I’ve been using Star-San exclusively now for a couple years. I’m starting to wonder if I should try a different sanitizer in order to avoid any sort of resistance development with the bacteria in my system. I have a keg of IPA that has a distinct phenolic flavour reminiscent of smoked malt and it must be an infection but I can’t say for sure that I did everything perfect when I kegged the beer so I can’t really blame the sanitizer.
Do you rotate your sanitizer? Should I try iodophor or something different just to keep the bacteria guessing?
Thanks.
I switch from Star San to Iodophor randomly. Those little buggies never see it coming!! 
But seriously, I brew sours, so I have to be extra careful.
Been StarSan exclusive for about 5 years now without an issue.
Dave
It seems like a good idea to switch it up, but I never do and haven’t had a problem. Star-san is supposed to be good up to a pH of 3, and I have tested it right after mixing it up and it is real close to a pH of 2. I guess it is possible for the bugs to build up a resistance to a certain pH level, but it seems unlikely.
I don’t think acidity is something bacteria will build resistance to like an antibiotic, and the population is constantly being reinnoculated with bacteria from unexposed sources - but it won’t hurt either.
Hi, my name is Steve… and I have StarSan dependency.
But I could stop at any time.
It’s just so simple, effective and non-staining or stinky. Haven’t had any issues using it exclusively for years.
I do this as well. There’s no plan to it, I just use whatever I happen to grab.
I switched from iodopbhor to StarSan because I had a persistent low level infection that iodophor couldn’t deal with. StarSan knocked it out. That was 8-10 years ago and I’ve never had the problem again.
OK, just wondered.
I seem to have some sort of white fungal infection (in my beer, not personally) that seems to be showing up from time to time. I’ll try to post a picture but I’m wondering if Star-San wasn’t taking care of it. Not sure what it is or what to do about it. Not sure if Star-San does fungus or not.
After brewing for a while our equipment builds up crud in every crack and crevice. StarSan of course will not penetrate crud to sanitize. I have always used hot PBW and oxyclean on my gear and thought I was doing an excellent job of cleaning. Recently I used TM Desanamax caustic cleaner I was amazed at all the crud that came out of the places I could not see to clean! Personally I now believe failure to thoroughly clean is more of an issue rather than resistance to the sanitizer.
Don’t go looking for trouble in the shadows!
I have the utmost confidence with starsan and see no need to switch it up. The only time there was trouble was when I did switch to iodophor. I immediately began to see infections.