[HoosierBrew]

the fact that bleach corrodes stainless at the welds.

That's only true at chlorine levels greater than 500 ppm. 

I think I had read that back then too, but since I kegged even then I never wanted to chance it. So I used iodophor on my kegs, bleach for everything else. I actually 'broke the rules' and rinsed the bleach solution like crazy then and never had a problem. I don't know how much of it was the quality of my local city water vs the warning not to rinse being overstated. Though I will say that if I had a well as my water source back then I might have rethought rinsing off the solution.

[denny]

thinking of shocking all my equipment in my brewhaus-not because i have anything just because all i use is starsan and pbw and think perhaps a chlorine shock may be a good idea once in a while.

So you're saying that you're going to do something you don't need to do just to do it?  Isn't that a bit like paying interest on a debt you don't owe? 

[Wort-H.O.G.]

thinking of shocking all my equipment in my brewhaus-not because i have anything just because all i use is starsan and pbw and think perhaps a chlorine shock may be a good idea once in a while.

So you're saying that you're going to do something you don't need to do just to do it?  Isn't that a bit like paying interest on a debt you don't owe? 

fair enough-just fishing and seeing if my thought process on being safe with starsan is reasonable, or perhaps a shock here and there is worth it , or not.

[HoosierBrew]

I'm guilty too !  I can't find the study I thought I'd seen to back up the 'bugs getting resistant to starsan' thing people talked about here last year. Worst case, I guess I always have bleach sitting around somewhere and I'm out a little.

[Stevie]

I might be off base here, but for something to become resistant, it needs to be exposed to whatever it is resisting and multiply. I can't imagine wild yeast and beer spoiling bacteria coming into contact with starsan so frequently that they have started to become resistant. Maybe in a large production brewery, but I am doubtful at a Homebrew level.

[narvin]

I also never experienced the persistent low-level spice problem that I have experienced since switching to Star San as my primary sanitizer.  I have noticed that many of the beers that I have judged over that last year suffer from the same problem (I am so sensitive to phenolic spice that I cannot enjoy Hefeweizen or many of the Belgian styles)

Maybe your're converting normal yeast phenols to chlorophenols with bleach.  Do you prefer the taste of bandaids to spice?

[erockrph]

Tangent - I've always wondered why there aren't more options available for brewing sanitizers. In particular, there are no quaternary ammonium sanitizers marketed to brewers that I am aware of. There are plenty of them used in the medical and food service fields.

[narvin]

Quats are not a great no rinse beer sanitizer.  I have no personal experience but you can Google it for more info.

[S. cerevisiae]

Tangent - I've always wondered why there aren't more options available for brewing sanitizers. In particular, there are no quaternary ammonium sanitizers marketed to brewers that I am aware of. There are plenty of them used in the medical and food service fields.

I would like to know as well.  My wife used quats for years in her lab.  I am definitely on the hunt for a better no-rinse sanitizer.  I used iodophor in between using bleach and Star San.  Iodophor works great, but I could not deal with the staining.

[ynotbrusum]

After using iodine tablets for water treatment on extended backpacking treks earlier in life, I just don't like to use iodophor - but it is probably just in my head, since it is so dilute when used in homebrewing applications.

[S. cerevisiae]

Maybe your're converting normal yeast phenols to chlorophenols with bleach.  Do you prefer the taste of bandaids to spice?

No Band-Aid here!

[S. cerevisiae]

I can't imagine wild yeast and beer spoiling bacteria coming into contact with starsan so frequently that they have started to become resistant.

Star San does not kill wild yeast or mold.  In fact, it's not uncommon to find mold in a container of Star San solution.

[Stevie]

I can't imagine wild yeast and beer spoiling bacteria coming into contact with starsan so frequently that they have started to become resistant.

Star San does not kill wild yeast or mold.  In fact, it's not uncommon to find mold in a container of Star San solution.

I stand corrected. I don't see bacteria becoming resistant at the Homebrew level.

[Thirsty_Monk]

Star San does not kill wild yeast or mold.  In fact, it's not uncommon to find mold in a container of Star San solution.

I believe your statement is incorrect otherwise Starsan would not be classified as sanitizer.

Mold occurs in the container that stores sanitizer for extended period of time above the sanitizer level.

This would hold a true in bucket full of bleach or iodophor above the solution level. One more thing is that we are talking about deluded liquid.

There is never mold in concentrated Starsan.

Good luck.

[Stevie]

According to the creator of StarSan on BBR from March '07, StarSan does kill bacteria, yeasts, mold, and other spores. He states it is a combination of the two active ingredients that get the job done. Neither on their own can do it, but together they are the Beatles.


He also discusses the proper use of bleach, and has a procedure that is quite different from the one S Cerev is proposing.



http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr03-29-07.mp3 - Go to  29m:24s