Rookie Mistakes... Need Advice

BeerGreek said:
That's what I was afraid of. Here's a question though, if the star san was in the airlock tray undiluted, is it safe to taste the wort or will it harm me?
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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I really wouldn't drink it. There's nothing particularly toxic in there, I just don't know if I'd want the ingredients at that concentration.
 
You won't be getting much in a sip. The stuff is non-toxic at the concentration we use it in. Undiluted is toxic and corrosive but diluted by water (or beer :cool:) it should be pretty harmless. You could almost certainly have a sip of diluted Star San with little ill effect.
 
J A said:
You won't be getting much in a sip. The stuff is non-toxic at the concentration we use it in. Undiluted is toxic and corrosive but diluted by water (or beer :cool:) it should be pretty harmless. You could almost certainly have a sip of diluted Star San with little ill effect.
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I pulled a sample and tried it last night using the wine snob method of sip, taste, spit. It was sweet and had a nice bitter after taste, which makes sense seeing as the beer should have about 115 ibus. I still haven't bought PH strips so I'll have to pull another sample to check that. In my opinion it tasted fine. I'm just going to rack it to my secondary carboy saturday, dry hop it for a week and go from there. Thanks everyone for your help and input. Much appreciated
 
BeerGreek said:
I pulled a sample and tried it last night using the wine snob method of sip, taste, spit. It was sweet and had a nice bitter after taste, which makes sense seeing as the beer should have about 115 ibus. I still haven't bought PH strips so I'll have to pull another sample to check that. In my opinion it tasted fine. I'm just going to rack it to my secondary carboy saturday, dry hop it for a week and go from there. Thanks everyone for your help and input. Much appreciated
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The star-san would have lowered the finished beer pH (it's acidic). An ounce makes five gallons of about pH 3.0 solution, so the hypothesis that lowering beer pH improves its taste seems to hold for this batch! Oh, don't waste too much time on pH strips - spend the fifty bucks or so and buy a meter.
 
Nosybear said:
The star-san would have lowered the finished beer pH (it's acidic). An ounce makes five gallons of about pH 3.0 solution, so the hypothesis that lowering beer pH improves its taste seems to hold for this batch! Oh, don't waste too much time on pH strips - spend the fifty bucks or so and buy a meter.
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I was debating on whether the meters are worth the extra cost or not so thank you for pointing that out. As for the hypothesis, I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, true maybe sometimes the reason is you're an idiot and needed to learn a lesson, but I've read about many mistakes being made with brewing that ended up creating masterpieces, like Arrogant Bastard ale. Obviously I'm no Steve Wagner, but maybe this turns out to be better than anticipated. I'll update everyone once I've kegged and carbonated my abomination.
 
BeerGreek said:
but I've read about many mistakes being made with brewing that ended up creating masterpieces,
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I doubt that any one will want to repeat the process of brewing with straight Star-San. :D :D :D
 
Haha you never know. Oh I forgot to mention, I did take a gravity reading from the sample and it's down to 1.044 from 1.054 so far which is normal right? My target FG is 1.012
 
BeerGreek said:
I was debating on whether the meters are worth the extra cost or not so thank you for pointing that out. As for the hypothesis, I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, true maybe sometimes the reason is you're an idiot and needed to learn a lesson, but I've read about many mistakes being made with brewing that ended up creating masterpieces, like Arrogant Bastard ale. Obviously I'm no Steve Wagner, but maybe this turns out to be better than anticipated. I'll update everyone once I've kegged and carbonated my abomination.
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Next time, reduce the pH with food-grade phosphoric or lactic acid instead of Star-San. But hey, I bet you get some great head retention on this one!
 
Nosybear said:
Next time, reduce the pH with food-grade phosphoric or lactic acid instead of Star-San. But hey, I bet you get some great head retention on this one!
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That's great as long as the head doesn't look like foamy star-san :D
 
I'd seriously just get a turkey baster or something and pull a sample to try it. If it tastes like beer flavoured grapefruit juice you're probably not going to enjoy it. But yeast will balance out PH over time to so it might end up "drinkable".
 
Plain and simple, it's a dumper. I doubt tasting it would harm you at that dilution, but why even bother. Chalk it up to experience, dump it and make another batch. Use Vodka in the air lock next time. It won't hurt a thing if sucked in.
 
I honestly can't fathom why you wouldn't at least try it. Isn't every bit of education valuable?
 
Many drink their own urine believing it to be beneficial to their health. I wouldn't try pee or Starsan beer for the educational value :)
 
Your call, but I prefer not to make assumptions on whether or not a batch of beer is bad.
 
Nosybear said:
Next time, reduce the pH with food-grade phosphoric or lactic acid instead of Star-San. But hey, I bet you get some great head retention on this one!
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Hey @BeerGreek , If you haven't noticed, some of us are gonna be very happy to totally give you shit about this. :p:p:p:p
It's just too good to pass up. Personally, I would absolutely love to be there for the first pour when the glass looks like a bubble bath for a Barbie doll. :D :D :D :D :D

Meanwhile, get your fermenter empty ASAP and start another batch. Better yet, get another fermenter so you can get something going like now. :) You'll need another fermenter eventually so you can cycle batches, anyway.
 
J A said:
Hey @BeerGreek , If you haven't noticed, some of us are gonna be very happy to totally give you shit about this. :p:p:p:p
It's just too good to pass up. Personally, I would absolutely love to be there for the first pour when the glass looks like a bubble bath for a Barbie doll. :D :D :D :D :D

Meanwhile, get your fermenter empty ASAP and start another batch. Better yet, get another fermenter so you can get something going like now. :) You'll need another fermenter eventually so you can cycle batches, anyway.
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Lmao, the shit giving doesn't bother me a bit. I deserve it :D:D. Honestly I think I would judge you guys for not giving me shit :p:p. It'll make me remember what NOT to do in the future. I have 2 more carboys so I am planning on brewing a Black IPA this weekend. I'm still going to let this one finish since I have nothing to lose by doing so. Like I said, I tried it and it actually tasted pretty good. It wasn't acidic, it was sweet and the after taste was a little bitter. I'm crossing my fingers.
 
Update... I checked the ph and it's at 3.3. I transferred wort to another carboy for secondary fermentation and added my dry hops. I've been doing a lot of research about ph and i'm going to add about 2.5g of baking soda to the wort which should "theoretically" increase the ph and I'll post an update in a few days. It looks more normal now.
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BeerGreek said:
I've been doing a lot of research about ph and i'm going to add about 2.5g of baking soda to the wort which should "theoretically" increase the ph and I'll post an update in a few days.
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Oof...you may be headed down a rabbit hole with this batch. :rolleyes:
 
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