I am starting my first batch tomorrow and was wondering the best way to sanitize the glass carboy. I have read a few different ways. I read you can use the star san with 5 gallons of water and when you are done sanitizing the carboy you can dump it in the 5 gallon bucket to soak the other parts in it. I have also read to just use the star san and shake it inside the carboy. Any ideas?
make sure it’s clean first, then just a gallon or two will work fine. just shake it up real nice and don’t worry about the foam left behind, it won’t hurt a thing.
You don’t want to use undilluted star san if that’s what you meant as the second option. You can use 5 gallons as mentioned, or a smaller amount, dilluted to the same concentration. Either way just shake it around a bit, you just need the surface to get wet it doesn’t need to be full/completely submerged to work.
I highly recommend that before you shake StarSan around in a glass carboy that you make sure that both the glass and your hands are dry - StarSan is slippery.
I used to fill my carboys to the top with Starsan solution and let it sit a few minutes. Now I mix 2.5 gallons of solution, put it in the carboy and while my wort is boiling, I lay it on it’s side and gently roll it with a bung in place, then place it in the carboy drier to get the solution in the neck of the carboy. I have no problem shaking my plastic better bottle carboy with the sanitizer in it, but I will not attempt that with my glass ones. I dropped a brand new 6.5 glass carboy on the floor and smashed it to a million pieces before I even used it once. They are slippery when wet.
If your using 2.5gals just to sanitize one carboy you are using far more than I do.
I also keep a 5 gal bucket with 2.5 gal of star stan, I pour it in to the carboy and shake it up then dump back in to the bucket and use that for sanitizing all the rest of my equipment. Then put a lid on the bucket and keep for bottling day. Cheers
I make up 24 oz of Star San solution at a time (1/4 teaspoon full strength and top up with well water gently to avoid foaming).
I use maybe 8 oz solution swirled repeatedly in stoppered clean carboy during brew day to sanitize carboy, draining solution into cup with knife to sanitize blade to open the swollen yeast package.
Works great for me.
I do fill my carboy after spraying off most of the crud ring from the fermentation krausen with water and 4 oz PBW for a day or three to clean without scrubbing (my only broken carboy was caused by brushing during cleaning; no more brushing for me).
Good information, my brew kit should be in today and plan on making my first brew sometime this week. Trying to absorb as much info as I can so my first batch will be successful.
Thanks,
