Star san use

[jayk34]

I have a st peters honey porter on and it was coming up on 12 days in the fermenter, so thought that I would get a head start on washing bottles ready for the bottling day. I washed all of the bottles in hot water to clear any debris from them being stored in my boiler house and was going to put them through the bottle rinser with star san and then put them on the bottle drainer for an hour before bottling on bottling day. When it came around to 2 weeks, I found that the brew was still fermenting so postponed the bottling for another week.

Now finally to my question. I took the bottles off the bottle drainer this morning and there is a slight bit of water in the bottom of the bottles probably from where the neck of the bottle was resting against the bottle drainer. Now obviously this is only water but is there any risk of spoiling a brew if this was after the bottles had been rinsed with star san and left for an hour to drain ? I guess what I am asking is should the bottles be totally dry after using star san before putting beer into them or is an hour enough to make any of the chemicals in the star san inert ?

Thanks

 

[MmmBeer]

A few drops of dilute star san won't harm your beer. However if they have been left for a number of days, I would be tempted to give them another spray inside with starsan before bottling.

 

[Ezza]

Don't risk it respray with Starsan.

 

[baran]

well in my most recent bottling i did not use star san as i did not have any. i shaked my bottles with dishwasher liquid and rinsed them instead and i'm drinking those bottles at the moment and there is no problem at all.

 

[jayk34]

Thanks all. Will rinse them with star San before bottling at the end of this week.

When I have been using VWP, I just make sure the bottles have been thoroughly rinsed several times. I was just worried that the recommended hour of air drying before bottling wouldn't be enough to totally dry the inside of bottles after rinsing with Star San..

 

[muppix]

I guess what I am asking is should the bottles be totally dry after using star san before putting beer into them or is an hour enough to make any of the chemicals in the star san inert ?

Don't worry about the bottles having a little Star San inside them from rinsing, I'm told that even foam is OK. I tend to wash mine with very hot water and a minuscule amount of unscented washing up liquid, letting them remain submerged in the wash-bucket for at least a minute or two while I use a bottle brush to clean the 8 or 10 bottles that are in there at any one time. I then give them a rinse with Chem San (Star San's cheaper cousin) using the bottle washer before transferring them to the bottle tree. All this is done immediately before bottling so invariably they're still damp inside by the time I add the beverage. If I have some bottles left over afterwards (I usually do) they go back in the box and are fully cleaned again next time, as though they're net-new.

On a related note, don't be too worried if you can twist the crown caps (with moderate force) after you have bottled your brew. Sanitiser can be a bit oily and make you wonder if there's going to be a problem keeping the carbonation in, but in practice the caps tend to 'lock on' in a matter of hours. If you're still concerned then mark the labels before you send the bottles for conditioning - you can always try twisting them again when serving time comes around, though my guess is you'll be fine.

 

[Drunkula]

I guess what I am asking is should the bottles be totally dry after using star san before putting beer into them or is an hour enough to make any of the chemicals in the star san inert ?

Just for this bit - with star san it's absolutely fine to rinse them seconds before bottling even if they're jam full of foam. Some people have forgotten to take litres of star san out of their kegs before filling them and thought the beer was great. If you look for the Basic Brewing podcast's yearly disaster shows you'll find loads of stories where things went great or terribly and pretty much all of the star san ones are fine. It was invented for the milk industry so the foam would fill nooks and crannies and not have to be rinsed and dried afterwards.

 

[muppix]

Some people have forgotten to take litres of star san out of their kegs before filling them and thought the beer was great.

Sounds like a real Star San fan! I'm wondering if I can keep it in my plastic mister long-term, or if it'll do something to the plastic over time ...

 

[foxbat]

Sounds like a real Star San fan! I'm wondering if I can keep it in my plastic mister long-term, or if it'll do something to the plastic over time ...

Depends on the plastic. It will attack some plastics leaving a slimey white layer. I keep mine in a glass 500ml spray bottle. It doesn't seem to have attacked the plastic dip tube.

 

[muppix]

It doesn't seem to have attacked the plastic dip tube.

Good to know, thanks. Ultimately it's the bits of plastic inside the sqirty mechanism I'm most concerned about, since those are the smallest bits and any effect will probably be seen on them first. Got my bottle from a garden centre, so I hope it'll be OK.

Which give me an idea ... wonder if greenfly like Star San?

 

[Dads_Ale]

Good to know, thanks. Ultimately it's the bits of plastic inside the sqirty mechanism I'm most concerned about, since those are the smallest bits and any effect will probably be seen on them first. Got my bottle from a garden centre, so I hope it'll be OK.

Which give me an idea ... wonder if greenfly like Star San?

Got my squirty bottle from a garden centre and still going strong after a couple of years

 

[Justin Dean]

I use VWP, rinse twice, then on bottling day bottle rinser with brew safe. Drains off most but not dry by any means, then bottle,

 

[damienair]

I’ve used Chem San on both PET plastic and glass bottles and washed and sterilised the bottles just before filling with beer. I just left them resting upside down to drain on paper towels.