I have been a long time user of iodophor sanitizer but just recently I decided to give Star-San a try due to its re-usability and stability. I sanitized my bottles with the directed concentration of sanitizer solution, not fearing the foam as so commonly stated, and filled and capped as usual. After a few days I opened a bottle to evaluated how the beer was doing and noticed that there were a few spots of shimmery, oily film like deposit on the surface of the beer in the glass. These spots were small, less than 1/16" in dia and I did not notice any off flavors.
Now, approx 1 week into the conditioning, I’m noticing a precipitate in the bottles that sometimes sticks to the sides of the glass like yeast can do in a carboy. The precipitate is very small and solid and does not cause turbidity when the bottle is spun therefore the coalesced particles are very solid/bound together.
Is this from the sanitizer? or is this a wondrous new method for binding polyphenols and proteins? Or is it colonies of yeast from the conditioning phase?(this I doubt as the utilized yeast is a VERY low flocculator)
Any Ideas are appreciated…
Sounds more like an infection or something contaminating the Starsan. Starsan is just a weak phosphoric acid solution with a tiny amount of detergent. All water soluble, I haven’t seen anything oily about it. I believe the thick nature of the concentrate is from the concentrated phosphoric acid.
Is it possible the oiliness is from hops oils? I’ve seen that on the top of the beer in the bottling bucket, but never in the bottles or drinking glass. Come to think of it, I suppose it could be StarSan-related, as I sanitize my bottles in the dishwasher, and the beer flows from below the oiliness when I’m bottling, so presumably it is left behind.
I’ve never seen precipitate in the bottles like you’re talking about, though. If you’re reusing it, how long do you keep it around? If it’s been around awhile, it seems possible that a bunch of stuff has collected in it and made it into your bottles. Once I racked reused StarSan into a carboy, only to discover all kinds of residue at the bottom of the bucket I’d been keeping it in. I Dumped it all and re-sanitized.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/star-sa ... ost1661589
[quote=“malkore on Home Brew Talk”]Yep. That rainbow effect is not oil, but the surfactant.
Just like you’ll see rainbows in the bubbles that little kids play with.
Don’t worry, it breaks down in the beer and becomes yeast food.[/quote]
Thanks on the surfactant thang… explains the oily bits…now what about the precipitate?
Only things that occur to me are the issue of particles (hops, etc.) collecting in your re-used StarSan or beer that wasn’t done fermenting (so, yeast is finishing up and flocculating).
Most of what I’ve read about infection indicates that you’ll typically see evidence on top of the beer.
