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Ok what sucks about brewing is the assumption that the brewer can do math and taste beer at the same time.
With that preamble, I realized I screwed up and made my sanitation spray bottle (32oz) way too strong as I used a whopping 1/4oz of Star San in it. It seems so small, but when calculated up that is actually 1oz/gallon, where the recommended dilution is 1oz/5gallon. I read HERE that the EPA claims that 1oz/3gallons is within the accepted safe zone.
My question is, how badly did I screw up? If I sanitized my bottles with my spray bottle and drained them upside down am I still ok?
Probably. That's pretty strong. If I was cleaning the exterior of a fermenter or something I wouldn't worry, but if you're sanitizing bottles for bottling, you might want to rinse them and start over with a more dilute solution.
Others will come along and tell you not to worry about it and they're probably right.
You might try contacting 5 Star to see what they say. That is awfully strong. It might be fine, but it wouldn't hurt to send them a quick email and get their opinion.
brahn wrote:You might try contacting 5 Star to see what they say. That is awfully strong. It might be fine, but it wouldn't hurt to send them a quick email and get their opinion.
Ok, I wrote 5 Star and got a response.
I wrote:I am a home brewer and have a quick question regarding Star San concentration.
After cleaning my bottles with PBW I sanitized the inside of the bottles using a spray bottle filled with Star San solution. In hindsight I now realized I miss calculated the solution concentration and used 0.25oz of Star San in my 32oz spray bottle. When sanitizing the bottles I gave them a generous spray, but did let them drip dry upside down. My question is whether it is ok to consume the now bottle conditioned beer, or if I should dispose of the entire batch.
5 Star wrote:Yes, you did exceed the recommended concentration. You said that you allowed the bottle to dry upside down. This, should be okay. If the bottle dried, the residue will not harm the beer. You do not need to start over.
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