Just a quick question, now that im brewing more often the star san is costing me more. Can you reuse star san solutions? I always wash everything i use and after i finish brewing, throwing all that solution is kind of a waste.
I use distilled water and keep my bucket covered. I usually get about 3 or more brew days out of it before bugs eventually get in. Also, I keep a gallon jug of distilled and starsan that I refill my squirt bottle. Outside of brew and kegging day the squirt bottle works for everything else like dry Hopping.
I definitely reuse mine. Nothing dirty goes in and I test what I have with pH strips prior to use. I don't remember off the top of my head what the "magic number" is. But I believe it is 3.5 and below. I make 3-4 gallons at a time.
I have a dedicated 5 gal bucket that I use RO to fill. It's good for at least a year. Vikeman has a batch tucked away. he can give you some dates on when he started it and how it's doing (4?) years later.
Over 6 years I think. But I haven't measured lately. It's in the basement somewhere. I'll find it and test it.
An 8 oz bottle will last years unless you bathe your equipment in it. I mix a batch using RO water in a 32 oz spray bottle and simply spray the parts as I use them. You only need to get them wet and wait for the prescribed contact time. No need to fill a 5 gal bucket. I use, maybe, a few drops of actual product per batch. As to the cost, I've never actually bought any StarSan, PBW, or some of the chemicals I use in my brewery. All I've used over the past 10+ years, I've won at homebrew competition raffles.
I do what @mikehartigan does except I buy a 1 gallon jug of distilled water and mix the starsan in the jug, then just fill a spray bottle as needed. I have had the same 32oz bottle of starsan for 8ish years and there is still more than 1/2 left. TL;DR Starsan is one of the cheapest brewing items if used efficiently
I have a 5 gallon keg that I keep filled with solution and it normally lasts me about 4-5 months. My rule of thumb is that I don't get the solution filthy. If I do, it gets dumped. If your pH is below 4.0, it's still good.
