Gerber Jars for washed yeast

Does anybody use, or know if its ok to use Gerber baby jars for storing washed yeast in my fridge? I can't seem to find mason jars

I too had trouble finding mason jars. I finally found them at Walmart. They also stock the replacement lids.

Thanks Johhny, I found these online, but not sure if they are practical considering each jar is over $1.

Ball Wide Mouth Quart Jars with Lids Pack - Walmart.com

This title made me laugh. I use these. I use a big mason jar for the first pour out of the bucket and let that settle for a few minutes in the fridge and then pour that off into 3-4 larger baby food jars. The tops are a little hard to get off but they work great.

Try k-mart also, and the regular mouth jars are about half the price of wide mouth. I've been using pint size (16 oz), and that has been getting enough yeast in each for healthy starters.
Check goodwill too.

ashplub said:

This title made me laugh. I use these. I use a big mason jar for the first pour out of the bucket and let that settle for a few minutes in the fridge and then pour that off into 3-4 larger baby food jars. The tops are a little hard to get off but they work great.

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I'll go to wal mart tomorrow to find some of the ones Johnny was talking about, if not i'll go gerber :rockin:

Why not order them online ? Or go to a Bed Bath and Beyond, if there is one near you?

I use the baby food jars but I never seem to get them sealed correctly.

ErieShores said:

I use the baby food jars but I never seem to get them sealed correctly.

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^What he said.^

I used the larger gerber jars a few times after boiling the jars/lids for 30 minutes, but the lids would never completely seal for me so I just use my mason jars now.

I save all jars. Don't we all go through about 5 medium sized jars a week?

The only ones I don't keep are pickle jars because I can't get rid of the pickling flavors.

Yum, apple-strawberry-bananna-wheat beer!

I use baby food jars as large slants and instead scraping out a sample of yeast, I pour the wort into them for the first stage this way I have a larger starting population. Anyway my point is I have to seal the jars multiple times in this process and I found when you pressure cook them as they do at the factory with the baby food, the plastic in the lid reforms to make the thread. I usually open them once (to add the yeast) after pressure cooking the agar/wort mix and they seal OK then. When I then add the wort to the baby jar slant the seal becomes worse and worse but by that stage is works out OK as the poor seal allows the CO2 to escape as the wort is making me yeast. Just watch out if you shake the jar!

Also I find my mason jars that I use to can wort with from old pasta sauce jars. Pergo I think is the brand I use. It only takes a couple of pasta dishes to have a good collection for free. That said I use all sorts of jars for canning and storing yeast.

Clem

I bet the old-fashioned corner hardware store would have mason jars.

How do you use baby food jars? Do you just put thick slurry straight in?

I've only washed yeast. After putting a full pint of thin slurry into a mason jar, it settles out to 30-50 ml of yeast. Id think that if I did the same thing with a baby food jar, id wind up with a tiny, tiny amount of yeast in each jar.

passedpawn said:

I save all jars. Don't we all go through about 5 medium sized jars a week?

The only ones I don't keep are pickle jars because I can't get rid of the pickling flavors.

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Truth. My horseradish-flavored Bell's yeast agrees with this assessment.

Big lots carries mason jars as well. If you have one near by.

Wal-mart has mason jars only seasonally. K-mart, Agri-Supply, Tractor Supply, Ace Hardware usually carry them year round.

I used to use baby food jars but I quit, because the lids had a tendency to leak when mismatched.

MC

They carry mason jars at all grocery stores in my area. They are usually with the paper towels or cleaning supplies.

I have been using mason jars for storing washed yeast for a while but as my collection grows it is starting to take up a lot of fridge space. I'm contemplating decanting the liquid and pouring the slurry into small glass vials.

EROK said:

Why not order them online ? Or go to a Bed Bath and Beyond, if there is one near you?

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Yep, I'll check that out after wal-mart.

shadows69 said:

Big lots carries mason jars as well. If you have one near by.

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I have a big lots, but it's pretty far, I'll try that after Bed Bath and Beyond.

Misplaced_Canuck said:

Wal-mart has mason jars only seasonally. K-mart, Agri-Supply, Tractor Supply, Ace Hardware usually carry them year round.

I used to use baby food jars but I quit, because the lids had a tendency to leak when mismatched.

MC

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I'll try those as well.

What's the price range I'm looking at, and do you all buy half pint jars? Someone here mentioned that by using the gerber ones I probably would need more than one for a starter.

I paid $9.99 for 12 pint jars. I don't think I would use smaller jars if washing in two steps, carboy to big jar to pint jars. I'm sure it depends on how much water you normally use in the washing as to how concentrated the yeast suspension is, and how small a jar you can use to get a decent amount to settle out.

That said, I only have a few under my belt, but it's working so far.

FWIW, I gave up on cleaning and sanitizing jars and use zip lock bags for yeast slurry storage. I consider them sanitary out of the package, and I hit the outside w/ sanitizer prior to cutting the top off w/ sanitized scissors.

I find it easy to just reuse most food jars,drinks come in glass bottles,I get juice in glass,jam,jelly,all kinds of stuff.Eat up-reusable jars right there.

Your best bet for mason jars in Laredo is the HEB PLUS on loop 20. They have the best selection.

I've been using the glass jars from Starbucks iced frappuccino drinks.

Do you have to use mason jars? I was thinking about doing this soon and have been saving Classico Tomato Sauce jars. They're just regular screw on lids.

f0xtr0t said:

Your best bet for mason jars in Laredo is the HEB PLUS on loop 20. They have the best selection.

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I actually went to the loop 20 wal mart specifically for mason jars and could not find them. What section did you find them at?

it really doesn't matter what jars you use. i just make sure to sanitize very well and fill them to the brim so when I screw the lids on it pushes out the excess. Then after they sit in the fridge for a couple days I decant the large jars and condense all the slurry into much smaller jars topping it off with freshly cooled and boiled water to make the yeast nice and sleepy.