How far do you go with campden tablets?

I'm sure a lot of you use campden to treat chlorine and chloramines in your brew water. I'm just curious to know if any of you try to incorporate campden into the final rinse of your brewing equipment, or elsewhere.

I mix a little into my 5 gal batch of StarSan. I think this would help a little against the final rinse that I give my kegs each time I clean them.

 

I'm rinsing all of my equipment with tap water that has chloramines in it. I'm trying to eliminate chloramines from the StarSan solution after I dip wet (from tap water) equipment into my StarSan bucket. The StarSan bucket that I have make up is RO. I also use bleach when I am cleaning my auto siphon. I share a siphon for sours.

 

I won't link to other threads from the past because they're blurry. I remember reading several times that the composition of most tap water will raise the pH of StarSan. I'd assume that it's enough to ruin the effectiveness of it being a sanitizer. I'll preach to make up a big batch with RO and it will store for as long as you need. If mine becomes hazy, I'll pour it down the drain.

 

I'd think the pH is still quite low and not a friendly place for pests. I've never taken a pH strip to mine. I just assume that clear is <3.5 pH, as recommended.

 

I wrote an email out to to Five Star. I got a response in about a day and a half. Very cool:







to support


To whom it may concern;

I've been a homebrewer for about 5 years now and I'm still really enjoying the hobby. I've been using StarSan since the beginning with great success. Thank you for making such a great product.

As I get further into brewing, I'm trying to eliminate chloramines where I can in my brewing process. It's occurred to me that when I'm cleaning and rinsing my brewing equipment that it's always with tap water that contains chloramines. The same is true when I'm rinsing my kegs. Afterwards, I generally use StarSan to sanitize my equipment and kegs and move on to do whatever I need to to next on the cold side of brewing.

Recently, I've made up a 5 gallon batch of StarSan. I used Reverse Osmosis water as a base and use it when I need to sanitize something quickly. I've started to wonder if the chloramines are building up in this 5 gallon batch due to the rinse water that I'm using. I'm hoping to add campden tablets, (potassium metabisulfaite), to this 5 gallon batch of StaSan to help prevent the build up of chloramines. Would this work? Would your product stay stable and would the campden effectively remove chlorine and chloramines from my equipment?

I hope my question makes sense. I'm curious to hear what your thoughts are on your product and if it can stay stable with potassium metabisulfaite added into it. Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

Chris





Rebecca Ozirsky <[email protected]>
1:03 PM (16 hours ago)



to me


Hi Chris,

Thank you for contacting Five Star. I spoke with our chemist and she says as long as you are using the correct ratio of your cleaner as well as Starsan, you should not have any problems with chloramines. Even with using tap water. There shouldn't be a build up of chloramines. If you have any further questions, you can email her. Her name is Charity and her email is [email protected]

Thanks,

Rebecca Ozirsky
Five Star Chemicals & Supply, Inc.
4915 E 52nd Ave
Commerce City, CO 80022
Direct: 303-962-7512
Office: 303-287-0186
Fax: 303-287-0391
[email protected]