Acidified Bleach

[robbo79]

Do any of you use the above with good results?

[RajBoab]

I did this for a while and it seemed to work well.
Got fed up with the rinsing though. I switched to Iodophor and then switched to Star San.
Star San is great!

Stuart

[robbo79]

what makes stan san better then? how do you use that?

[RajBoab]

It's an acidic sanitiser that is no rinse at the concentrations 5 star chemicals suggest (off the top of my head it's 1.6ml per litre of water).
No rinse is required which is great. It kills very quickly, almost in seconds so you can sanitise almost as you go along. Put a bit in the fermenter and swirl around and the job is done. It can be reused. You can add some to a spray bottle and use a sanitising spray. It costs a bit but a little goes a long way. I can make it up with my soft tap water and don't have to buy bottled water to make it up. The way ahead.

Stuart

[Bobba]

It's an acidic sanitiser that is no rinse at the concentrations 5 star chemicals suggest (off the top of my head it's 1.6ml per litre of water).
No rinse is required which is great. It kills very quickly, almost in seconds so you can sanitise almost as you go along. Put a bit in the fermenter and swirl around and the job is done. It can be reused. You can add some to a spray bottle and use a sanitising spray. It costs a bit but a little goes a long way. I can make it up with my soft tap water and don't have to buy bottled water to make it up. The way ahead.

Stuart

What about all that foam? I used it for the first time on my keg the other day, and found that the foam was enormous, and it wouldn't dissipate in any reasonable time

[Aleman]

Don't Fear the Foam

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Alternatively use 5 Star Saniclean, which is more or less the same stuff without the foam

[RajBoab]

+1. Don't fear the foam!

Just give it a bit of a drain to remove most of the fluid (which can be reused). I seem to remember that when the product breaks down it provides phosphates that the yeast can find useful.

Stuart

[maxashton]

+2 Don't fear the foam!

[Bobba]

It just doesnt seem right!!! So you guys just rack right on top of the foam then? Fair enough!

[maxashton]

Exactly!

Whatever you're brewing displaces the foam, which floats on top. The foam is so good, it actually sanitizes the vessel as it rises with the fill!

M

[Yeasty Rob]

I don't really get much foam with it, although the water down here is pretty hard so I guess that helps.

I make it up with tap water as well though and have had no trouble with it. With the hard water though I do double up the concentration just to make sure the pH is acceptable (2mls per 500ml) which works well and still goes a long way in a spray gun.

[Bobba]

I don't really get much foam with it, although the water down here is pretty hard so I guess that helps.

I make it up with tap water as well though and have had no trouble with it. With the hard water though I do double up the concentration just to make sure the pH is acceptable (2mls per 500ml) which works well and still goes a long way in a spray gun.

I've heard you should be careful with hard water - if it goes cloudy then the star san is comprimised. Ended up buying some cheap low alkalinity water (20mgcaco3/L) specially for star san, as it was going cloudy with my tap water (80mgcaco3/L)

[Yeasty Rob]

if it goes cloudy then the star san is comprimised. Ended up buying some cheap low alkalinity water (20mgcaco3/L) specially for star san, as it was going cloudy with my tap water (80mgcaco3/L)

Oh bugger, yeah mine does go a tad cloudy. Never knew that about it going cloudy, just thought that was how it went - oops.

Better get some cheap water like you say, or maybe a water filter.

[EccentricDyslexic]

Mine goes cloudy too so i get RO water from the local tropical fish shop @ 10p a liter...now its not cloudy. However, im not convinced the cloudyness means it wont work...its down to the PH at the end of the day..if you ph test it and its at the right level your ok. The makers say it is compramised if its cloudy cus that also may mean its dirty/contaminated.

Steve

[Kev888]

I believe that if the PH is too far out it goes cloudy, but that in 'some' less common circumstances it can go cloudy without the PH being too high. I measured mine with litmus papers to be sure, but sadly it was indeed far too high if I use tap water so now I use water emptied from a dehumidifier. Deionised water used for car batteries works well too, think its more expensive than the fish tank stuff steve mentioned but there isn't such a shop handy for me.

None of this helps if your squirty-bottle freezes solid though, I discovered yesterday.

Cheers
Kev