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Star San vs. Io Star
My son moved into a smaller place & is putting brewing on hold for a while.
He gave me some supplies & a quart of Io Star.
Never used the stuff, always used Star San, which is non-staining, tasteless, & odorless.
Since I'm almost out of Star San, probably ought to either buy some more, or learn how to use Io Star.
Please enlighten me in the use of this stuff.
Thanks
it's pretty easy to use. I use it all the time, never used anything but iodophor for sanitizing. just mix it up with cold water. the only drawbacks are you don't really want to use it in a spray bottle, since iodine can stain and you don't want to end up spraying something besides what your sanitizing. And I don't know if you can keep it in a bucket and use it next time you brew, like I've heard of people doing with Star San. but it is no rinse, and I don't think ph affects it, so even if you have funky tap water it will still work.
If I'm to understand Io Star is Iodine, that's all I use. The brand I get is Idophor, and they reccomend 1 teaspoon per 1 1/2 gallons of water for brewing (might just want to google Io Star to see what their concentration ratios are). That won't get you too stained if you're using the bucket fermenter. It's no rinse and I've never had a problem with it adding any flavor. It will turn the inside of your bucket a light orangish, and tint your airlocks, but so what...It's what hospitals use to sanitize a wound, you can take it camping and use a few drops of it in water to make it clean for drinking without boiling, it's all around great stuff.
Let whatever you're sanatizing sit in it for a minuete or two (I'll also just shake a couple gallons around in the carboy for a minuete, then let it sit for a while, shake it up one more time and empty leaving the carboy upsidedown, will be dry inside with in three minuetes) and your good to go.
I do think it looses it's potency over a day or two, I won't use the same iodine for more than a couple hours, if I'm rinsing, racking, and bottling, I'll add another 1/2 tsp in the bucket I'm dunking my bottles in just to be sure its back up and running, but that may not be necessary.
So, basically use it the same as Star San, except that it will lightly stain whatever you use it on, right?
yep, and it doesn't foam.
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