fearing the foam..

[Kev888]

I have no concern about filling the FV whilst full of starsan foam, been doing it for ages with no issues whatsoever, just like many others on here.

But I'm wondering if maybe I 'should' actually fear the foam for tiny quantities of yeast/wort in the initial steps of growing up for starters and so on. Theres quite a lot more foam to yeast/wort at that scale - could I be sanitising my yeast?

Cheers
Kev

[Aleman]

When Sanitising equipment for yeast culturing I use the pressure cooker.

For the bigger stuff (1L, 2L 3L 5L conicals) , then it's cleaned with oxyclean/dishwasher powder, rised using hot water. then either filled with boiling water and capped with aluminium foil until I'm ready to use it . . .remove foil and empty. or I put some boiling water in the bottom and sit it on the hob for 10 minutes. . . .covered with Aluminium foil etc

One big reason why I like Borosilicate glass.

[Kev888]

Ah yes, very nice; I aspire to borosilicate conicals one day - though not sure I could run to the 3L and 5L ones - and I've got my eye on a pressure cooker that will work on an induction hob (if they ever come back into stock).

For now though aside from some autoclavable test tubes and a pyrex measuring jug I've only really got lesser vessels. I guess I could rinse out the starsan with boiled/cooled water after sanitising if I had to, just wasn't sure if it was actually an issue or not?

Cheers
kev

[Wolfy]

I think that heat is a much better sanitizer when working with yeast/starters.
Assuming you use glass-containers, what about boiling them in a larger volume of water, or even capping them with aluminum-foil and cooking them in the oven for a time?

Since I have some Borosilicate glasswear, I simply boil the starter-wort inside the container to sterilize both at the same time, makes it so much easier that way.

[Aleman]

What Pierre Rajotte says in his book Yeast Culturing, is that once clean, then if you just fill the vessel with boiling water and cap with silver foil until ready to use you will be fine . . .I do this with my bigger vessels with no issues (so far)

[boingy]

Can you put, say, a 2 litre borosilicate flask directly onto a electric hob?
Boiling the starter wort directly in the flask makes lots of sense to me.

[mentaldental]

Can you put, say, a 2 litre borosilicate flask directly onto a electric hob?
Boiling the starter wort directly in the flask makes lots of sense to me.

Yes but be careful, larger ones (like 5 litre) can break on and electric hob. It's happened to me twice. Heat them gently. Better still heat the water/malt extract in a pan and add to the conical and just use the hob to boil it. I believe they are OK on gas.

Never had a problem with 2 litre ones. Just the 5 litre, typically.

[mentaldental]

I think that heat is a much better sanitizer when working with yeast/starters.
Assuming you use glass-containers, what about boiling them in a larger volume of water, or even capping them with aluminum-foil and cooking them in the oven for a time?

Since I have some Borosilicate glasswear, I simply boil the starter-wort inside the container to sterilize both at the same time, makes it so much easier that way.

Heat will do the job. Assuming you have glass/borosilicate (like a conical flask).

1. Clean, clean, clean. The most important step.
2. Allow to dry completely, inverted if you can so no dust gets inside, or lightly capped.
3. Place a foil cap.
3. Put in the oven.
4. Turn on and set to 180C.
5. Once the oven reaches 180C, hold at this temperature for 60 minutes. It must be at 180C for the full 60 minutes. Dry heat is not a very good sterilising medium and needs this length of time. (Steam is much better, 3 minutes at 135C does the job, but most of us don't have an autoclave large enough to take a 5 litre conical!).
6. Allow to cool and then remove.
7. Store with the foil cap in place and you have a sterile flask ready to go.

[Kev888]

Thanks chaps,
So in answer to my question about the foam: we don't really know, but I should be using heat rather than starsan anyway..

Guess I could try bringing the heat up very gently indeed on my cheapo jars. There's probably less chance of doing that with the larger starter-sized vessels but its probably the smaller ones that matter most in any case.

(or i could just lay in a load of Nottingham sachets... )

Cheers
kev

[196osh]

I think that heat is a much better sanitizer when working with yeast/starters.
Assuming you use glass-containers, what about boiling them in a larger volume of water, or even capping them with aluminum-foil and cooking them in the oven for a time?

Since I have some Borosilicate glasswear, I simply boil the starter-wort inside the container to sterilize both at the same time, makes it so much easier that way.

Heat will do the job. Assuming you have glass/borosilicate (like a conical flask).

1. Clean, clean, clean. The most important step.
2. Allow to dry completely, inverted if you can so no dust gets inside, or lightly capped.
3. Place a foil cap.
3. Put in the oven.
4. Turn on and set to 180C.
5. Once the oven reaches 180C, hold at this temperature for 60 minutes. It must be at 180C for the full 60 minutes. Dry heat is not a very good sterilising medium and needs this length of time. (Steam is much better, 3 minutes at 135C does the job, but most of us don't have an autoclave large enough to take a 5 litre conical!).
6. Allow to cool and then remove.
7. Store with the foil cap in place and you have a sterile flask ready to go.

To add to this if there is some watser in the bottom of the conical, and you bake it the fact there is boiling water in the glass should increase the effaciy of the sterilization process.

[mentaldental]

To add to this if there is some watser in the bottom of the conical, and you bake it the fact there is boiling water in the glass should increase the effaciy of the sterilization process.

Well not really. Steam under pressure will sterilise quickly and effectively. Steam at atmospheric pressure is not so good and, in fact, I can find no data to confirm that it will actually sterilise nor how long it might take.

Hot air will sterilise at 180C for 60mins. If there is water in the item to be sterilsed this will reduce the temperature below 180C, at least locally, and reduce the effeciency of sterilising.

So if you sterilise with hot air the item needs to be at 180C for 60 mins once dry.

[196osh]

Your right, dont know what I was thinking, its more that if there was steam in there above 100C, because its not under pressure it would be dry.