Star-San, water to use?

[Sago]

I've read that distilled ro are the best but what about tap water. Checking the Ph matter or the fact that it has minerals is what makes it go cloudy? Cause right now I don't know if chlorine effects Ph but I'm sure that its the chlorine that also effects the cloudiness.

 

[kh54s10]

My tap water must be very good. I make up some and store it in a 5 gallon plastic water bottle. it never goes cloudy and stays in the proper ph range for months. I have never felt the need to use anything else.

 

[Hello]

I used tap the first few batches then moved to distilled to increase lifespan. I didn't have issues with tap water to be honest.

 

[Sago]

Well I can buy Ph strips and find out if its good to use when it get cloudy. Probably no way to know whether your tap water is good or not right?

If it is the chlorine you can always boil it to remove it but the minerals itself. I rather not spend extra for water I already have, I'll have to see how my tap water is when my shipment comes in.

I just wanted to know when I do get my order of star-san. Here in Ontario none in my city have star-san so I had to order some and shipping doesn't help. $30 for 8oz lol

 

[Hello]

What do you brew with? Tap water?
You can send a sample of your water to ward labs, check them out.

$30 for 8 oz? Wtf??!

 

[Black Island Brewer]

I live in an area where the tapwater is very close to RO water (it easily falls below all the ion levels mentioned in the Water Chemistry sticky for adjusting brewing water when you don't have a pH meter) and it's treated with chlorine as opposed to chloramine. I've used pH strips to test my star san solution, but they are so hard to read, I just don't trust them, and my water has never gone cloudy. I just mix up a new 2 gallon batch ever two months or so (I brew 10 to 40 gallons in that much time, typically), and have been happy with the results.

 

[Sago]

What do you brew with? Tap water?
You can send a sample of your water to ward labs, check them out.

$30 for 8 oz? Wtf??!

Yepppppp. I'm glad to pay that tbh. The lifespan I've heard 2 months to 6 months.

Hate k-meta and sodium-meta

This stuff your not suppose to breath cause it irritates your lungs from SO2 and stuff gives me a headache breathing in. Hate how I have to breath through my shirt just to sanitize, not to mention it adds sulfates in your wine. How do you calculate how much to add after racking or before fermentation when the drops are still in the bottle or dried up sulfates. Worries me. I renew the solution every 3 weeks just because I wouldn't know if Ph strips works for that.

 

[LordUlrich]

It has been a while since water chemistry but, I can't think of any reason that chlorine should interact with starsan. Plus the reason chlorine is added to water is as a disinfectant (not enough to sanitize brewing gear but it can't hurt).
From what I understand starsan is basically acid with some soap as a wetting agent. I can't think of any reason chlorine should react with with an acid, and actually might help by reacting with other things that might react with the starsan.

For life of the starsan, I usually just make one spray bottle full at a time, I usually run out before it goes bad.

 

[Sago]

Do you let it drip dry or the solution drops are fine to use

Edit: So Star-San is also a nutrient apparently, a lot of fruit recipes call for yeast nutrient (Di-ammonium Phosphate) so do I cut it down or not add any? and if so how much do I cut it down by, 1/3?

 

[LordUlrich]

I spray down my equipment about when I start chilling or a little before. I do spray quite a bit. I try to drain as much as I can, but don't worry about starsan in my beer. When diluted into 5 gallons it is not strong enough to kill the yeast, and supposedly breaks down into a yeast nutrient or so I heard...
My bottle of starsan concentrate is just about out after 4 years and 200-300 gallons of beer.

 

[IvanTheTerribrew]

There has been much debate on this cloudiness issue. Even a representative from Five Star Chemicals has said that as long as the solution stays AT OR BELOW 3.0 pH it's good to go. Cloudy or not.

Minus it looking weird, and maybe being hard to find small things in a big batch of it, I don't see what the fuss is about star san being cloudy. When I make up a 5 gal batch by the next day it's cloudy, and then I proceed to use it for 3 or so months and never had any issue. Even then I only get rid of it because I think 3 months per batch is good enough, but even then the pH is still at 3.0.

Don't fear the foam

Don't fear the cloudy

 

[smizak]

There has been much debate on this cloudiness issue. Even a representative from Five Star Chemicals has said that as long as the solution stays AT OR BELOW 3.0 pH it's good to go. Cloudy or not.

Minus it looking weird, and maybe being hard to find small things in a big batch of it, I don't see what the fuss is about star san being cloudy. When I make up a 5 gal batch by the next day it's cloudy, and then I proceed to use it for 3 or so months and never had any issue. Even then I only get rid of it because I think 3 months per batch is good enough, but even then the pH is still at 3.0.

Don't fear the foam

Don't fear the cloudy

Still per Charlie Talley, inventor of Star San, you should at minimum check the ph if cloudy. He states that the cloudiness is diminishing the effectiveness, i. e., the pH is being driven higher by a reaction with minerals in the tap water. I use distilled and the pH remains stable indefinitely.

 

[Sago]

Okay I have another question. Since I have it and I really want to use a spray bottle instead right. How much star san in 500ml? 0.8ml but how much is that really? I don't know where to get needles to really measure that. 4\25th of a tsp apparently so I mean what is it? A drop? lol