is that my water is causing the starsan become ineffective pretty quickly, guess its time to test the PH.

If someone else had started this thread, I would be saying the same thing you are...but damn, it seems like the problem only occurs after the suckback.

Thanks for the responces.

 

[Sudstud]

It does sound like a lacto infection. Maybe your racking tubes,etc weren't clean & sanitized?

It could be, although I do scrub with PBW, rinse, and then soak all my brewing items in a fresh 5 gallon bucket of Starsan for the entire brew day, then add a couple gallons to the carboy, shake like hell to coat, then rack onto the foam, honestly I don't fear the foam

 

[Zamial]

I use the cheapest vodka money can buy in my airlocks. I think the Starsan looses its sanitation powers when heavy CO2 is passed through it with blow off matter, If it is not changed it goes bad in the airlock. IMO the vodka just holds up better and if it gets sucked in I am 100% sure that nothing is living in it and I am drinking something that was designed to be consumed and not a chemical mix of ????

I am not saying I do not use Starsan because I do and I think it does a great job, just not in my airlocks...