Star San

[Ryan0186]

So I was looking at some old posts on the forum and found one that said that if the sanitation water gets cloudy after adding star san than it is no good and wont sanitize. I put together a batch today and the water was cloudy in it. I also added some Star San to my swamp cooler water and it is cloudy. Am I in trouble or did I just add to much. I didn't measure it I just eye balled it when I added it to the water, I figured that too much was better than too little....Did I screw up?

 

[kh54s10]

As far as I know some water chemistry will make Starsan cloudy but it is still good. Get some ph test strips and if the ph is below 3 it is good.

 

[Ryan0186]

Would it help if I used the filtered water from the fridge instead of tap water?

 

[JeepDiver]

It will sanitize fine if it clouds instantly, but wont last as lomg. Cloudy is an indicator with filteted water but ph is the only way to tell for surw

 

[mpcluever]

Agreed that cloudy water doesn't necessarily mean it's not effective. I've had stuff I stored for a few weeks that tested at ~3 pH. My brother stores it for months and he's never had a problem using it and he recently got a pH meter and found it was still good. He's just using well water for what it's worth.

 

[BigFloyd]

Mine sometimes clouds up right after I dilute it. That's NOT a good indicator of whether it's effective or not.

pH is the only way to know for sure.

 

[dk21]

I spoke with 5 star in person about this at the AHA conference. They said that cloudiness means it is reacting with the contents of the water, which has a negative impact on its sanitizing ability. If it clouds immediately in your water, it should be good for the brew day, but should be discarded when finished.

They suggested mixing with distilled water if interested in storing diluted Star San and reusing it. As a rule they said if it's not cloudy and the PH is below 3.5, you're good. If it's cloudy and the PH is in range, it might be good, but you can't know for sure unless you have the equipment necessary to measure how much Star San is in the solution.

 

[brew2dan2]

I have this problem too, and it's relieving to hear it's not too serious! I don't like it, though, because it has some sort of sediment in it (I assume it's bicarbonate settling out with the acid, or something - my water has 350ppm bicarbonate). It doesn't happen with my softened water, though, so that's what I'm going with for now on.

 

[Wynne-R]

We have a winner! DK21 pick up your prize.

The official answer is that Star San solutions should be clear and a pH below 3.5.

If you used Distilled water the solution would not turn cloudy. The product can react with hard water and turn cloudy. The Minerals in the water can react with the anionic portion of the star san and cause it to go bad. Yes, when this happens you should consider making a fresh solution. The cloudiness usually forms after a dwell time or when people try and store the solution for multiple weeks. If this is the case then, yes always start with a fresh solution.

Jon Herskovits
Five Star

People usually ignore the fact that Star San has two active ingredients, it needs them both. If it was just the acid, you could use vinegar. The second ingredient is a detergent. It works with the acid to dramatically increase it’s killing power.

The cloudiness is a precipitate formed with the minerals in hard water. You know your Star San is degraded, you just don’t know how much. You might get away with it, but why screw around? Get a spray bottle and some soft water. Your beer will love you for it!

 

[Ryan0186]

Don't have any signs if infection with this batch so far. I'm going to use distilled water next time and properly measure the amt of StarSan.

 

[krenshaw]

i use distilled in a couple spray bottles and it lasts quite a time.. i actually keep one under the sink as well to just use with kitchen cleanup..