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Author Topic: Extending the life of Star-San  (Read 8381 times)

Offline gmac

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Re: Extending the life of Star-San
« Reply #30 on: June 20, 2011, 10:21:49 pm »
I found distilled water at the drug store so I've got 12 L of Star-San mixed up.  We'll see how long this lasts but I'm happy to know that I can find water that will work.

Offline mabrungard

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Re: Extending the life of Star-San
« Reply #31 on: June 21, 2011, 06:38:11 am »
I'm betting that its the complexing of hardness ions that's causing the problems since at a pH of 3 and less, there is very little alkalinity (technically there is no methyl orange alkalinity since the pH is below 4.3).  

I just started a test using my house's softened water that I know runs about 2 or 3 ppm Ca and Mg.  That is as low as my RO system puts out.  The softened water still has high alkalinity since those ion exchange softeners do not alter alkalinity.  I'll see if it clouds up in a few days and report back.


Its been a couple of weeks now and the StarSan solution mixed up using my house's ion-exchange softened water is completely clear, just like the batch mixed up with RO water sitting next to it.  Both are sitting in open water glasses on my work bench.  Both were mixed to a starting pH of about 2.  

I'd say that using water softener water for StarSan is one of the few uses that salt-based softened water has.  It looks like the clouding effect is due to the hardness ions in the water. 

 
Martin B
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Offline Hokerer

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Re: Extending the life of Star-San
« Reply #32 on: June 21, 2011, 08:02:42 am »
Speaking of water for mixing StarSan, is this likely/possible? - At the start of a brewday, I fill two 5-gallon water jugs with filtered and dechlorinated water for brewing.  After brewing there's usually some left over.  Lately, I've used this water to mix up my StarSan.  What I've noticed a couple of times is that the first spritz or two of StarSan give a big whiff of sulphur odor.  Since the water hasn't been boiled and it does have Campden, could that be where the sulphur is coming from?
Joe

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Extending the life of Star-San
« Reply #33 on: June 21, 2011, 09:56:13 am »
That seems likely assuming you've never smelled sulfur in your water before, and I know I've never smelled sulfur from starsan before, and campden tablets contain sulfur.
Tom Schmidlin