Fellow Brewers,
I sanitized a BB last weekend in the hopes of brewing, but could not. It’s been sitting in my laundry room with an airlock for about a week. All of the StarSan foam is now in a little puddle on the bottom.
Question is: Do you think it’s still sanitized and I can use this weekend or would you hit it again with the StarSan? I have no problem with the extra work, but why bother if not necessary?
Thanks in advace for your thoughts.
Dave
Yes, I routinely store mine sanitized with some saran wrap over the lid held by a rubber band.
I always presanitize my fermenters and leave them for weeks and they’re ready to go. This works well with StarSan, but don’t do this with Iodophor, unless it’s just for a week or so. The stuff will grow mold after a while.
As long as you have it capped or covered with foil or something it should still be sanitized. But if it makes you feel any better just hit it again for good measure.
Huh? ??? Sounds like it wasn’t cleaned and sanitized properly to begin with.
I would think it’s still sanitary, but I would sanitize it again anyway. For me, there’s a lot of benefit for very little work.
If you have mold in the fermenter, how sanitary was it to begin with? I know that we can’t exactly work in a clean room, but that would scare the hell out of me.
Its probably fine, but is the 30 seconds it would take to resanitize that valuable?
That’s the way I look at it, too.
I do my cornies like that, but also keep starsan solution around at all times. Just rinse it again with the starsan and get on with the day.
I agree with you, but I can store StarSan in a growler for months and it’s fine. I do that with Iodophor and I get something that at least looks like mold. I’ve had this happen in growlers as well as vinyl tubing I left Iodophor in. Seems to me that if it kills everything, even if it loses it’s strength and the container is covered, nothing should grow.
As I said, this has happened more than once, but never with StarSan.
it’s possible you have some idophor resistant mold around. I keep a spray bottle of idophor (out of any direct light) for quite a while without noticing anything growing in it. I expect at some point that my ‘brewery’ will develop some bugs resistant to the idophor and I will switch to star san.
The usual rule of thumb is to clean when done. And sanitize before use.
These are “sanitizers” not “sterilizers” so there will be bugs left behind that can start to reproduce before your next use.
Is it sealed? Once diluted, the iodine in an iodophor is able to sublimate, reducing its effectiveness pretty quickly. That would also apply to a relatively small amount of an iodophor in a sealed container with a lot of headspace.
When in doubt, a quick visual check should tell you what’s what. If the solution is no longer yellow-orange, the free iodine content is too low to be effective.
I store iodophors in an airtight container for months, reusing them until they pick up particulates or lose their color. No problems yet, touch wood.
In most cases there has been a lo9t of head space, but so was there in the StarSan conatiners. I still use Iodophor sometimes, but I mainly use Starsan now.
Speaking of Iodophor, I watched a Dirty Jobs episode the other night were they sanitized fish eggs in a hatchery with the stuff.
ahh but idophore evaporates out of the water and is nutralized by bright lights while star san will only be rendered ineffective by pH changes. at least that’s how I understand it.
You guys are spot on and I was being lazy. This is a great point Tom. Thanks for the smack in the back of my head everyone! 
I still sanitize my kegs and fermenters right after cleaning, but I stopped doing it with Iodophor.
I sanitize and charge my cornies with CO2 before putting them up for storage, leaving a little sanitizer in the keg (I vent a little through the out post to suck up sanitizer through out tube). Then when it is ready for use, I simply vent it and pop the top and rack into the remaining CO2 as a layer that rides above the beer as it is filling. I rarely re-sanitize, but have done so when the keg sat for an unduly long time or if there is any question about the seal holding during storage.
I always resanitize my fermenters before using, since none of them have been held under CO2 during storage.
So far, so good.
Cheers.
Yes, and thank you for understanding the process and not wasting time or sanitizer.
This is exactly what I do and I’ve had no sanitation issues to date.