Can starsan go off?

[Ducatiboy stu]

Mmm...combination of a bit of crap in the kettle tap and then letting nice warm wort through it. Perfect environment for an infection.

 

[GalBrew]

The guys from five star have said on a BN show that so long as the pH of starsan is less than 3.5 it should be fine.

 

[MaltyHops]

As well as other ideas so far,

Try pulling the taps apart on your fermentors. Then get a toothbrush and clean the thread.

If you aren't comfortable pulling the taps apart, they're less than $5 each at Bunnings.

Here is a thread about disassembling fermenter taps (the most common type) Cleaning Fermenter Taps - I do something similar but use a spare racking cane that fits inside the tap and slam the exposed end of the can onto a tea towel while holding on to the tap.

I chill with immersion chiller down to 30odd C then cube and stick in fridge for a couple hours until 20C. Just given immersion chiller a good scrub too.

Do you clean the cube's cap by taking out the seal? From previous post :

I forget who but someone posted a tip not long ago for getting the seal out
of the cap - trying to use something sharp to pry it out = bad idea.

Anyway, the trick is to hold the cap and give it a quick whack against a table top
(over a tea towel maybe) and the seal simply pops down and out.

I sanitise with starsan and havent changed my process for the last couple of years.

Can we confirm that StarSan is not the only thing you use to clean the fermenter? Cleaning usually should involve using something like PBW and then sanitising with something like StarSan.

No fruit trees around.

Is your brewing area a bit draughty (windy)? Can cause airborne microbes yo get into your beer.

Its been fine for last 5 years up until the last 3 brews.

Sometimes things can get by ok for a hile but then evcentually problems buils up - like if you don;t take out the cube cap seals for cleaning, for instance.

 

[manticle]

Sorry if I missed it but are we talking starsan concentrate or starsan dilute/mixed?

 

[stm]

Just took tap off kettle and lots of brown $hit that came off pretty easy. I'll be cleaning that after every brew from now on.

Answer right there.

 

[JasonP]

Answer right there.

Correct. After cleaning tap and keeping to my usual procedure I've got 2 different batches contamination free beer fermenting away. Will be cleaning the tap after every brew from now on. Lesson learnt. Cheers.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

It pays to spend a day every 6months to strip every thing down and clean. It suprising how the gunk will travel down threads after a while. You have to keep in mind that wort is a nice sugary liquid that seeps and nasties love to feed off it.