Hola, El Brew Duderinos,
So yesterday my buddy and I brewed an IPA. I have a few brews under my belt, he is less experienced. Everything was going great until we got to the essential step of sanitization. We used Star-San. Upon hearing me tell him that there was no need to rinse, he had a mini-freak out, being that he read the label on the bottle. Needless to say, it took some convincing on my part to insist that we not rinse, due to possible contamination. We only used 1 oz, per the directions.
However, I can understand where he’s coming from. If one reads the warning label, it pretty much seems like it’s downright toxic. There is nothing on the bottle indicating it’s safe for food use, or even USDA approved (although I believe in reality it is).
So my question is what is it exactly that makes it safe to use in a product that a human would be consuming? Is it just that the recommended amount is so miniscule?
Any input would be great, I’d love to help allay his fears.
Keep calm, and brew on
-The Dude
It’s about the concentration level. If you spill the concentrate on your counter top, your wife will castrate you. But you can use the diluted product to sanitize the counter after making dinner with out a worry.
The same with leaving 1oz or so in the bottom of the fermenter. An additional 5+ gallons of wort will dilute it down to a level you will not taste or have any effect on us.
There is a PDF on the 5 Star site that says it’s USDA accepted.
http://www.fivestarchemicals.com/wp-con ... an-HB4.pdf
I think there was a podcast where Charlie drank some of the diluted solution? I know I’ve read some taste experiments on how much you need to add before you taste starsan/iodophor.
Exactly right. StarSan is an acidic cleaner that when used as directed (1oz per 5 gal. I believe) is totally safe to be mixed in with your beer at small quantities. The beer will buffer that concentration back to somewhere closer to ph neutral…thus non harming to the beer and to you the drinker.
Star-San is an industry standard, not something the homebrew world invented. Use as directed and it’s the best thing on the planet for brewery sanitation. Any sanitizer that requires rinsing is useless, and Star San residuals are not only harmless to your brew, but beneficial to the yeast.
All the info is out there for the searching.
good to know i was worried i killed my yeast yesterday using a spoon wet with solution
