Pro-Con Boiled starter wort vs boiled water poured into flask

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cweinbrew9

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Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could help me lay out the pro's and cons for my started process. I have been building up yeast from top cropping my ales, and am a little concerned with my sanitation. I could boil the starter wort, and pour it into my flask, but ive recently bought one of those electric boil "kettles". So what I've been doing is for example at the 500 mL stage, weighing out 50 grams of DME (then sprinkle in a little yeast nutrients) and adding that to my 1000mL flask. Next I unplug the "kettle" which has my .5 L of water boiling and pour that right into the flask. Cover it with star san sprayed tin foil, try to stir it up a little while not burning myself, and waiting for it to cool. I'm concerned because some DME always ends up at the top of the flasked, so if the water doesn't wash it off when im pouring it in, its probably unlikely to be sanitized right? I live in a very humid place so the DME almost immediately starts clumping. I'm also sure there must be some possible problems I am just missing so I thought a nice Pro- Con list would help me cover everything.
 
Put your dry DME in your dry flask. Add your water, swirl it around on the stovetop until it dissolves, bring it to a boil, cool it, pitch your yeast.

Or boil/dissolve the DME in another pan and put it in your flask, then bring it to a boil.

The idea of the flask is you heat and sterilize the both the wort and the container on a stove when you bring it to a boil. It's about as close as you get to sterility in the brewing process. At the end of the boil, slap some foil on it, chill it and toss in the yeast.
 
Dme is not guaranteed to be sanitized. It needs to be boiled at least a bit to get it clean.
 
If it seems easier for you to use a kettle, then do it.
From a kettle boil point of view.
Pro: Dont' have to deal with boilovers
Quicker to boil
Still reaches pasteurisation


Con: Not "sterile", but a boil doesn't "sterilize" either. Its all about sanitary.
Leaves clumps inside the neck, but you can shake it up afterwords.
Doesn't give you a hot break, but if you are decanting anyways it doesn't really matter.
 
Also worth mentioning is that a 500mL starter isn't getting a ton of yeast growth if you're doing 5gal batches.

+1 to boiling, just for 5-10min
 
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