Star San

Fair enough, I was misreading your point. If the fear is that foam will block your view into a keg, or overflow your fermenter, then it is a reasonable fear. Too late for me to edit my post, but for future readers:

1. Perfectly reasonable to choose Saniclean because StarSan creates too much foam for your purposes.

2. No reason to worry about the residual StarSan in your fermenter that results from all the foam. (You do of course need to empty the fermenter, but whatever remains after you've dumped the StarSan is nothing to worry about.)

 

I'm curious as to how you are using Star San with your kegs. I sanitize my kegs and don't have excess foaming problems. Here's what I do:

- Fill keg with 5 gallons of water.
- Add 1 ounce Star San and mix with a long handled spoon
- Assemble the tubes/lid/poppets/posts/rings to the keg
- Put keg on its side and reposition (roll) occasionally for a couple minutes
- Put keg upright, disassemble parts, and siphon the star san solution from the keg to a bucket.
- dip (barely) the keg upside-down in bucket to sanitize its face
- Put upside-down keg on table to drain for a couple minutes while dunking parts in bucket to sanitize
- put keg upright and reassemble

When I do it this way, there's virtually no foam in the empty keg. When I used to do open transfers, I never saw any foam on top of the beer as it filled. With closed transfers, I can't see inside, but I know there's no foam, or at least not a lot of foam, because if there were, it would come hissing out of the spunding valve. I don't overfill the keg because I plan the batch size accordingly.

 

Well, here's what I do:

- I make up a one gallon container of StarSan (pour 1/2 oz StarSan in i gallon of water);
- I pour it into the keg, and close it;
- I lay the keg on its side;
- I roll the keg on its side every 3-5 minutes so that each revolution covers a new area of exposure. it takes about 6-8 rotations;
- I then set it up straight,shake it thoroughly, and leave it for about 3-5 minutes;
- I shake it again, set it upside down and leave it for about 3-5 minutes;
- I attach a beverage out hose, add about 5 pounds of CO2 pressure, and force the StarSan out through the beverage hose and back into the five gallon container;
- I then release the pressure, open the keg and set the keg upside down to drain in my sink to let as much foam to escape as possible;
- I then put the keg right side up again and siphon the beer from the carboy to the keg.

Even with this, the 'empty' keg is often filled with thick bubbly foam. As I fill it with beer, the foam is so thick that I can't see the surface as I fill it. I have to guess, and sometimes I overfill.

 

Starsan must be diluted properly to work properly. After cleaning with PBW, I rinse thoroughly with 3 hot water rinses and then fill keg half way with pre mixed Starsan and RO water. Keg is given 25 psi, and liquid out is depressed with screw driver briefly, followed by inverting keg and repeating with gas fitting and prv. Btw, I also do this with the pbw beforehand. Kegs are stored this way until ready for use. Foaming is minimal. Leftover Starsan mix in keg is used to prep fermenter, etc. after next fermenter is drained to that keg.

 

Yes, I can see that by leaving the keg stored that way, the foam would subside. I usually prefer to clean the keg first (after last use) and sanitize it just before next use.

 

I'd guess your copious foam is due to shaking. There's no need to shake. Brief contact with the surface is all that's needed.

 

Actually I don't shake it much - I roll the keg on the ground, although you are right - I do give it a light shake when I place it vertical and upside-down.

 

I do that too, in addition to the procedure I already mentioned

 

As long as your water is not so alkaline that it keeps the starsan solution from reaching the (low) pH required, it should work fine.

 

Possibly. No way to tell without testing. And well water can be so different depending on location, seasons, etc.

But my guess is that the Poland Spring water would be a safe bet.

ETA: Personally, I'd beg, borrow, or steal a pH meter and test some star san solution made from the well water. You could even use pH strips, which would probably be "close enough" in this application. Buying water to sanitize big items is kind of expensive. Last thought...if I were going to buy water to make star san solution, I'd buy RO/distilled. In fact, that's what I use for star san solution that will be around for a while, like in my spray bottle.

 

If you can get distilled or RO water, that is guaranteed to be great for StarSan. My grocery store sells both regular Poland Spring water and Poland Spring distilled water, so if you have access to that (or any brand really, doesn't matter), that's a good way to go. Otherwise I share @VikeMan's intuition that regular Poland Spring would probably be fine.

 

As has already been discussed if you are going to buy water buy RO or distilled water. A carboy of RO water is relatively cheap at my local Walmart.

If you know somebody with a pH meter (or are willing to buy strips) try Star San with your well water and measure it. @GreenKrusty101 has posted that with his well water he has had issues so don't go this route blindly.

Cheers!

 

Yes, not only is the StarSan seriously compromised in my well water...it also smells like shit. As a result I use RO for all my sanitizer solutions and beer water, even though it adds a little cost to a batch ...best decision I ever made with my homebrewing.