It has been a while since I brewed, and when I was sanitizing my bottles in StarSan, I forgot to wear gloves. Now my hands are SUPER chapped. Anyone else had this happen? Anything I can do for it aside from lotion and sloughing off all the dead skin?
P.S.- Let this be a warning to all new brewers! USE GLOVES!!!
Never had that issue.
Never had this issue, either. Are you using too high a concentration? 1oz per 5 gallons.
Chapped hands? Really?
That’s the “Second Un-Manly Thing” you did today. . .
i never used gloves. sometimes it makes my hands feel funny while wet. but never had them chapped.
sounds painful. goodluck
I never had that issue either. :?
How did you dilute the Starsan??? 5 gallons of Starsan to 1 oz. of water???
No, I’ve never had anything worse that prune fingers after bottling. And that is only my left hand, getting the caps out of the Starsan and putting them on the bottles.
I don’t think I’m doing it wrong… 1 oz to 5 gal… Hmm. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me. It doesn’t happen if I just touch it a little like pulling the caps out of a bowl. It’s when I’m dunking the bottles in the solution, submerging my hands completely several times, that it gets bad. Really, I just need to get a bottle washer and that would solve my problem.
It’s not necessarily chapped, but like the skin is really rough, like super dry so the top layer of skin keeps sloughing off. I can’t believe I’m the only one… Perhaps I’m doing something wrong.
I use a Vinator for sanitizing my bottles but my hands get totally soaked in the Starsan a few times during the process and I have had no issues like you describe.
Soak your hands in Starsan a couple of times a day for 2 months. They will either toughen up or fall off! :lol:
Different people have different reactions. It IS an acid. Guess you need gloves, but I wouldn’t worry about this time. Get some moisturizer (and gloves).
I use a vinator http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/vina … inser.html
and I only dip fingers in for caps. My hands don’t get much exposure to the stuff.
My hands get pretty rough in the winter time. Never had a problem with Star San, though. They’re exposed daily to hyd. fluid, glue, solvent, etc., not to mention frequent washing. Add cold, dry weather and your skin suffers.
If you are looking for gloves, I recommend these highly:
I love, love, love mine. 
i noticed some dry skin after submerging my hand up to the elbow after a couple minutes… just tried to rinse it off every couple minutes…i figure its no worse than battery acid or a lot of other chemicals/solvents/greases i run into at work, or working on the car…it’ll just give you a working mans hand. no big deal. if its safe to not rinse, its got to be safe to put your hands in. the concentrated form is a different story…i am super careful when handling that.
touche
[quote]Different people have different reactions. It IS an acid. Guess you need gloves[quote]
+1 I can submerge my hands in the stuff with no issue but my brother has the same issue as the OP with dry cracked hands after contact so he has to wear gloves. Some people are just more sensitive to it. I don’t think it’s that common though; I teach students to brew at work all the time and my brother is the only one I have seen with this reaction yet.
[quote=“ShortTom007”] Now my hands are SUPER chapped. Anyone else had this happen?[/quote] It dries the hell out of my hands too and sometimes my fingers crack, but stuff I use at work also adds to this problem.
I’m still not using gloves though.
[quote=“ShortTom007”] Anything I can do for it aside from lotion and sloughing off all the dead skin?[/quote]If it gets to the point your hands really start to hurt, rub a bunch of petroleum jelly all over you hands and put some latex gloves on for a few hours. Sounds weird, but it really helps.
Sometimes I notice that it may sting a little bit (I notice this with hot PBW solution as well), but I’ve never had a serious issue with Starsan and I do not wear gloves. Has anyone ever used the LD Carlson brewery cleanser called EasyClean (I think)? There are warnings on the label about wearing protective gloves and safety goggles. I showed it to another homebrewer that was over at my house and he said, “I don’t think I would use that product!”. Hang in there and get some good Burt’s Bees lotion or something.
I have extremely bad eczema and am allergic to everything I’ve ever been tested for, except water. I submerge my hands in diluted starsan frequently without major issue or discomfort. I wash with soap immediately afterwards and then lotion my hands with cetaphil CREAM, not lotion. It’s thicker and works great. If I were to the point you are, I’d also use hydrocortisone to help with the itching and help me heal quicker. As was said, lube up and put gloves on. I have to use cotton gloves tho and wear them to bed.
Don’t come into contact with the concentrate and only dilute with cold or room temp water. I think in diluted form starsan is safe enough to drink, but wouldn’t recommend it. I think it’s less acidic than soda, but I’m not sure. Time to pull out the test strips . . .
:cheers:
Thanks Quincy, glad to hear that I’m not the only one, even if it isn’t that common.
After the first couple of times of this happening, I started wearing gloves. However, it’s been a while since I brewed, so I didn’t think about it until after I had already finished bottling.
It’s starting to get better now. Been using some good lotion a lot, and I think I caught it in time to keep it from getting too bad. The first few times it happened, it was really bad. The skin got so dry that it started to crack. Now, though, when it gets dried out, I just use some lotion. It really helps.
Neutrogena
had cream.
Bag Balm
