The foam is evil!

[ibbones]

I have always gone with the "don't fear the foam" with my Star San and never bothered me. I keg and sometimes (OK, all the time) the foam rises up out of the top of the keg and I have to clean up the kitchen floor. I was going to keg two beers today and rinsed out the kegs like normal, added a couple gallons of star San and shake till my teeth hurt. Let it sit on the floor while I get my bucket from the fermentor and set it on the counter. Open it up and dump the Star San into my bucket to use for the other keg and cleaning. Did the first one and had foam rising out of the top. Got the second keg ready and this was an Austin Anniversary IPA that has to be dry hopped. I was going to dry hop in the keg. I added the hops to the foam filled keg and racked my beer into the keg. As the foam rose to the top, it carried all my pellet hops out of the top of the keg!!! I was trying to pick up those little green pellets but they were already mush. I don't know how much I lost but lesson learned. Next time I will add the hops AFTER I rack.

 

[two_hearted]

Is there a reason you shake until your teeth hurt? Add water, add starsan, rack to the next keg. If you don't want 5 gal of starsan, add a gallon or so to your keg, lay sideways on floor, rotate every min or two.

Or clean it and spray the interior with starsan solution.

 

[Airborneguy]

1. Run 4.5 gallons into a bucket.

2. Pour 1 oz Star san into bucket.

3. Run .5 gallons water into bucket to mix star san.

4. Pour 5 gallons of solution into rubber maid.

5. Place keg into rubber maid.

6. roll keg around every so often for about 3 minutes.

7. NO FOAM

8. You have a Sanitized Keg.

 

[BillyBock]

Put a tablespoon or two of PBW in the keg.

Fill half full of hot water.

Shake till your teeth hurt.

No foam and PBW does a good job on my kegs!

 

[wilserbrewer]

IMO no need to shake the star san "till your teeth hurt". Simply shaking a bit to make sure the inside is nicely wetted is all I do. Shaking too much just makes a ton of foam.

 

[ayoungrad]

Put a tablespoon or two of PBW in the keg.

Fill half full of hot water.

Shake till your teeth hurt.

No foam and PBW does a good job on my kegs!

PBW is a cleaner. NOT a sanitizer.

 

[fishkid]

Hah, I've had that happen dry hopping with pellets.

 

[big supper]

Put a tablespoon or two of PBW in the keg.

Fill half full of hot water.

Shake till your teeth hurt.

No foam and PBW does a good job on my kegs!

PBW is not a sanitizer, however.

 

[ayoungrad]

And I agree on the decrease in mixing. As long as the stan san is mixed with water just give it 20 seconds of contact and you are ready to go.

 

[wildwest450]

Why does everyone put so much star san in a keg? I just put a cup or so in and give it a good shake, not enough to overly foam. I also hit it with a shot of co2 so I can get some up the diptube.

_

 

[lschiavo]

Why does everyone put so much star san in a keg? I just put a cup or so in and give it a good shake, not enough to overly foam. I also hit it with a shot of co2 so I can get some up the diptube.

_

I put in about two quarts. That is the size of my meausuring pitcher that I dump it in with. I give it a few shakes a few minutes apart. When I dump it, I set the keg upside down in the bucket of star San for a few minutes to get the top of the keg.

 

[Airborneguy]

My routine gives me 5 gallons of sanitizer which I reuse for about 2-3 brews to sanitize everything.

 

[wildwest450]

My routine gives me 5 gallons of sanitizer which I reuse for about 2-3 brews to sanitize everything.

Wow, that's a waste. I do 3 gallon batches and I keep that 3 to 4 months before dumping. And i'm sure someone will tell me that's wasteful.

_

 

[samc]

Why does everyone put so much star san in a keg? I just put a cup or so in and give it a good shake, not enough to overly foam. I also hit it with a shot of co2 so I can get some up the diptube.

_

+1 , a cup is more than enough to sanitize a keg. I don't even shake, just rotate in all directions.

 

[Dwain]

I have a small cheap pump up sprayer. I spray the inside of the kegs and down the tubes. I put the connectors on and dump the residual out of the keg and collect it for re use. I've had good luck like this. For the Sanke kegs, I have a piece of tubing that I modified so I can put it in the Sanke and it sprays upward. Because I'm anal, I put enough in the Sankes to turn upside down and it covers the top also. I keep a Home Cheapo bucket full of mix that I cover between batxches so I can sanitize my Sanke tubes. I make a new mix about one a quarter. - Dwain

 

[Yooper]

Rereading the first post, it's probably a good thing you lost all those hops out of the top! Otherwise, you'd have a major clogging issue with the diptube with all that pellet sludge.

When you dryhop in the keg, please bag the hops!

 

[EarthBound]

Rereading the first post, it's probably a good thing you lost all those hops out of the top! Otherwise, you'd have a major clogging issue with the diptube with all that pellet sludge.

When you dryhop in the keg, please bag the hops!

Yep.

Another option is to simply not dryhop in a keg. I dryhop in a secondary vessel everytime.

 

[ibbones]

First time I dry hopped in the keg. I didn't think about clogging up the dip tube. Opps.

As to the shaking, I only add about half a gallon or two and use CO2 to move it from one keg to another so I can sanitize the pick-up tube. I did shaks and roll it around on the floor while I was brewing a batch. Had the Star San in the keg for half an hour each but I guess it was still too much. Lesson learned.

 

[JohnMc]

+1 , a cup is more than enough to sanitize a keg. I don't even shake, just rotate in all directions.

A long time ago, I read a kid's French toast recipe that had, among its ingredients, "one pour of milk."

That's exactly how much 1x Starsan I use; one pour. It's slightly more than a cup, though YMMV.