Mold!

[DarrellQ]

I reuse my 6 gallons of Star San over a couple months or several brews. I use it in my keg when I push Star San out when I do closed transfers. Between uses, I store it sealed in a 5 gallon bucket that I previously used for fermenting. Prepping for my next brew, when I removed this bucket lid, I noticed mold on the inside of the lid. Obviously, I dumped it. What can I do to prevent this?

Also, after brewing, I flush the tubing that I use for transfer, etc. with hot water. At times, since the inside of the tubes dry so slowly, I have seen mold develop inside these tubes also. How to prevent this?

Thanks for your comments!

 

[hotbeer]

Let everything air dry and store accordingly. Sanitize before use, not while being stored.

Hoses I'll blow out with compressed air or put one end in front of a fan and the other end behind the fan.

 

[IslandLizard]

From what I observed, the black mold that forms in the headspace and bottom of the lid in your (closed or covered) Starsan buckets is a form of mildew.
It's water that evaporates from the Starsan solution, then re-condensates on the walls and lid. Since air contains the spores, they find a way to propagate there. The darkness helps too.

So open them up every 1-2 weeks or so, and wet/mop the air-exposed walls inside the bucket and bottom of the lid with your Starsan solution. That should keep the mold away.

 

[IslandLizard]

Also, after brewing, I flush the tubing that I use for transfer, etc. with hot water. At times, since the inside of the tubes dry so slowly, I have seen mold develop inside these tubes also. How to prevent this?

After cleaning and rinsing you should definitely Starsan the tubing. That's what I've always done. Then drape them over a storage rack post so they can drip out from both ends. They're dry in a few days, I've never seen mold in them.

You can adapt/modify a hair dryer nozzle to fit the tubing and dry em that way. Just blowing hot air over them takes a long, long time, the key is to send all (or most) of the hot air through the inside. Low temp, so they don't melt.