Star San question?

A good rinse of your fermentor will do the job . . . if it's a plastic bucket be sure to use a soft cloth.

With your 5 gallons you can easily "dunk" all your hoses, clamps, hydrometers, spoons, chillers, etc. which should result in a thorough sanitation. Others will tell you to mix a smaller amount and just "squirt" it on your equipment. I'm a Dunker but a lot of Squirters post here . . . either way works.

 

You'll see various contact time requirements quoted for startsan. 30 seconds. One minute. Two minutes. But just 'rinsing,' by which I assume you mean momentary contact time, may not be enough. It would be better than nothing, but not as effective.

 

I make up about five gallons for the whole brew day. I don't fill the fermenter, but I do put the lid on and shake vigorously about 10-12 times over the course of the brewing process. Never had an issue.

 

You can never have too much Star San made on brewing or bottling/kegging day. I'm a dunker so I make 5 gallons of the stuff. I'll fill my fermenting carboy as far as 5-gallons will fill it (6.5 gal carboy) and then tip it slightly so that the star San sits on a portion of the throat for a few minutes. Then I'll rotate the carboy to cover the other side.

Five gallons in a bucket makes it easy to dunk my bottles after washing them. So I always make 5 gallons.

 

I usually fill my 6 gallon carboy with 5 gallons of starsan as the first thing I do on brew day. 10-15 minutes later, I pour most of the starsan into a "homer" bucket from Home Depot. With about two gallons left in the carboy, I turn it upside down and sit it in the bucket, so that the top end of the fermenter is submerged, and I leave it like that for 10-15 minutes. Then I pour the rest of the sanitizer into the bucket and sit the carboy upside down on a drainer to let it dry while I'm finishing mashing and boiling and cooling. Meanwhile, the bucket full of starsan is used to sanitized my authosiphon, tubing, and whatnot. I suppose I could get by with making a gallon of sanitizer and a spray bottle, which would probably save me a couple dollars a year, but this is a lot easier.

 

I pour about 2 gallons into the fermenter and shake and rest several times. Never had an issue, YMMV.

 

I make up 5 gallons on every brewday. I'm a soaker/dunker if you will. I load all my stuff in there that I need and leave it throughout the day. I'll siphon some into my fermenters that I'll be using and shake it around, let it sit, and shake it more, get it all in there and coated throughout the brew day.. I'll dump it back in the bucket afterwards to use again.

I'll take my left overs and put a lid on it, or I'l dump it into a keg and save it. Use it to run through beer lines and taps, and use when needed. Doubles up to have a sanitized keg ready too.

 

On brew/bottling day, I always fill my bottling bucket first, then throw and small items such as air locks, bungs, hydrometer, muslin bags, etc inside the bucket. Then I attach any hoses I'll be using to the spigot, and crack the valve, thus sanitizing the hoses (as well as the inside of the spigot itself), while collecting the sanitizer into my fermenter. After the fermenter is sanitized, I pour the same Star-San solution into another container and sanitize my bottles. At that point, I'll even fill a few spray bottles before the sanitizer get poured down the drain. One 5 gal batch of sanitizer goes a long way, and is plenty enough to sanitize everything you need.

 

I use maybe a litre or two. Squirt everything, a glass worth will do a bucket if you shake and it foams.

 

I generally make up a gallon of Star San to soak oxygen stones, tubes, and other things in throughout brew day. Everything else gets the spray bottle. I spray the fermenter and lid periodically during the boil. I get bored.

 

So are you guys dumping all that star san out at the end of brew day?
I have a dedicated 5 gallon bucket with a lid that I keep 5 gallons of premade star san in. I keep the same batch for 6 months before dumping it out and making a new batch. Let me say that this has cut my cost of brewing a lot.

 

I wonder if you can effectively do this? It sure will save me a few dollars. I'll try this next few bathes.

 

No infected batches this way for me. The only infection I had was when I was dumping the shit down the drain and trying to use as little as possible. Wound up with some gushers. I have done about 10 batches with this batch of star san, and the pH hasn't changed at all.

 

Well, yeah and no. I spill some, dump some, and most of I try and put into a keg if I have room for it. I'll save it in a bucket for a day or so, but after that, it gets cloudy, and I toss it. I don't test the PH of it, and quite honestly, I'm not in brewing to pinch pennies and get my rocks off on how cheap I can do it. Some people like it and focus on it, but at the cost of Starsan locally, I can make 5 gallons of it for less than a buck..

I keep a spray bottle or two full of it for when I need to spray down a glass thief, or soak down a hop bag for dry hopping or something like that. Respray a bung after it's been opened. Past that.. no need for it to sit around.

 

A 32 oz spray bottle lasts me a couple of batches. There's no need to immerse for thirty seconds, two minutes, or whatever. It only needs to stay wet for that period of time. That's one of the purposes of the foam - it holds enough of it in place so it's effective. While I agree that you can't over-sanitize, the law of diminishing returns reaches critical velocity long before five gallons.

 

I'm not yet done with my second big bottle of starsan since I started brewing. To be fair tho, I'll need a third bottle soon. I guess the peace of mind soothes me, even if it's not necessary. Cost is negligible.

 

We have some local stuff made the same way starsan is made, similar stuff, but foams a little less. Works just as good and it's much cheaper. No issues yet.

I've used maybe 3-4 bottles since I started brewing. $1 a brew day for some insurance is easy enough to swallow. I'd rather lose a pound of grain's worth of points for the insurance each brew day!

 

I dump some StarSan in and swish it around. As long as everything gets wet you should be good. I keep my StarSan and reuse it for months. Once it gets cloudy I toss it and make more. I also use a spray bottle.