jldc

Recipes 

Since I've gone All-Grain I've been thinking about how to make a starter without DME - an All-Grain starter.

So, I'm thinking that if I just start out with an extra quart or two of wort at the beginning of my boil, I can freeze the extra (by taking it out before any hop additions). Then, a few days before my next brewday, I thaw this extra wort, boil it a little while and use it as the base for my starter. What do you think?

Surely, this has been done before, but I didn't find any info on a cursory search.

AZ_IPA

Recipes 

search for real wort starter....

Malticulous

Recipes 

Kaiser strains what's left from the whirlpool and freezes it. I did a one gallon mash once because I had no extract. Freezing it is a much better idea.
Whirlpooling - German Brewing Techniques

rsmith179

Recipes 

That's totally fine. I do that all the time. I always have 2-3 quarts left over after reaching my boil volume. I'll take that, split it into 1 qt. sizes, and then dump into a ziplock. Take that ziplock, and put another one over it. Double bag that $hit just in case! Come starter day, take the frozen quart and melt and then boil for like 15 minutes. There's your starter wort ready to go!

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humann_brewing

Recipes 

These are all great ideas.

I have also heard of taking a dutch oven and mashing a pound of grain in your oven at 150-155. You could use the paint strainer method for easy cleanup too.

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Bosium

Recipes 

dutch oven? isn't that when u fart and trap your swmbo under the duvet?

passedpawn

Recipes 

I mashed 5 gallons of 2-row (OG = 1.040) once just for my starters. Boiled for 15min, cooled, then bottled in 22oz bombers.

Worked great for starter, but the bottles were gushers and a bit skunky for some reason. Dunno why. I would do it again, tho.

Whiskey

Recipes 

I have a few 1 qt bottles frozen in the freezer for this very purpose. I alway seem to have about 2 -3 quarts to much for my boil so I just transfer at least one into a 1 qt water bottles, label (wheat, porter, etc) and freeze. I have only done one starter as of yet, but it worked out well.

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marc06

Recipes 

My last sparge I just add an extra gallon of water. I then collect a gallon of wort in a growler and use that for starters. Its already low gravity and to step it up I just boil it longer.

passedpawn

Recipes 

Duh. Now why didn't I think of that!