Was fermenting an Oyster Stout so the oyster flavor is a very subtle nuance. I was fermenting in the upper 60’s and decided to reduce temps slightly and dropped 5 degrees. Before I knew what was going on, my BO tube sucked back close to two cups of star san solution into the fermenter.
Granted this is a small amount of diluted star san in a 5.5G batch of beer. But I “think” I can taste the star san in the beer…of course I am subconsciously try to pick out the star san taste and make a big deal of my screw up. Since this beer is so subtle, any off flavors can kill it.
BTW, I read somewhere that star san may either float on top or sink to the bottom…anything to this or just idle talk?
When it happened to me, it formed a distinct clear layer on the top of the beer. Maybe it was supported by whatever remnants of a krausen that was left, but it was clearly demarcated. I siphoned the underlying beer from the fermenter to a keg and it was fine. I tried to be as non-turbulent as possible when I did that.
In my case it caused no problems - it even won a medal in competition
Maybe the separation depends on where the beer is at in fermentation and with how much force the StarSan is sucked. Look at Black and Tans. They stay separate but the line gets fuzzier and fuzzier as the glass is moved. If fermentation is active, I’m sure it won’t be long before the liquids are just about homogenous.
I just remove the BO tube and stick in a rubber stopper. I rack no more than 2 days later, and if I have to get under the lid for any reason - mostly to check gravity, then I’ll gas the headspace with C02 after the first 24 hrs cold crashing.
Two plastic coke bottles and aquarium tubes, and a 4mm to 7mm connection is cheap.
Use these as caps. They can break, so it’s good to have a few extras.
I’m curious why one wouldn’t just remove the blow off tube from the bucket of starsan before Crashing? If it’s still fermenting so active that you need a blow off tube, why are we crashing?
Question…Can you still get suck back into your fermenter once all the star san has been sucked into the first container from the second container? I imagine it would take a lot of force, but is it possible?
As long as the volume of star san in below the level of the lid, it should not. It would simply create a vacuum in the headspace of the first connected jar. Assuming the connector to the blow off tube is at the level of the lid, and is not touching any of the liquid volume.
