So today I tried Star San for the first time for sanitation and was making a Plum and Apple wine (1 gallon). I used a little less than a quarter OZ of star san , but for whatever strange reason I only mixed it with 1/2 gallon of water instead of one. I used it for sanitizing my primary fermenting bucket as well as a bucket I was storing the cut fruit in. My other potential issue is - Do you need to let Star San dry before allowing treated containers to come in contact with food? Also, did I use to high a concentration? I added a campden tablet as well as some pectic enzyme and citric acid to the fruit and its sitting in my fridge. Tomorrow I will add some yeast if it's safe. Any ideas. Any help is always welcome. Thank you very much in advance.
Did I mess up big? Sanitation
- Thread starter coaxmw
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Star San is mixed 1 oz per 5 gallons of water, then allowed to air dry.
I would probably proceed myself but lets see what others here say.
I would probably proceed myself but lets see what others here say.
Well your not too far off with the dilution depending on how much smaller then 1/2 oz you used so I think your just fine on that and it does not have to be dry at all. Most people when making beer just dump ot as much fliud as they can and then add their wort (unfermented beer) right in which can really make some foam and that is all good! Just remember to bring the temp up to around 75* before adding the yeast or the yeast will take forever to start.
Thanks. I seemed to be about twice as concentrated as it recommends (1/4oz to 1/2 gallon water), and although they say it's food safe at the store, the warnings on the bottle are pretty dire. Wade E, thats kinda what I did, in that I just dumped out as much as I could. I was mostly just worried about the concentration. Thanks a lot for your guys answers.
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Put it this way, if you drank it at that concentration youd possibly get sick but you diluted by about 1/2 as its really a 1/4 oz to 1.25 gallons and you did less then 1/4 oz per 1/2 gallon but then you dumped that out and diluted again with another gallon of wine.
Great, thanks for all your help. I'm gonna let it roll and throw some yeast in there today. The more I read, the more it seemed like it would be OK, partly because I am diluting it with a gallon of wine in progress. Also many people seemed to mention that Star San is an acid based cleaner and becomes ineffective once the acid levels change. Thirdly, it seems to lose potentcy after a few months and this probably wont be drank before 9months to a year. Thanks again.
