Star San- who uses it?

[Mylo]

Fear of the foam is in your head and is something you have to get over. I have seen a carboy full of foam turn into a couple of ounces of

I love the stuff, although I have to use it with RO water - otherwise it is immediately "denatured". Once, during an impulse brewing session, I didn't have any RO available (I used it for the strike water). I had to mix up some idophor that I keep as a backup. It stunk, stained my hands and hoses, and I had to wait for everything to drip dry. Fooey, I say.


Mylo

[rhino777]

Iodophor only has to have two minutes of drying time to be completely effective. Which generally means it's still completely wet.

[BlueLoon]

Pro- its way more cost effect than the stuff the local shop sold.
Pro- makes 2.5 to 5 gal. 2.5 gal fits nicely in the 33lb jerry can for reuse.
pro- have heard its a yeast nutrient. No measure affects that I noticed so far.
Con-when filing bottles you get a lot of foam, not bad, just foam. Tasty crack foam.
Con- if you used in to stanitize an airlock the air lock may get foamy. I tend to rinse the airlock to avoid the foam.
Con- your local HB shop might not carry it or have any experience with it.

Personally I love it.

[BadRock]

I'm a user.

[BigNastyBrew]

Con- if you used in to stanitize an airlock the air lock may get foamy. I tend to rinse the airlock to avoid the foam.

Doesn't that negate the effect of the star-san. The Brew Strong Show interview with that fella from five-star went that way specifically.

I use it and love it.

[brewinhard]

So, say I was sanitizing a plastic fermenter. Can you just spray it on the inside and wait 30 seconds or is it wiser to fill the whole fermenter?

[SouthernBrewlady]

I love STAR SAN. My favorite. I have iodaphor too, but prefer the star san. I just slosh it around the fermentor, wet contact time of 2 minutes and spray or soak all small items. I used to fill the fermentors alll the way up until I heard the podcast with the star san guy (I think he was on the Sunday Session) who said the above method is fine. I believe he said not to store it in stainless too long also. Or was that just those voices in my head. No I'm pretty sure he said that, cause I dumped it out of my kegs. I also like starsan because it's safe for the enviornment. Iodaphor is bad news and I live on well water. I love the foam. i know it'w working when i see it.

[MattSF]

So, say I was sanitizing a plastic fermenter. Can you just spray it on the inside and wait 30 seconds or is it wiser to fill the whole fermenter?

well for a fermenter, I find it easy just to put in a small amount of the proper ratio mix of SS and shake it up (lid on loosely to let the SS penetrate everywhere).

But I agree with Chupa LaHomebrew, using a spray bottle is the shiznit when it comes to Star San. I find it handy for almost anything...I take off an airlock and want to put it down for a second on a questionably clean surface...spritz! no worries. Or if I drop something on the floor I'm about to use... spritz!

btw, SS is so damn efficient, it can make mixing a small amount a bit tricky if you want the perfect "no-rinse" ratio. According to my calculations: for a 500ml spray bottle, you want about .7ml SS. For 1L, about 1.5ml SS. etc etc. knowing one ounce or 30ml per 5 gallons is great and all, but sometimes 40 lbs of water isn't easy to move around. For properly dosing a spray bottle, get one of those eye dropper style childrens' medicine droppers from the drugstore. makes counting milliliters actually possible