Starsan

[dhelegda]

I have a buddy that will add one ounce of starsan to his fermenters and kegs adds 5 gallons of water and soak his gear for 2 or 3 minutes. Pours out the water and will add the wort or beer with out rinsing out the start starsan, he said it was actually good for the beer. I have never tastes a bad beer from him, but is this safe and true?

 

[kh54s10]

He is doing it right.. except he is wasting a ton of it. It can be reused many times until the PH raises above 3.0

If you rinse Starsan you will de-sanitize anything you were trying to protect. (if that is a word...)

Do not rinse after using Starsan.

 

[boydster]

+1, there's nothing wrong with what he's doing up until the point where he dumps out 5 gallons of fresh StarSan. He could also use a much smaller amount like a gallon and swish it around the keg, then pour it out into a one gallon container (old milk jug or something similar) to use again.

 

[MaxStout]

I'll bet his LHBS loves him. A guaranteed repeat StarSan customer.

 

[dhelegda]

I don't reuse mine either if it was $40 I'd reuse it, but ain't nobody got time for dat!

 

[davekippen]

I reuse mine all the time. It goes back into distilled water gallon jugs from brew day.

 

[dhelegda]

How do to measure the ph level?

 

[MaxStout]

How do to measure the ph level?

You can buy pH paper strips in a vial of 100 for a few bucks at you LHBS. They're not terribly accurate, but will get you in the ballpark.

Another sign that your StarSan solution has lost its punch is when it starts looking cloudy.

I mix up about 2 gallons on brew day, and that's enough for sanitizing my utensils, carboy, etc. After brewing it goes in plastic gallon jugs and I use it for rinsing beer glasses (I don't like using detergent for those), and for sanitizing bottles.

 

[BigFloyd]

It's no work at all to reuse Starsan. I keep anywhere from 3-4 gallons of Starsan in a bucket with a spigot (my old bottling bucket) and a spray bottle full of it. When I want to sanitize something (including my hands), I either dunk it in the bucket or spray it.

For kegs, I sit the bucket up on the counter and use the spigot to pour it into the keg, seal the keg, turn it upside down. When done, it gets poured back into the bucket.

A turkey baster is quite handy for squirting Starsan through tubing.

 

[theck]

My Ph strips go down to 3 and I see that color when using them with my tap/star San, so assuming I'm ok... Yet some mix will go cloudy while others done (storing in 1 gallon jugs). My tap is 7.2 Ph, so... Guessing star San will drop the Ph of the,water? Maybe some doesn't do as well?

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