orangehero
Well-Known Member
You should use sterile water...you're introducing a bunch of contaminants in the washing process as it is. The best method would be to pressure cook a few jars of clean water, that way you have sterile water and jars.
I prefer harvesting (and freezing) some vials of yeast from 2L starters made from a fresh, new yeast purchase. I'll end up with 2-4 extra vials which will be good for 2-4 future starters. But this is primarily because I don't brew more than twice a month.
If I brewed more often, I could certainly see dealing with washing yeast and reusing in short order.
Yeast can improve performance in successive generations.
Yeast can improve performance in successive generations.
Just a quick note from my own personal experience, I usually boil my mason jars that I store my yeast in. The one time that I used Star-San to use an extra jar last minute, it detonated about 5 days later in my fridge. I can't say for sure, but I think what happened is that the Star-San re-energized some of the yeast, and consumed some residual sugars in the wort. To say it was messy is an understatement, and it was a little unsettling to be next to the fridge when it happened. We weren't living in the best neighborhood at the time, and the mind wanders as to what possibly just happened. Thankfully we were not exposed to the shards of glass.
Since then, I make damn sure that the yeast is finished, and I no longer use Star-San to disinfect my jars.
I use active oxygen and none of my jars has ever exploded.
I think what happened is that the Star-San re-energized some of the yeast, and consumed some residual sugars in the wort.
I've been using star san for years and never had one explode.
I think you're grabbing at straws here.
I have also used StarSan for years to sanitize my mason jars; never had a "detonation."Then do you have an explanation then? It seems that I don't. All I know is that the one and only time I used Star-San, I had a detonation.
If starsan or any other sanitizer could 'reactivate' yeast there would be a lot more bottle bombs. It wasn't the sanitizer.
I don't know, but I'm not really getting any other ideas to buy into here. Just a lot of people telling me that I'm wrong.
Mason jars and lids are not designed to hold pressure. Under pressure the lid will lift enough to release pressure, unless the ring is tightened to the point that doesn't allow the lid to lift until a dangerously high pressure is reached. This could explain why only one exploded.
Could this be the reason? Possibly, and I can tell you for sure that it was not the Star san.
The only logical explanation is that it came from CO2 production, which I had assumed (incorrectly) was attributed to the Star San. Now the only logical thing that I can draw as a conclusion is that the wort was somehow not finished fermenting, however I find that confusing as my process has not changed outside of the Star San change. If there's another reason, it's lost on me, and there are no other alternative explanations to be found throughout this discussion.
Did the warm up a lot? Temp=pressure
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