Saving leftover wort for starters?

I have a few quarts of wort leftover that didn't make it into the boil. Its been sitting in the spare pot (covered) overnight. gravity is 1.046. Id like to save it for future starters. Since it will have to be boiled anyway, I figure I could just store it in a few jars in the fridge and the boil will take care of any bacteria. Could I also use this for priming? Since it was a stout i dont think I would use it in anything but a dark beer. Just curious how I can utilize these leftovers. Thanks

I've done that. Works well. Put it in an ice cream bucket and freeze it. Thaw it in the microwave when you are ready to make your starter. Beats paying for DME for your starters.:rockin:

Yup, there are lots of methods of saving it. One thing Papazian says in his book is to pour sterilized wort into sterilized bottles and then cap them. I personally just pour leftovers into ziplock freezer bags, remove the air, seal and freeze flat. They thaw very quickly this way.

great, love the idea of not using DME. Another question though:

What should the OG of the priming solution be for bottling? Higher for higher gravity beers? Ive been using the standard 1.25 cups DME in a pint of H2O for 5 gallons. How can I calculate the right amount to use based on the OG of the "leftover" solution?

A beautiful female Northern Flicker is at my feeder, it's 11 degrees.

8string said:

great, love the idea of not using DME. Another question though:

What should the OG of the priming solution be for bottling? Higher for higher gravity beers? Ive been using the standard 1.25 cups DME in a pint of H2O for 5 gallons. How can I calculate the right amount to use based on the OG of the "leftover" solution?

A beautiful female Northern Flicker is at my feeder, it's 11 degrees.

Click to expand...

A few things to keep in mind, as I believe you are referring to 'Krausening' or priming w/o adding sugar but wort. Priming is a function of temperature so keep that in mind and differing styles require (more or less) different volumes of CO2 in the finished product. There is a good read on it here, if you want to undertake this:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=3473&highlight=krausening

And another thing I turned up on the web:

http://www.picobrewery.com/askarchive/krausen.htm

If I'm doing a real high OG recipe. I will sometimes throw some more sparge water over the spent grains while I'm waiting for the boil. Kind of like a second mash from the spent grains. You would be suprised on how much sugar is really left behind. Then again my efficency has never been more than 80%. Anyway good way to get some starter wort.

I often make more wort than I need and freeze the left over in a 2L pet bottle for a starter. It should be boiled before use to make sure it is sanitised. I'll also do make my version of mini mash to make a starter.
http://www.18000feet.com/minimash/page1.htm
I get to bottle the starter medium and drink it after use.

Default Krausening Formula
From Charlies Book....

How much gyle do you use to prime? Gyle( qrts): wort without pitched yeast.

gyle = (12 x gallons)/((S.G.-1) x 1000))

example:

gyle = (12*5)/((1.040-1)*1000))

gyle = 60/40

gyle = 1.5 quarts

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks