Five Star Chemicals products at Brewshop.co.nz

[Kelly Milligan]

Brewshop is my usual, great service, very resonable shipping costs and same/next day delivery, excellent website. 

They now also carry a lot of the 5-star chem range (i.e. PBW & StarSan)!

http://www.brewshop.co.nz/catalogsearch/result/?q=5+star+chem&x...

get cleaning.. 

[Mark Goodin]

Yeah saw this...great site for sure...in need of some more StarSan!

[mattd2]

How is everyone using their starsan? I'm am diluting it in a 1 quart spray bottle (about 1/20 oz of star san per bottle!). I usually use a spray bottle per batch which includes for brewday, kegging day and bottling about 1/4 of the beer from the keg. I have hardly put a dent in my 8 oz bottle and from the above it'll probably last me for 160 batchs! (or 10+ years!)

 

[Mark Goodin]

On brew day, I soak all my gear that will touch the beer post boil/chill...So I generally mix up a good 10Lts in a container - so thats about 1/2 oz each time. I soak my auto syphon (no tap on kettle) and a few other things. I also pour about half this into my fermenter. I shake the fermenter a few times during brewing to ensure all areas are soaked etc. Then I fill up my spray bottle and spray everything! I also mix up another spray bottle during bottling, for this I just add a small amount of Starsan.

This maybe a bit of over-kill, but had a string of infections and since I have been using Starsan have not had any...so will keep doing what Im doing! So an 8oz bottle will last me about 15 brews...but I only brew once a month so more than a years supply and Im happy with the cost!

[Kelly Milligan]

Same here mate, I'm not shy using my Starsan. Fill a 20L bucket with 10L along with 15ml (1/2oz) as per dilution rate and let anything touching the beer cold side get a good foam party. Then also have the spray bottle for handy sanitizing ;)

PBW is awesome too, makes such easy work of cleaning stainless and glass its outrageous. You wouldn't believe how much green gets pulled off a pretty clean looking kettle.. 

[Mark Goodin]

Sweet so maybe im not the only one who goes hard on the StarSan!

Might have to get some PBW in my next order too.

Hope all is going well Kelly, and the Brews are coming along nicely mate!

[Kelly Milligan]

Cheers mate you too :)

[JR]

I'm not really up on my quarts and oz.  I think I worked it out at 1.5ml per litre (same as iodophor)

Its pretty good value for money and if you only sanatize really clean things you can store it in a container and reuse it. 

The PBW isnt as good a value for money (in NZ) as you have to fill up a fermentor or keg to soak it.  .. I tend to use sodium percarbonate for soaking fermentors / kegs etc.. and just PBW them once in a while.  I understand that PBW is about 2/3rds Sodium perc anyway.

As with almost anything homebrew there is a show on the brewing netowork on cleaning and sanitizing adn the 5 star guy talks about using starsan and PBW.  worth a listen. 

 

 

[Dene McDonald]

I also had a few infection problems and switched to unscented nappy san for cleaning and StarSan for sanitising  I had previously used the no rise cleaner and steriliser that home brew shops sell in sachets - BrewTec I think.

To sanitise all of my brewing gear I have a wallpaper trough and I fill it with StarSan. I keep it beside me with all of my "tools" in it i its great as it's long enough to get everything in and not really deep so I don't need lots of StarSan. I also have a spray bottle with StarSan in and I spray everything including the bench top and my hands. I get it everywhere!

For my fermener I fill it half way with StarSan and swoosh it around making sure I get all of the surfaces covered. I also run some through the tap.

After fermenting I rinse out with warm water, chuck a few cap fulls of nappy san and fill with warm water. I leave for 24 hours and rinse out and store.

I reuse my StarSan for up to a month. I've seen a few videos on YouTube that say you can reuse it until it goes cloudy. For mixing up I just follow the instructions. The best thing about StarSan is that it is no rinse, and if I get lots of bubbles in my keg they sit on top of the beer when I'm transferring and sanitise on the way up!

The only worry I have is that I store it in my corny keg - does anyone know if it will do anything to the stainless steel?

[Kelly Milligan]

I've heard stories about StarSan slowly eating through the stainless when held in a corny.. It sits at below 3ph to be effective afterall! IMO though, the cost of more starsan vs the cost of an extra keg just to store it? I think i'd rather just buy a 32oz bottle of starsan for $40 that will last me at least a year making fresh solutions each time D:

[JR]

Just to be sure you could get yourself a plastic container and keep it in there.  With the bonus that you then get the use of the keg for beer.

[Grant R Baker]

yep.. 5litre plastic bottle at Storage Box $4.95.

 

That PBW sounds the bollocks for SS and Alloy cleaning too.