So who mashes their wort for their starter?

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ilikeguns

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So I'm looking to grow a ton of yeast from a few smack packs and I'm debating about making a few gallons of wort to freeze or pressure can.

Anyone else doing this? I brew mainly high gravity beers so making 3-4L starters is making me burn through the DME pretty quickly. I'm just curious to see if it's more work than it's worth..

Pressure canning would allow me to make wort and just pop up a quarts every time I need to do a starter. I kind of like the idea of do it once and have enough for a few batches.
 
I have 2L pitchers of wort frozen in my freezer. I just thaw, bring to a boil briefly, cool, and pour into my jug/jar/flask for the starter.

I normally don't make starter wort, though- I just drain my MLT well after I brew and then boil the runnings to 1.030 and then freeze.
 
I've done this a couple times when making lighter beers, just make and extra gallon or so and put it in a container to use in future starters.
 
Do it.

I started pressure canning starter wort a few months back and I really like the convenience of not having to boil and cool every time I need to get a starter going. It especially comes in handy with multi-step starters. I used DME for the first and only batch I've done, but I plan on making the next batch from grain, which will be coming up shortly as I'm down to the last few quarts. I figure about 5 lbs of grain will yield about 12 quart jars and 12 pint jars of 1.040 wort. My plan is to mash for an hour, let it cool, then transfer straight to jars and into the pressure canner. No need to boil between the mash and canning, as the pressure canning process will take care of any nasties that manage to make it that far.
 
Do it. I bought a pressure canner and have started doing all-grain starters ('cause I'm a poor grad student :() and while it takes time to mash it, you can't beat the ease of popping open a can and pouring.
 
I don't recommend going straight from the MLT to jars; pressure canning will leave behind a lot of hot and cold break, wasting a lot of volume... That protein looks like alien fetuses.

I recently made starters for canning with a 15 min boil following mashing usin irish moss, and cooled with an immersion chiller (also giving a dose of copper).

This left behind a very manageable amount of trub in the mason jars, leaving more for starters.
 
I don't recommend going straight from the MLT to jars; pressure canning will leave behind a lot of hot and cold break, wasting a lot of volume... That protein looks like alien fetuses.

I recently made starters for canning with a 15 min boil following mashing usin irish moss, and cooled with an immersion chiller (also giving a dose of copper).

This left behind a very manageable amount of trub in the mason jars, leaving more for starters.

Yeah, I plan to do something like this once I'm out of my current batch of jars. The alien fetuses are a bit disturbing, not that they harm anything. :D
 
I've been considering this as I've some grains lying around for a bit too long and I might use them for starters. My intention is to brew a high gravity wort and freeze it in 1/2 litre freezerbags. Then when I need starter, dilute and boil/cool. One reason is that I'm about to brew a hefe and I dont want to decant a load of yeast in suspension but I also dont want to pitch aload of DME into my brew. This way starters could be pitched without decanting at high krausen(I just dont like pitching 1~2litres of DME into my 20Litre batch)
 
I do it. I usually mash up 5 gallons of starter wort at a time and then pressure can it. I have pint, quart, and half gallon jars. I can up more pints and quarts by far, but the half gals come in handy once in a while. It's cheaper this way than using DME and one batch of starter wort lasts a good while. It's much easier than a regular brew day and not having to boil and cool wort every time you make a starter is well worth the effort.
 
I don't recommend going straight from the MLT to jars; pressure canning will leave behind a lot of hot and cold break, wasting a lot of volume... That protein looks like alien fetuses.

I recently made starters for canning with a 15 min boil following mashing usin irish moss, and cooled with an immersion chiller (also giving a dose of copper).

This left behind a very manageable amount of trub in the mason jars, leaving more for starters.
In my readings I thought the conclusion was all that 'ick' is good for the yeast so you want it in there.
 
In my readings I thought the conclusion was all that 'ick' is good for the yeast so you want it in there.

It is good for the yeast. I don't pre-boil my wort. I get a descent amount of break in the jars, but with some careful pouring you can leave most of the big chunks behind. I would just dump it all in since the trub is good for the yeast, but big chunks have a tendency to cause my stir bars to get thrown once in a while.
 
okay.. so you pressure canning people.. do you boil post mash or do you leave that all to the pressure canner to kill all the bad stuff?

Also, how much headspace are you guys/gals in the quart jars?
 
I pressure can wort for starters, I've used pre and post hopped wort with no difference that I can taste in the final beer (but I like hops). Make sure you have a good pressure canner and not a pressure cooker. After you pressure can, their will be a cake on the bottom of the jar and if you don't shake it, you can pour the wort off and leave the cake at the bottom. This practice has a name but I forgot.
 
1" is the standard or up to the neck and I've canned pre and post boil no difference. The pressure canner is the nuke of the boiling world.
 
okay.. so you pressure canning people.. do you boil post mash or do you leave that all to the pressure canner to kill all the bad stuff?

Also, how much headspace are you guys/gals in the quart jars?

I only pre-boil for 15 minutes to form hot break, and chill (not to pitching temps, but way down from boil) to leave behind cold break as well. I'm not super careful with sanitation since the pressure canner sterilizes at 15 psi.

There are plenty of lipids and proteins suspended in the wort, the canned break material just screws up the stir bar. Plus, I add 1/4 tsp of yeast nutrient to each starter before canning.

The boil pre-canning adds more time than filling jars from the lauter tun, but it is still more relaxed than a normal brew session.
 
okay.. so you pressure canning people.. do you boil post mash or do you leave that all to the pressure canner to kill all the bad stuff?

Also, how much headspace are you guys/gals in the quart jars?

Pressure canning sterilizes the wort (unlike simple boiling which only pasteurizes it really). 1" headspace is probably about right. I usually fill the jar to where the threads end on the neck. If you over fill, the jars will boil over (go figure) and you get sticky break all over your jars. Makes them hard to clean and if you don't get the rings off quickly they will be somewhat glued and hard to get off.
 
I make my starters with leftover runnings.Basicly I drain the wort from the mash and leave the valve open allowing the remainder to slowly drain, after about 2 hours or so you end up with about 1 liter of wort.Boil and place in a sanitized container for use on my next batch.For me this is the easiest and cheapest way to make good quality starters.
 
Only really only did it properly once, but I made about 10gal of 1.070 wort that I froze in quart and gallon containers. Dilute in half when using of course. Lab yeast goes into 2qt on stirplate, then stepped up to 2gal (intermittent O2). I make 16.5gal batches. I end up pitching a bit much into ales and maybe not quite enough into lagers. Seems to work fine.
 
I usually mash 3-5 gallons every couple of months, store jars in keezer (no pressure cooker, I just pour hot wort in jars so lids can vacuum seal), and boil/cool before making starter.
 
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