Define Iodophor vs Star San. Are they the same?
Nope, different. Starsan operates off acid by lowering the ph to a point that kills most things. Iodophor is iodine based and at least in my understanding, kills other things. I use Iodophor in my kegs because occasionally I was having a contamination issue in my kegs. This seems to have solved that.
To the OP. You only need to sanitize the surface of your fermenter. Filling it with diluted starsan is a complete waste. Like said above, use a designated 5 gal bucket to house your sanitizer. Swishing about a cups worth in your fermenter is plenty enough. It’s all about contact, not volume.
For the same reason, I have been using Iodophor to sanitize my kegs.
I have a keg full of Star San mixture, made with RO water, lasts until it is used up. I also fill spray bottles from the keg.
Iodophor is what the nurses will often use to swab your arm when you give blood. Brownish liquid, smells of iodine.
It was pointed out by C.S. (Mark) that Star San does not kill everything. If you do a web search on yeast washing you will find guys that use SS to wash the yeast. That kills bacterial contamination, maybe some of the yeast, but they end up with a clean sample of the yeast.
Guys, thanks for the replies. I think I will start a new process by making Starsan solution and keeping it in a bucket with a lid. I have actually done this in the past but usually only when I envision a lot of sanitizing going on. Otherwise I make fresh Starsan solution every time.
I hear this but my concern is that I will not make “contact” with every little spot in a secondary or keg well enough to sanitize it properly. I am a soaker as someone else mentioned here. I am fine with that strategy and I’m not willing to risk a batch of beer and 4 hours of brewing so I can potentially cut a corner in an effort to not be as wasteful. Plus, if I’m saving the Starsan solution and reusing it, the waste part of the equation is out the window. Next time I make Starsan I will mix it in a bucket, rack it to whatever I’m sanitizing and then rack it back into the bucket and hang onto it. I just moved a huge stack of old brew buckets out to my shed and one of those will probably work well for this purpose. Thanks again.
This is where the foaming properties of StarSan trump its slightly narrower spectrum of antimicrobial activity. It’s not just about making contact with your sanitizer, it is equally important to maintain contact throughout the full required contact time for that agent. StarSan will cling to those hard-to-reach areas because of it’s foaming agent. With something like Iodophor, you can’t assume that it is sanitizing the lid of your bucket fermenter (for example) unless every spot on the lid remains wet with Iodophor throughout the full contact time. You can’t just spray/swish and let it stand vertically as the sanitizer will just drain off the surfaces that are not submerged fairly rapidly.
I’m not saying that any product or process is wrong. You just need to be sure that your sanitization procedure is appropriate for the product you are using.
Erock: You just touched on what I have always feared… contact time. The instructions on Starsan say that contact time should be at least 2 minutes. If you filled a keg with 1 gallon of sanitizer and shook the keg to ‘coat’ everything… is that enough? Will the solution cover everything and keep it covered for 2 minutes? I have no idea but I’m not risking a batch of beer that took me at least 4 hours to make to that sort of guess. I think I have my new strategy where I will just mix the solution in a bucket making sure that the Starsan is completely diluted and then rack that solution to whichever vessel I’m sanitizing. We don’t necessarily have to argue over what is best, what is sufficient, what is wasteful and what is overkill but a dialog may make people think about their own process and improve it for the better… or ensure them that what they’re doing works well. Cheers Beerheads & thanks for the replies.
FYI - here are the results of a test a ran a while back comparing a few sanitizers. There were some valid concerns brought up regarding my procedure, but regardless it certainly gave me confidence about using StarSan keep a vessel sanitized prior to use.
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=24913.0
FWIW, Charlie Talley, chemist at Five Star, has confirmed that a 30 second contact kills 99.9% of stuff…almost the same as a 10 minute soak. Legally they’re not allowed to say that, but that’s what their testing has shown.
Denny, that’s very good to know and adds a nice comfort factor. I have always been more comfortable “soaking” rather than “swishing” but now I’m going to concentrate on making sure that all of the Starsan is diluted before I go any further. Cheers.
When using Iodophor, you do not need to keep items submerged for the full contact time. You can use a gallon or so in a keg or the bottom of a fermentor and swirl it around, making sure that the entire surface gets wet, and you can also spray items down with a spray bottle - just like with Starsan.
Listen to the Basic Brewing podcast concerning Iodophor with the guy from National Chemicals; he covers all of this.
I’ve used Iodophor as my only sanitizer for going on 11 years now, and I have never once lost a batch to contamination.
I like it too but it stains EVERYTHING and I was getting a little static from the wife. It’s been many years since I used it but I probably used it for 5+ years.
I’m brewing today and also moving a beer from primary to secondary (so I could get the yeast for the new batch) and I think I came up with a decent way to put this potential issue to rest. I have a quart-sized plastic container with a lid. I filled it about halfway with cold water and then poured an ounce of Starsan in there. I saw that it fell right to the bottom and sort of stuck there. I put the lid on and shook it until it seemed like the Starsan was diluted. Poured that through a funnel and into a Better Bottle and then filled the plastic quart-sized container with cold water again, shook it again, etc. until there was no foam. Then I filled the Better Bottle the rest of the way with cold water. That should remove any doubt and it’s relatively simple to do. Cheers gang.
FWIW, I did a test of this today…I filled a bucket with water, added Starsan, put a lid over the bucket, and shook it for maybe 10-15 seconds. After I poured the mixture into a keg, I checked the bottom of the bucket. There was no undissolved Starsan there. Dunno what that proves, but there ya go…
I do the same each time, Denny. Being OCD about it, I even use a big wire whisk to be sure the star san dissolves totally.
This exactly what I do with my equipment. I’m not even sure I add more than a few ounces before I swirl sanitizer around. It’s the same reason I use a wine bottle sulfiter for sanitizing bottles.
That sounds totally reasonable to me and I would guess that there would be no Starsan on the bottom after you shook the bucket. I am typically not in the habit of doing that so the process I mentioned above is just a way to ensure that there is NO undiluted Starsan. I would also rather make sure of this by creating as little foam as possible so that I can fill the vessel the rest of the way. Who knows… maybe Starsan eventually mixes in completely without even mixing or shaking.
Didn’t read through the whole thread so forgive me if this was already mentioned. Adding star san to the full volume of water results in almost instant dilution for me. Granted, my water comes out of the tap at around 75F. A lower temperature may impact your rate of dilution but it couldn’t hurt to add your dose of star san to the total sanitizer volume.
Also, concentrated star san (and PBW) to the bottom of a container and adding water may have adverse effects on the container. I had a better bottle crack due to undissolved granules hanging out on the bottom.