Star San Acid Sanitizer Newbie

[brew captain]

Hey guys,

Went by Brian's shop yesterday and bought some Star San Acid Sanitizer (and two more sacks of grain to add to my collection). My question is how to best use this product to sanitize a carboy. With iodophor I would add two caps into the carboy, fill it completely with water and let stand at least a couple hours. I know contact time for iodophor is supposed to only two minutes, but what the hell. It is well documented that I am a paranoid brewer (just because you think they are after you doesn't mean they're not). Never had a problem with contamination with this method, at least from the carboy, but making 14 gallons of full strength sanitizer for two carboys seems just a tad wasteful (not to mention environmentally unfriendly). With Star San, because it kills bacteria and wild yeasts with a different mechanism (acid death, not iodine gas death) and because it has the ability to form a sanitizing foam I am wondering how little of it in what quantity of water could I use to sanitize a carboy?? At concentrations of 300ppm this stuff is deadly with contact time of only one minute according to the website!! That would include the foam and not just the solution. Sounds pretty good to me! To go the super minimalist route it appears that I could mix up a small amount of a standard solution, put it in a spray bottle and simply spray the interior of the carboy wet and I should be good to go a minute (even if I loose sleep worrying about it). You know the saying, if it sounds too good to be true then...

What do you guys do?


Cheers!

[dhempy]

I've used Star San in my carboys for a little while now ... I usually put in around a tsp and a half, and about a gallon of water .. shake vigorously several times over the course of a 15 minutes, empty, throw in a little more water to help get the suds out, and then invert until use. No issues here. I use iodophor the same way ... usually I only mix up around 1/2-3/4 gallon in the carboy, shake vigorously several times and then invert to drain.

No infections so far!

Dan

[bwarbiany]

I typically mix up a 5 gallon bucket of Star San and use it for everything. Because I'm brewing 15-gallon batches in a 20-gallon fermenter, I usually pour the whole bucket of solution in there, then use a clean rag to wash the sides/top of the fermenter with the solution.

With carboys, you can get by with using 2-4 gallons of sanitizing solution, re-use it on each carboy, as long as you shake it up enough to get good contact with the foam.

I've never used the spray-bottle method, because I usually have that bucket available to sanitize things that will touch the wort... But I've heard that the spray-bottle is a good method for quick applications. I wouldn't use it to replace having a bigger quantity on hand, though.

[maltbarley]

I have used another acid sanitizer in the same method: I spray out my fermenter. I say go for it and put those wasteful habits behind you.

[Oskaar]

I'm pretty much on board with the way Brad does this. I keep a five gallon bucket of Star-San (if I'm using it, more on that later) and a spray bottle full as well. I also generally have a spray bottle of iodophor, vodka and isopropyl alcohol as well for stir spoons, lees stirrers, beakers, flasks etc.

The reason I switch off between Star-San and Iodophor goes back to my days as a Medical Technologist. Because sanitization in a homebrewing environment has inherent flaws (abrasions in plastic buckets, water supply, carboy cleaning, etc.) there is a risk (remote) that resistant strains of viruses, fungi, bacteria, yeasts, etc may establish a foothold in one of your vessels. I've seen this before in a couple of cases in friends that were home brewers and winemakers (BTW, they were not lax in their santization techniques, they just ran into a couple of nasty bugs)

Most of us don't have an autoclave large enough for our equipment, and some things (carboys, etc.) are not suited for autoclaving. So by switching out to a different sanitizer you lessen to very remote, the possibility of colonies of bugs establishing a foothold in your fermentation, aging or mixing vessels. HLT, boil tanks etc have even less risk, mash kettles more so than the boil tank or HLT.

Anyhow, throwing the bugs a curve ball will really take sanitization a step further. Also, when washing pre-sanitization, wash in hot water (as hot as you can stand) and then rinse in very cold water (radical temperature swings will cause wild temperature variations within the cytoplasm of bugs and generally induce cellular lysis which will get a good number of your not so virulent pathogenic/infection flora killed off before you even hit them with the sanitizer.

Hope that helps,

Oskaar

[lars]

Also, when washing pre-sanitization, wash in hot water (as hot as you can stand) and then rinse in very cold water (radical temperature swings will cause wild temperature variations within the cytoplasm of bugs and generally induce cellular lysis which will get a good number of your not so virulent pathogenic/infection flora killed off before you even hit them with the sanitizer.

PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS WITH A GLASS CARBOY. Radical temp changes and regular glass do not get along.

[Oskaar]

Also, when washing pre-sanitization, wash in hot water (as hot as you can stand) and then rinse in very cold water (radical temperature swings will cause wild temperature variations within the cytoplasm of bugs and generally induce cellular lysis which will get a good number of your not so virulent pathogenic/infection flora killed off before you even hit them with the sanitizer.

PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS WITH A GLASS CARBOY. Radical temp changes and regular glass do not get along.

Thanks for that Lars. I didn't even think that anyone would do this, but neglected to point it out. Kind of like the hammer with the warning "Do not hit self" on it. Not obvious to all sometimes.

Cheers,

Oskaar