Cloudy ChemSan woes

[Tetsuo1981]

I know this needs to be in a different forum but do you reckon there’s any viable yeast in it?

There's definitely something in the bottom of the bottles. I'm treating it as a science experiment

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Could be a bottling yeast tho so don’t get your hopes up

 

[Moe]

My water is hard. When I make up a bottle of chemsan I usually add a shot of AMS/CRS to it.

Stops it going cloudy.

I’ve not had any contamination issues, but I was out with percarbonate before using chemsan.

 

[foxbat]

Could be a bottling yeast tho so don’t get your hopes up

It's unfiltered lager.

 

[prog99]

It's unfiltered lager.

Can’t see them letting it out the door unless it’s pasteurised though.

 

[Elliott 22]

use spotless water, if you have a filling station near you you it's very cheap.
https://www.spotlesswater.co.uk/View attachment 68862

Just signed up and great concept as would be perfect but
Says not tested for human consumption?

 

[Davegase]

Just signed up and great concept as would be perfect but
Says not tested for human consumption?

Personally I don't drink starsan but have used spotless water to make up about five different beer kits, which I have drank with no ill-effects apart from the usual ones if you drink too much beer!!
Personally I wouldn't drink distilled water or RO water because of the lack of minerals.
If you do use spotless water for making all grain beer you must treat it it the same way you would with distilled or RO!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Just signed up and great concept as would be perfect but
Says not tested for human consumption?

That's correct. It's for cleaning windows, so why would the people manufacturing it need to go through all the bother of making sure all the pipes are disinfected and it's stored in plastics approved for foodstuffs?
I'm not knocking it, but personally I won't be using it for brewing :hat:

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

I collected some water from an air-con condensation pipe to see if it's any good for Chem-san and hey presto it's crystal clear.
My Chem-san from tapwater is always very cloudy.
I'd heard that A/C drain water is distilled water, could be useful.

 

[JockyBrewer]

If you have a condenser dryer, the use the water that comes out of the collection drawer. It's pure distilled water.

It will be distilled water, but it'll also have in it whatever is lurking in your dryer pipework and drawer. I used to use water from my dehumidifier until I found black mould growing in there one day.

Good for ironing, but not food safe in my opinion.

 

[JockyBrewer]

Tesco Ashbeck water is known to be very low in minerals and won't go cloudy - I've kept a 5 litre bottle of it dosed with starsan for months and it's stayed absolutely fine. You don't need a lot of starsan if you're using it with a spray bottle (£1 from Homebase), so 5 litres goes a long way.

The only time I use it with my tap water is to purge kegs, so I make up 20 litres, flush it through a few kegs and then it goes down the drain.

 

[tigertim]

I collected some water from an air-con condensation pipe to see if it's any good for Chem-san and hey presto it's crystal clear.
My Chem-san from tapwater is always very cloudy.
I'd heard that A/C drain water is distilled water, could be useful.

I'd really not be advising consumption of condensate from an AC unit, it's theoretically distilled at the point at which is condenses, but becomes a thriving microbial ecosystem on its way to the point at which you can collect it! The water condenses onto the fins of the evaporator, collecting dust and debris as it washes down and drips into the tray, and PVC pipework rarely dries out when the unit is in regular use, building up (and sometimes even clogging) with slime and mould.

You can search YouTube for "Clogged AC Drain" or similar, but make sure you've had your dinner first!

 

[Tetsuo1981]

Could be a bottling yeast tho so don’t get your hopes up

That's all part of the fun, I've got nothing but time and just wanted to see if I could. Keep your fingers crossed for me, I'll post an update once.its going

Tesco Ashbeck water is known to be very low in minerals and won't go cloudy - I've kept a 5 litre bottle of it dosed with starsan for months and it's stayed absolutely fine. You don't need a lot of starsan if you're using it with a spray bottle (£1 from Homebase), so 5 litres goes a long way.

The only time I use it with my tap water is to purge kegs, so I make up 20 litres, flush it through a few kegs and then it goes down the drain.

That's exactly what I did except it was 2ltrs of Aldi value spring water and 5ltr of Morrisons whatever-it-is. Hopefully my PH strips come today so I can test it.

To everyone who uses the simple water thing, I love the idea of it but will have to look into it a bit deeper, not even sure they're near me

 

[Davegase]

That's all part of the fun, I've got nothing but time and just wanted to see if I could. Keep your fingers crossed for me, I'll post an update once.its going

That's exactly what I did except it was 2ltrs of Aldi value spring water and 5ltr of Morrisons whatever-it-is. Hopefully my PH strips come today so I can test it.

To everyone who uses the simple water thing, I love the idea of it but will have to look into it a bit deeper, not even sure they're near me

https://www.spotlesswater.co.uk/locations

 

[JockyBrewer]

That's all part of the fun, I've got nothing but time and just wanted to see if I could. Keep your fingers crossed for me, I'll post an update once.its going

That's exactly what I did except it was 2ltrs of Aldi value spring water and 5ltr of Morrisons whatever-it-is. Hopefully my PH strips come today so I can test it.

'Spring' water can be very high in minerals. It depends upon the brand.

The ones I've used successfully in the past were Tesco Ashbeck and Asda Eden Falls water and they stayed perfectly clear, although it's been a couple of years so hopefully their source hasn't changed and would still work.

Every other supermarket water I tried would go cloudy. When I tested Sainsbury's own I found the water was harder than my tap water!

 

[Old Fart At Play]

+1 to foxbat - been using Ashbeck for a while now, just the job.

 

[Tetsuo1981]

Little update on the ChemSan: it was reading a PH of 4 so added little by little and now got it below or around 3 so hopefully all good. Yeast is doing well, there's definite growth so gonna give it a couple of days then step it up. Also I thought it was worth mentioning that once I topped up the chemsan to get the correct PH is knocked the cloudiness right out of it, it's clear as a bell and foamy when shook! So fingers crossed it's all sorted nom


Thanks to everyone for their help

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Well I boiled some of my air-con distilled water and made a spray bottle of chem-san.

Like your's it's crystal clear and foamy.

Figured boiling would kill off any nasties.
Lets face it Bear Grylls drinks far worse water!

 

[Tetsuo1981]

Lets face it Bear Grylls drinks far worse water

made a spray bottle of chem-san.
Like your's it's crystal clear and foamy.

That's good to know, I might have to ask my neighbours for their condenser water if I run out!!