Water hardness

General Homebrew Discussion
1

I have read so much about StarSan losing effectiveness in hard water.  I have my municipality water report and the range of hardness is between 61-101 (as CaC03) ppm.  The NJ upper limit is 250.
iron ND-192 (upper limit 300)
aluminum ppb ND-172 (upper limit 200)
ph units 6.4-7.4 (upper limit 6.5-8.5)
silver ppb ND-9.7 (upper limit 100)
sodium ppb 22-27 (upper limit 50)
sulfate ppb 12-14 (upper limit 250)
zinc ppb ND-0.03 (upper limit 5)
Total dissolved solids 76-318 (upper limit 500)

I have been using StarSan for years with no apparent ill effects.  Should I be concerned especially with making yeast starters?

BV

2

While StarSan will still be effective in hard water, you won’t be able to keep a solution that was made of that water without it becoming cloudy, slimey feeling, and coating your equipment if its left in the solution. The best option for creating a long-lasting StarSan solution is to use distilled water.

You won’t need to be concerned with using that water for yeast starters, it’s fine.

3

Not concerned about the water for starters, I was commenting on the effectiveness of SanStar while making starters.

4

StarSan does have an Achiles Heel in that it is not very effective against wild yeast and mold spores. That could be a problem for sanitization for starters.

5

Looking at the water profile above, would you consider this very hard water?

6

I buy a 5L bottle of distilled water and dose that up.  It keeps for ages like that, certainly longer than it lasts.

7

It’s more than hard enough to create problems.