Two questions on cleansers/StarSan/C-Brite/B-Brite/etc

bifftradwell · 3 months

Star San is an acid sold in highly concentrated form, which is why a 1:500 mixing ratio is sufficient to sanitize a bottle.

1) Avoid contact with the concentrate. Once mixed, prolonged exposure will suck all the oils out of your skin and kill the top layer of live cells. It's not painful, but the itching and peeling can be uncomfortable, and I suspect repeated prolonged exposures can lead to Bad Things happening, like maybe your hands will explode.

2) I never scrub my bottles unless I see visible goop inside that I can't remove chemically. I also don't StarSan them - just throw them in the dishwasher, no soap, on the sani-rinse setting, which gets them to 168F and holds them there for at least 10 minutes. This kills the pathogen.

extra_pickles · 3 months

1) I can only talk about Star San here - but I don't think it is an irritant. I soak my hands in it in an effort to sanitize my contact w/ the items I am sanitizing.

2) Star San is a rinse free contact sanitizer. Leaving your bottles in it longer than the required time (30s) has no benefit. Rinsing it off is a waste of time, and to some extend defeats the purpose of sanitization (unless you can confirm the water being used is w/o any bacteria).

If the bottles are clean, use star san as directed on the package. If they aren't wash them with something, then use star san. I've never once scrubbed the inside of a bottle! (Also, if their is shit stuck in their get a bottle jet attachment for your sink...about 15$ and will blast almost anything off of the insides)

A good investment may be a bottle washer (sulphiter) - you can throw 200-300ml of star san in one and sanitize your whole set. (Assuming the foam doesn't go crazy! I've never actually put starsan in a sulphiter before as I normally keg everything)

P.S. If you do get some stubborn bottles that don't rinse so well, fill them up with a hot brew clean solution - or oxy clean solution and let them soak for an hour - then give them a good shake w/ half the solution still inside. Never use a brush! (too much work - + if they are plastic you may be scratching the insides and creating homes for bacteria)

edit: to clarify what I was referring to above

link to a bottle jet:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/jet-bottle-washer.html

link to a bottle washer (aka a sulphiter):

http://store.defalcowines.com/cart.php?target=product&product_id=20359&substring=Sulphiter

link to a PBW (aka a brew cleaner / can sub in Oxy if you want)

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_56_36&products_id=514

TheRealFender · 3 months

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter2-2-3.html

zegolf · 3 months

1) I think the warning relates more to the undiluted version of StarSan, rather than the version that you're probably using 99% of the time. I'm sure if you did this on a daily basis, it would probably have an adverse affect on your skin, but if you're only brewing once a week or so, you should be fine.

2) This would probably be ok, but if you're going to soak them, why not soak them in a cleaning agent solution to guarantee they get cleaned out, and then soak them in StarSan? For me, this is the process I use:

If a bottle has a label, I soak it in a hot water/oxyclean solution. This solves two problems: The oxyclean practically melts off the glue from the label, and the hot water and cleaner helps to soak off particles and other crap from inside the bottles
I then load my dishwasher with a bottle on each prong. This will help to clean them out a bit more.
Next I'll store the bottles until they're ready for filling.
Finally, I'll put them back into the dishwasher, set a rinse cycle (to clean off the dust) and finish with the sanitize setting.

While this wouldn't work with a dishwasher that lacks a sanitize function, it is a quick and painless way to clean a lot of bottles in a small amount of time.

willdrinkbeerforfood · 3 months

1) It can contact your skin, it won't kill you. I have noticed my skin does peel a little after extended exposure (I clean my bottles by submerging them in a bucket of starsan and fishing them out after a minute)

2) Yes, this is what I do. This plan starts to fail when you get bottles from other people/live with others, so be careful about that.

travtele844 · 3 months

I'm with zegolf, I believe they are for the undiluted strength.

On brew day I spray my hands and forearms with starsan any time I need to touch anything that should be sanitized and on bottling day I'm often dipping hands and arms into starsan when getting bottles ready and haven't noticed any real ill effects other than a bit of skin dryness.

trendo · 3 months

Thanks for the responses all. From them it looks like the diluted sanitizers are okay on your skin. And for the most part it looks like I'll stop brush scrubbing the insides of my bottles unless there's a chance that's there's actually crap worth brushing out of there.

TheZooo · 3 months

star san and similar are acids. it is required by law to have such warnings even though you will be diluting it to levels that are safe enough to touch or even drink, really.

rancemo · 3 months

StarSan PH is around 3. Coca-cola is supposedly 2.5. Therefore it's probably safer to be in contact with Starsan than Coca-cola. I'm not a chemist, so this could be completely false. Anyone ever sanitize a carboy with coke?

loniousmonk · 3 months

I don't use gloves, but it might be good practice for a couple reasons. Gloves should have less little nooks and crannies than your hands so should be easier to sanitize. Also I suppose wearing gloves will remind you to not touch your face or scratch your butt and things like that =O

mattlphoto · 3 months

For a while I was really misusing StarSan, and wasting money doing so.
I would make 5 gallon batches every brew day and every bottling day.
Completely unnecessary. A little goes a long way.
Anyways, one bottling day, i decided the best way to sanitize my bottling bucket and my bottles was to make a full batch of star san and take each individual bottle and dunk them in with my bare hands. For the occasional contact with diluted StarSan, and even with spraying a layer directly onto your skin, you are fine. Soaking your hands and arms in it for 50 12oz bottles is another story. My hands pruned up really bad and were dry for the next 12 hours or so. Still, not a chemical burn or anything, but the skin was pretty sensitive for a while.

goblueM · 3 months

1) I had a pretty nasty acid burn on my foot this summer from Star San. But I unknowingly spilled some on my sock, then was wading around fishing in waders for 6 hours. Felt like an itch at first, by the time I took my sock off it was too late.

This was undiluted star-san over 6 hours... you don't have to worry about incidental contact, even if it is undiluted and you wash off right away.

2) I never scrub my bottles, I just rinse after using, then straight sanitize. (obviously I check to make sure there's nothing growing in the bottles before sanitizing)

inebriates · 3 months

One of the Basic Brewing podcasts from a while back had an interview with a guy from Five Star Chemicals on how to properly sanitize with Star San, etc. Here's that link if you're interested.

And they also had a sanitization episode waaaay back in 2005 that might be informative, too. Here's that podcast.

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