I have heard that Saniclean is a non-foaming version of Star-San. So I thought I would give it a try. Now I have a bottle of Saniclean but it is brown. It looks more like Iodophore than Star-San. The bottle label on the Saniclean says that it contains Phosphoric Acid ( like starsan) and Oleic Acid. Is the later ingredient what makes it brown? Will it stain soft plastic like Iodophore?
I have some, but haven’t used it, yet, for that fear. I would be glad to hear, as well.
My plastic items get stained by dark malts. I was never concerned with the Iodophor staining them.
I like the 5Star products because they have a longer shelf life than Iodophor so you don’t need to mix a new batch when you want to take a sample from the fermenter.
Saniclean won’t stain plastic - or at least it hasn’t for me. Dosage is different than starsan. Starsan is 1 oz per 5 gallons. Saniclean is 2 oz per 4 gallons.
I’ve used SaniClean for many years. Your cost is a bit higher overall as the mix ratio is a bit different, but when you need a non-foaming rinse of sanitizer it’s great. Great for pumping and spraying where foaming would overfoam and make a mess. Contact time is a bit longer too, but no biggie. I have never had it stain anything. I used to use it as a final swirl to clean out any foam from StarSan where I caused excessive foaming, but that was rare. It’s just a good alternative to StarSan when you need such a thing.
Thanks for all the good information. Not a fan of the foam especially when bottling. I am going to check it out today!
I’ve been using Saniclean since my original post a couple of months ago. As others, have reported, there is no staining of plastic. Just as an experiment, I left a 5 gallon white bucket full of the stuff sit for 6 weeks. No staining what so ever.
So I am going to ask maybe a really really dumb question. But oh well.
I have only used san star for sanitizing. Never really have had any issues BUT I will say when I want to use a carboy and there is still foam in it, I at times have issues when i pour the wort into the carboy via a funnel it really foams up.
Can I instead just use saniclean basically in all the same ways? does it sanitize just as well (even if I need to wait a bit longer etc?) only without the foam?
I know → ‘don’t fear the foam’ and I don’t. I am just curious / trying to learn more than anything
[quote=“fullhousebrew”]So I am going to ask maybe a really really dumb question. But oh well.
I have only used san star for sanitizing. Never really have had any issues BUT I will say when I want to use a carboy and there is still foam in it, I at times have issues when i pour the wort into the carboy via a funnel it really foams up. Can I instead just use saniclean basically in all the same ways? does it sanitize just as well (even if I need to wait a bit longer etc?) only without the foam?
I know → ‘don’t fear the foam’ and I don’t. I am just curious / trying to learn more than anything[/quote]
The remaining foam after the StarSan liquid is poured out should not be causing any excess foaming of wort. It’s probably the wort doing its normal thing irrelevant of the StarSan bubble bath. The foam that sticks makes it more effective than the non-foaming version as it stays in place longer.
You use it all the same ways as StarSan.
That said, if you avoid going nuts shaking things that are full of StarSan you won’t really have a foam problem. Same with emptying bottles that have been sitting in StarSan, pour out the sanitizer slowly not causing it to make the “glub glub” sound and you’ll only have a few large traces of sanitizer bubbles, not a bottle full of foam. Adjust the process rather than worrying about the StarSan. Saniclean is good when you have to use pumps and such that can’t avoid foaming sometimes.
Thanks. I never really have any issues with the foam except when I pour it from the bucket I have it in into the better bottle carboy I have. I will admit I just pour it through a funnel, then swish it around (not vigerously but still swirl it) then pour it back into bucket. It is the part where I pour it into the carboy I think is causing a lot of foaming.
THEN when I pour the actual wort into the crboy I am doing it pretty fast to get some oxygen etc in it. the combo of those things causes a lot of the san star to foam right back up. a lot.
I may have to work on pouring the san star it into the carboy more gently, then swirling, then pouring out.
Also a tip, you only need enough to wet the surfaces, not to fill and soak the vessels. Many folks use way too much, or feel they need to submerge things to sanitize. Using less will also reduce massive foam issues.
yep, great point. I think I will work to slowly pour just enough into the carboy, tip it around to coat all the areas etc versus the way to vigerous way i am now.
I use a bucket versus the better bottle for primary a lot more, and don’t run into the same issues since it doesn’t foam up and pour our of the neck of a bucket obviouly.
