Star San - Which Water?

[floydmeddler]

I've been successfully mixing Volvic water with Star San for months and have always had a crystal clear mix... Until recently. I bought my usual Volvic water, mixed it with Star San and it more or less went cloudy instantly. Tried it with a few bottles and same result.

What water is everyone else using and can you confirm it doesn't go cloudy?

Damn you Volvic!

Cheers

[steve_flack]

Oooo, Volvic hark at him

I use Tesco's Ashbeck. I was using a cheaper water from tescos but they've changed the source and it's higher in bicarb now. Ashbeck is around 20ppm bicarb IIRC. ASDA's right price I think is OK. Don't bother with Morrisons cheap water as it's loaded with Bicarb.

[floydmeddler]

Cheers lads. Right, will get on me scooter and get me to Tescos. ASDA is closer, but I have no phosphoric acid. If Tesco fails me, I'll track some down.

Think I'll go on the hunt for agar too since the weather is lovely.

[dwhyte]

So does it matter what the PH of the water is from source or is that the wrong way to tell?
A lot of the bottled water is approx PH 7.

[steve_flack]

Most drinking water is fairly neutral in terms of pH. It can still be loaded with bicarbonate which will neutralise the acid in star san. You need to know the bicarbonate level...which is on the back of most bottles.

[dwhyte]

Ah thanks,

Chemistry was never my strong point

My Scottish Water repoert tells me my tap water is approx: 22.5mg/l CaCO3

That what I want for Star San?
Is that the Bicarbonate figure?

[mentaldental]

I am lucky enough to have asource of RO water for mixing my Star San which is just as well as the KH of my mains water is 260ppm or so.So the question is, if I had to use the tap water could I add the appropriate amount of CRS to it and then use it to mix my Star San?

[Bobba]

How about deionised water? That should do the job as well right?

[dwhyte]

So my very soft tap water having total alkalinity of 22.5mg/l CaCO3 should be fine then?

[dwhyte]

Cheers,

I take it that wouldn't give too much acid content to stop it being no rinse?

[mentaldental]

No - it's only 1ml in 2L , if you were to somehow calculate what was clinging to the vessel walls it would be negligible, it would make no discernible difference to the alkalinity of the beer and it certainly wouldn't harm you - it is food grade phosphoric acid and I suspect coke would be just as acidic although someone may correct me there but none the less when diluted into beer it would be at almost homeopathic levels.

If I remember correctly Coke has a pH of 2.8. Dissolves teeth a treat!

[dwhyte]

Well, got my StarSan, put a couple of ml in a litre of Edinburgh soft tap water and bingo, crystal clear no rinse solution