They guy at the supply store said to mix up the sanitizer in a five gallon bucket and just keep using it from there until it gets dirty. Anyone do this? Or do you just mix a fresh batch each time you need it.
sanitizer
- Thread starter oldhead
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I make up a gallon of K-meta at a time , store it in a gallon carboy with a screw cap and use it for several months.
I make 2.5 gallons in a 5gal bucket with a lid and just leave my hydrometer, thermometer, stainless spoons, glass measuring cup, etc. all right in there for storage. I guess you can keep it for quite awhile if you're lucky, but mine gets cloudy after a few weeks which means its no good anymore. I also leave some in a spray bottle. So just mix up a batch of star san and keep using it until it turns cloudy or not clear.
I use StarSan, and yes, I do actually mix up 5 gallons at a time and keep using it until it goes cloudy. The longest it's lasted is a little over a year -- I learned what to do and more importantly what not to do. For example, never, ever put your hands in the sanitizer unless you're wearing clean rubber gloves. Keep dust out of it. This includes rinsing things before putting them into the sanitizer, and keeping a lid over it at all times. And if you use some that is likely to have gotten contaminated, don't put it back. Just dump it. I use that bucket of sanitizer for my fermenting, kegging and serving equipment, and it's extremely handy to have around. I also have a spray bottle, and a 1 gallon bucket I keep in the kitchen for brew day. That one doesn't usually last more than a month or two. I suspect that a lot of dust is getting in there since I don't keep the lid on very tight, but I also don't worry as much about keeping all sources of contamination out of that one.
Not necessary if you don't mind making it fresh more often. Or if you use other tools to get stuff in and out of the StarSan other than your hands. The point was that putting your bacteria-laden hands into the StarSan makes it become ineffective much more quickly. I never read that anywhere, but years of experience tells me it is so.
If you make it with about 3 tbsp per gallon (along with a little acid), it is a good sanitizer.
I don't bother with that.
Ok, I don't always either. Usually I just use tongs to get things out of the sanitizer bucket. But wearing gloves does seem to extend the life of a 5 gallon bucket of StarSan. It's all a matter of how long you want the stuff to last before having to make another batch.
To learn how to use sanitizer's correctly, google Basic Brewing Radio, go to the March 29, 2007 podcast with Charlie Tally of Five Star Chemicals who is the chemist for the company. He discusses the use of Star San and bleach.
