Cheap no-rinse sanitizer/star san alternative?

[ComusLives]

Hey all,

I've been looking for a good no-rinse sanitizer for my brews, and it's proving to be harder/more expensive than I expected. The last few brews were done using a mixture of 20ls of water, 30mls of thin bleach and 30mls of vinegar, which did the job but not quite what I wanted. Despite claims of it being no-rinse it leaves a serious chlorine smell on whatever I use it on that takes a few rinses to get rid of. Any ideas on what I could use instead as a genuine no-rinse solution? I've heard of star san, but it's pretty pricey and I'm doubtful that it could actually be much better than what I've been using.

I wanna cut down on water usage with the charges coming in and all that, and a no-rinse sanitizer just seems to be more efficient than what I'm doing now. Cheers for any ideas anyone may have!

[dcalnan]

Starsan FTW, i bought a 8OZ bottle over a year ago and I'm barely halfway though it, and I normally go for a stronger dilution then what they recommend. It's not that expensive and I keep 500ml of dilution in a spray bottle with RO water all the time, which allows me to just spray more if needs be. 

[ComusLives]

Is it as simple as just spraying it onto whatever you want to clean and leaving it for 60 seconds? No residual smell or any rinse needed? Also, what do you mean by RO water? Cheers!

[johnrm]

Pretty much.

RO = Reverse Osmosis

Consider Bleach!

Starsan let me down for a few batches - Bleach is cheap ass, but it works.
EUR0.67 for 2l...
http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=260550096
Palmer recommends 4ml to the litre.
http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter2-2-3.htmls

[dcalnan]

Well most of the time I make about 5/10L ditution, it's 1oz per 5 gallons so 8ml per 5L roughly. I go for around 2 mins but when i make the 5L I tend to leave stuff in it till they're needed. RO is reverse osmosis, the starsan keeps better when made with RO water over normal tap water.

[ComusLives]

John, I've tried bleach with vinegar and it left a nasty chlorine scent that required rinsing to get rid off! I was looking for something that didn't need that extra step. D'you guys reckon I'd be fine using it with just plain old tap water? As far as I know it's not particularly alkaline or anything, but I've no real way of testing that. If not, how would I turn it into or just get some RO water?

[NeillC]

Malt Miller do a starsan alternative at a good price. Pretty much the same stuff.

[delzep]

I use deionised water instead of RO water. 5 litres for €4 in Halfords

[johnrm]

What concentration Bleach Vinegar?
The recipe is... (in this order otherwise you will poison yourself with chlorine gas!)
20l water
30ml leach
30ml vinegar

I used this for a long time with no chlorine smell or taste and more importantly, no infections.

Don't pour bleach neat into any vessels otherwise you may taint the vessel for a time.

[Garry]

D'you guys reckon I'd be fine using it with just plain old tap water? As far as I know it's not particularly alkaline or anything, but I've no real way of testing that.

Starsan works fine with tap water. If your water is hard, the solution goes cloudy, but it's fine once the pH is 3 or less (so it's actually acididic, not alkaline). It won't go cloudy in RO/de-ionised/distilled water. I buy de-ionised water from the motor factors like Delzep. And my starsan solution stays crystal clear in a spray bottle for months.

If you want to test the pH without pH strips or pH meter, just spray some on your hand and lick it. If it tastes like lemons then it's still acidic enough and safe to use.

[LordEoin]

I do the same as John with Bleach/Vinegar but I've scaled it back to 2L water: 3ml bleach: 3ml vinegar. Same ratio but less waste.
There's a feint bleach aroma to it, but it doesn't transfer to the beer.
Sometimes I'll rinse the FV out with a bit of boiling water afterwards, but it's not really necessary.

[biertourist]

Just don't soak your stainless items in any sanitizer containing bleach.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

Watch your bleachy rinse when brewing with phenolic yeasts too. It can feed the chloramines