Star san!!!!

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wheazy_joe

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Sorry for the dramatic shouty title.

Up til now I've used Sodium Percarbonate for sanitising, and to be honest it has served me very well.

That said I am just about out and need to buy some more so thought, why not get on the Star San bandwagon?

So, anything specific I need to know?

To sanitise my bottles I double dunk them in a Sodium Percarbonate solution and move to my bottle tree to drip dry, would the same method work with Star San, or is it gonna burn my skin off (dramatic exaggeration!)?

Have seen people talk about putting it in a spray bottle and simply spraying their FV etc, is that the best way? Just now I fill the FV with solution and drop all my kit in there (syphon, paddle, air lock etc).
 
I clean everything with cheap, unperfumed oxy clean from Poundstretcher and rinse.

Then I use Starsan in a spray bottle, never had an infection and it's really simple.

Also you can re-use the solution if you collect, when I cleaning bottles I drain then upside down in a bucket and put the runnings back in my spray bottle. Works out very cheap!

You just need to check it's still acidic with some litmus paper.

Some people need to buy bottled water to mix it with as their tap water is alkaline and stops it working as well.
 
I've switched to Star San after always using VWP, and I've never looked back. Despite being very thorough with cleaning everything before with VWP, I had three successive infections in my beers which remained unexplained. Switched to Star San and been fine ever since. And now I bottle all my beer it is much easier with Star San as it is no-rinse, and has no smell to speak of.
As others have said, the fact that you can re-use it again and again makes it incredibly cheap. I tend to make up about 20l of it (which requires 30ml of solution) in a spare FV, then use that to sanitise all my utensils etc when brewing. Then I keep the fluid and use it when bottling. All I do is submerge a few bottles in the fluid and after a minute or so just pour out the solution from the bottle and fill it. No need to even shake and get all the Star San/foam out of the bottle at all! Then like Gobuchul says, you can fill spray bottles etc and use those over and over again.
 
Cheers guys,

Tim do you just leave the star san solution in the spare FV (with a sealed lid of course) for say two weeks while the brew is fermenting, then use it for the bottles, and possibly re-seal for future use? What sort of shelf life has it got once mixed?

Seems to be the way to go. Will order some and see how I get on.
 
wheazy_joe said:
Cheers guys,

Tim do you just leave the star san solution in the spare FV (with a sealed lid of course) for say two weeks while the brew is fermenting, then use it for the bottles, and possibly re-seal for future use? What sort of shelf life has it got once mixed?

Seems to be the way to go. Will order some and see how I get on.
Click to expand...

I keep starsan in a plastic jerry can somtimes for weeks on end. Seems not to matter. I have ph strips so I could test if I was ever that bothered but I'm not so I don't :mrgreen:
 
I re-use Morrisons 5l bottled water bottles for storing my Starsan, mix 8ml starsan into the 5litres of water. Pour it into a FV to use then pour most of it back using a funnel into the 5litre bottle for storage and future re-use.

I use this for sterilising bottles on bottling day, works well with starsan: http://www.home-brew-online.com/equipment-c40/bottle-rinser-washer-p613

Worth getting some ph testing paper off ebay - search for urine ph testing on ebay, £1 delivered per book. Starsan needs to remain at ph of 3 or less to be effective, you need some testing paper to check this from time to time if re-using the solution.

I dunk my hands in it (no gloves) without any problems (as far as I know).

When mixed your Starsan solution may go cloudy with your water, its not a problem if it goes cloudy - the ph of 3 or less is the only thing that matters.

I also pop some in a hand spray gun, useful having both the spray option and the dunk in a FV option, I use both.

I chuck mine when the ph rises above 3 or more usually when I get a sense its got any bits floating in it. Its cheap enough to not worry too much about chucking and re-mixing some if in any doubt about its cleanliness after re-using a good number of times.

Hope this helps, oh and it is magic stuff, I wouldn't be without it now.
 
I use Tesco Ashbeck 5l water mixed with 8ml star san, lasts for ages and once the PH is outside of the range (above 3.6?) I chuck it out and fill with tap water. I also have a spray bottle with the same solution which I use much more often than the big bottle, the big bottle is only really used for refilling the spray bottle and filling up my bottle rinser.
 
Brilliant advice and info as always.

Have ordered some from The Home Brew Company, along with an Extract kit (their American Pale Ale) taking advantage of the 5% discount of course.
 
I have always used star San and love it. I have a spray bottle of it with me while I'm brewing to give the scissors or can opener or air lock a good spray down before it comes into contact.
 

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