[tschmidlin]

I've heard one of the 5-star people has drunk a glass starsan to demonstrate how safe it is.  I don't worry about the starsan on my hands so much as the pbw, my skin doesn't like that stuff.

I accidentally swallowed a mouthful of StarSan once.  Forgot I'd stored the draft line full of it.

Drinking straight from the tap again?

[ajk]

I accidentally swallowed a mouthful of StarSan once.  Forgot I'd stored the draft line full of it.

Drinking straight from the tap again?

Whenever possible. :-)

It was funny because I didn't realize it wasn't beer at first.  The beer in the keg was a Saison that was still pretty young.  I snapped on a cobra tap line, pulled a sample, and took a sniff and a sip without observing the appearance.  It was extremely citrusy, watery,  mineraly, and, as you can imagine, very astringent.  I thought, "Wtf happened to this beer?!"

[richardt]

I've heard one of the 5-star people has drunk a glass starsan to demonstrate how safe it is.  I don't worry about the starsan on my hands so much as the pbw, my skin doesn't like that stuff.

Don't be too impressed.  That'd be like watching him drink a Coke.

Phosphoric acid is used in Coca-cola (pH = 2.5).  Phosphoric acid is also one of the key ingredients in StarSan:  50% phosphoric acid and 15% dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid.  I'd actually be more worried about what dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid does once it gets into your body.  I can't find much info about it online beyond the usual safety guidelines. http://www.inchem.org/documents/icsc/icsc/eics1189.htm

Your stomach secretes hydrochloric acid and pepsin to break down food.  The pH of your stomach environment ranges from 1.5 to 3.5. The only reason the stomach doesn't "digest itself" is because the lining of your stomach secretes a lot of mucous to coat itself and the epithelial lining is constantly replacing itself (500,000 cells slough off every minute and the entire lining replaces itself within 3 days).  Contrast that with the skin of your hands:  No mucous protection, and it takes 28 days to replace itself. 

I wear gloves if I'm working a long time with the solution--just to avoid the "dermatitis."  Euge is right that hand lotion will help speed the recovery, but, if you wear gloves, no recovery is needed.    I'm not worried about the scant amount of StarSan that remains behind in the fermenter after sanitizing (i.e., the foam)--it is not the same thing as drinking a whole glass of it.

[tschmidlin]

I've heard one of the 5-star people has drunk a glass starsan to demonstrate how safe it is.  I don't worry about the starsan on my hands so much as the pbw, my skin doesn't like that stuff.

Don't be too impressed.  That'd be like watching him drink a Coke.

That's sort of the point - except I'll bet it doesn't taste as good, whether you like Coke or not.

[rylo1984]

Thanks everyone for the responses -- I will be using distilled water to mix up my StarSan next weekend!

One more question -- several people have commented that they store cleaning or sanitizing solutions in their beer lines and then flush them with hot water.... this might be obvious, but how do you keep the line filled such that the liquid just doesn't fall back into the keg?

Must you raise your keg up higher than the faucet so that gravity doesn't drive the liquid back down into the keg?

Thanks!!

/RyLO

[Thirsty_Monk]

I also use the thick blue "chemical safe" gloves that go up to mid forearm (I got them at HD--I can't remember if they're PVC, or Nitrile, or what) to prevent skin exposure during the equipment dunking and transfer process.

You really think the stuff (at proper ratio) is that bad? I can see with iodophor (fake tan /jk) but I'm surprised with starsan. I figure if I dip a finger in the wort or starter then it's no biggie - I've been sanitized.

Once I mixed it too strong and I had a "fuzzy" hands for a few days.
If I would be dipping my hands in StarSan for extended period of time I would also use gloves.
Different people might react differently to it.

[beerocd]

Once I mixed it too strong and I had a "fuzzy" hands for a few days.

No, that's from something else entirely.