One of the most common questions I see asked on HomeBrewTalk is, "How can I shorten my brew day?" Brewing is a relaxing and fun activity (otherwise, why would we do it?), but it can require a significant time commitment. The amount of time required depends on your brewing method and recipe. An all-grain, multi-decoction batch using pilsner malt (with accompanying 90-minute boil) and whirlpool can eat up 6-8 hours of your precious weekend time. Conversely, an extract no-chill brew can be done in just a couple of hours.
One place I've found to be low hanging fruit when it comes to saving time is canning starter wort. When I eventually reached the "making starters" stage of my brewing adventure, I did what many others did: boil some DME, chill it, rack it to a sanitized flask, pitch the yeast, and let it ride a stir plate. This works well, but since my brew days are typically on a weekend, this meant carving out a couple of hours on a Wednesday night to ensure that the yeast was ready. I'd have to repeat this process for each brew. That is, until I heard about canning starter wort.
Preparing Yeast Starter Wort
Now, my pre-brewing Wednesday ritual is much shorter. I grab my flask (usually my 5 liter, to make sure there are no blowouts) and funnel, and pour in a quart or so of StarSan. I swirl it around, and also drop a stir bar and a piece of foil into my StarSan bucket. I dump the StarSan out of the flask, and grab the required number of jars of canned starter wort from my cabinet. I pop the lids (a bottle opener works great!) and dump the wort into the flask. I shake up my vial of (White Labs) yeast, or open the previously-smacked pouch of yeast (Wyeast), and carefully pour it into the flask using the funnel I sanitized earlier. I cover the top with the sanitized foil, give it a good shake for a few seconds, drop in the stir bar, and put it on the stir plate. After a quick cleanup (canning jars into a bucket of hot OxyClean to soak overnight, lids in the garbage), I'm done for the evening.
I'm a big fan of this method, because it greatly shortens my time preparing the yeast starter. It requires some time to can the wort, but you can do this whenever it is convenient for you, rather than having to do it 3 days before brewing. Also, you can prepare enough wort in one evening to last you through several starters.
Equipment Needed To Can Starter Wort
A pressure canner. Note that this is a pressure canner, not a pressure cooker. Pressure canners get up to 15 psi, which is required for food sterilization, whereas pressure cookers generally max out at 12 psi. In order to achieve sterilization temperature (about 250F), 15 psi is necessary. I use a Presto 16-quart model.
Canning jars, lids, and rings. These are available at most hardware, kitchen supply, and department stores. Do not try to re-use the lids, as the sealing compound around the rim that adheres to the jar rims during canning is only good for one use. The jars and rings, on the other hand, are re-usable.
Required Items
The following are items that will help make the process easier, but are not strictly required:
Yeast Nutrient Helps Promote Healthy Cell Growth
Most sources recommend that starter wort have a gravity of 1.040. According to John Palmer, DME yields between 1.040 and 1.043 points per pound per gallon (PPG). We have to pick one, so I go with 1.040. 1.040 PPG is pretty easy to remember. Just use 1 pound of DME per gallon of wort. But while working in pounds and gallons is convenient when dealing with the weights and volumes of a typical batch of beer, it's not fine-grained enough when dealing with smaller weights and volumes of making starters. What if you have 700 grams of DME? How much water do you use for that? I find it easier to deal with metric units, and my rule of thumb for ratios is pretty easy to remember: I use a ratio of 100 grams of DME per 1 liter of water. That works out to about 36 points per 100 grams per liter, which is a hair low, but will be fine for starter wort and is a really easy ratio to remember.
My pressure canner holds seven 1 liter jars. So I'll make 7.5 liters of starter wort. It's always better to have a little extra than not enough. So that means I'll need 750 grams of DME. I weighed it out on my kitchen scale, and accounting for the weight of the bowl itself, I need the scale to read right around 1 kilogram.
Protect Hands From Burns When Handling Hot Canning Jars
Next, measure out your water, using the 100 grams of DME per 1 liter of water ratio. I needed 7.5 liters of water for my batch, so I measured it out using a plastic pitcher with volume markings, and added it to my pot.
Heat the water up to about 160F, then sprinkle in your DME while stirring or whisking to break up clumps. Next, I add some White Labs Yeast Nutrient, and the recommended dose is 1/2 teaspoon per 5 gallons. So for my 7.5 liters of starter, I just put in 1/4 of a teaspoon. Note that this mixture doesn't have to boil (indeed, if you let it boil, you could have a mess on your hands). The goal here is simply to get everything evenly mixed.
Thoroughly Mix Together DME, Yeast Nutrient And Water
Once you're satisfied that everything is well mixed, pour the starter wort into your canning jars. A canning jar funnel makes this easier, but isn't necessarily required. Fill the jars up to the tops of their shoulders. You may need to let a little foam dissipate before you can do this without them overflowing.
Place the canning lids on the jars, making sure they make a good seal. I like to press down on them and twist a little bit. Finally, screw the canning rings on. Do not tighten these all the way! The purpose of the rings is to simply hold the lids in place, not form an airtight seal. If you tighten the rings too tightly, the steam and air cannot escape as the jars heat up. I tighten the rings down fairly snugly, and then back them off just 1/16th of a turn to ensure air and steam can escape.
Prepare The Canner
My canner's instructions specify pouring 3 liters of water in the canner. If your canner has a rack that sits on the bottom, ensure it is in place. This will keep the jars from making direct contact with the (soon to be VERY hot) bottom surface of the canner. My canner also recommends adding a couple tablespoons of white vinegar to the canning bath water, to prevent staining.
The canner must reach and hold 15 psi for 20 minutes in order to completely sterilize the contents.
After 20 minutes has elapsed, turn off the stove and let the canner cool. If you'd like, you can gently slide the canner over to an unused burner to allow it to cool faster. Eventually, once the pressure has dropped back down to zero, the safety lock will drop on the canner's lid, allowing you to remove it. Be careful! Everything is still VERY hot! At this point, I remove the lid, remove the jars (using my tongs), and carefully place them on the counter to continue cooling off. If you have heat-resistant gloves, you can tighten the canning rings to help form a tight seal while the jars finish cooling. Sometimes, the jars will still be boiling a little as you remove them from the canner, so be very careful! Dropping a glass jar of boiling hot sugary wort is a recipe for a trip to the hospital for cuts and burns.
Carefully Place The Lids To Seal The Jars
After a while, you'll hear the lids "pop" inward as the jars cool, creating the seal. Allow the jars to finish cooling completely to ensure the seal is firm. I just leave them on the counter overnight. Once they're completely cool, give the center of each lid a tap with your finger to make sure they're "sucked in." Any jars whose lids flex when you press on them are not properly sealed and will have to be reprocessed with a new lid, discarded, frozen, or used immediately. Remove the rings and store the jars until you need them.
Congratulations! You've canned starter wort! If you were successful, the jars should keep indefinitely, as the canning process will have killed absolutely anything living in the wort.
One Last Point
Do not leave the rings on the jars! The whole point of the design of the jars and lids is so that if for some reason the canning was unsuccessful in killing everything in the contents, and something in there begins multiplying and eating those sugars and producing CO2, the lid will pop off. This serves two valuable purposes: it indicates to you that the particular jar was contaminated and should not be used, but more importantly, it prevents CO2 from building up in the jar and causing it to explode, producing a mess (at best) or an injury (at worst). If you did everything correctly, then the lid sealing compound and the vacuum inside the jars will be more than sufficient to hold the lids in place. Do not leave the rings on the jars.
Wort Canning Jars Completed With Rings Removed
Hopefully, this article has shown you how convenient it can be to have a supply of canned starter wort, and how easy it can be to prepare such a supply of your own.
One place I've found to be low hanging fruit when it comes to saving time is canning starter wort. When I eventually reached the "making starters" stage of my brewing adventure, I did what many others did: boil some DME, chill it, rack it to a sanitized flask, pitch the yeast, and let it ride a stir plate. This works well, but since my brew days are typically on a weekend, this meant carving out a couple of hours on a Wednesday night to ensure that the yeast was ready. I'd have to repeat this process for each brew. That is, until I heard about canning starter wort.
Preparing Yeast Starter Wort
Now, my pre-brewing Wednesday ritual is much shorter. I grab my flask (usually my 5 liter, to make sure there are no blowouts) and funnel, and pour in a quart or so of StarSan. I swirl it around, and also drop a stir bar and a piece of foil into my StarSan bucket. I dump the StarSan out of the flask, and grab the required number of jars of canned starter wort from my cabinet. I pop the lids (a bottle opener works great!) and dump the wort into the flask. I shake up my vial of (White Labs) yeast, or open the previously-smacked pouch of yeast (Wyeast), and carefully pour it into the flask using the funnel I sanitized earlier. I cover the top with the sanitized foil, give it a good shake for a few seconds, drop in the stir bar, and put it on the stir plate. After a quick cleanup (canning jars into a bucket of hot OxyClean to soak overnight, lids in the garbage), I'm done for the evening.
I'm a big fan of this method, because it greatly shortens my time preparing the yeast starter. It requires some time to can the wort, but you can do this whenever it is convenient for you, rather than having to do it 3 days before brewing. Also, you can prepare enough wort in one evening to last you through several starters.
Equipment Needed To Can Starter Wort
A pressure canner. Note that this is a pressure canner, not a pressure cooker. Pressure canners get up to 15 psi, which is required for food sterilization, whereas pressure cookers generally max out at 12 psi. In order to achieve sterilization temperature (about 250F), 15 psi is necessary. I use a Presto 16-quart model.
Canning jars, lids, and rings. These are available at most hardware, kitchen supply, and department stores. Do not try to re-use the lids, as the sealing compound around the rim that adheres to the jar rims during canning is only good for one use. The jars and rings, on the other hand, are re-usable.
Required Items
- A stock pot. This is to prepare the wort prior to canning. I use a 12-quart pot.
- Malt extract. You can use dry or liquid. I prefer dry because it keeps indefinitely.
- A scale. You need to measure out the malt extract to ensure the proper gravity of the starter wort.
- A measuring cup. Likewise, you need an accurate way to measure liquid volume to ensure you're preparing starter wort of the proper gravity.
- A bowl. This is to hold the malt extract while weighing, and adding to the water.
The following are items that will help make the process easier, but are not strictly required:
- A whisk. This makes it easier to eliminate chunks when preparing starter wort from dry malt extract.
- Yeast nutrient. This helps the yeast get a good, healthy start.
- Canning jar tongs. These make it easier to remove the hot jars from the canner.
- A canning jar funnel. This helps make less of a mess when pouring wort into the jars.
- White vinegar. The instructions with my canner recommend mixing 3 tbsp of it into the canning bath water to minimize staining while canning.
- A thermometer. This can help let you know when your wort mixture is warm enough. I just use a simple candy thermometer; it doesn't have to be very accurate.
Yeast Nutrient Helps Promote Healthy Cell Growth
Most sources recommend that starter wort have a gravity of 1.040. According to John Palmer, DME yields between 1.040 and 1.043 points per pound per gallon (PPG). We have to pick one, so I go with 1.040. 1.040 PPG is pretty easy to remember. Just use 1 pound of DME per gallon of wort. But while working in pounds and gallons is convenient when dealing with the weights and volumes of a typical batch of beer, it's not fine-grained enough when dealing with smaller weights and volumes of making starters. What if you have 700 grams of DME? How much water do you use for that? I find it easier to deal with metric units, and my rule of thumb for ratios is pretty easy to remember: I use a ratio of 100 grams of DME per 1 liter of water. That works out to about 36 points per 100 grams per liter, which is a hair low, but will be fine for starter wort and is a really easy ratio to remember.
My pressure canner holds seven 1 liter jars. So I'll make 7.5 liters of starter wort. It's always better to have a little extra than not enough. So that means I'll need 750 grams of DME. I weighed it out on my kitchen scale, and accounting for the weight of the bowl itself, I need the scale to read right around 1 kilogram.
Protect Hands From Burns When Handling Hot Canning Jars
Next, measure out your water, using the 100 grams of DME per 1 liter of water ratio. I needed 7.5 liters of water for my batch, so I measured it out using a plastic pitcher with volume markings, and added it to my pot.
Heat the water up to about 160F, then sprinkle in your DME while stirring or whisking to break up clumps. Next, I add some White Labs Yeast Nutrient, and the recommended dose is 1/2 teaspoon per 5 gallons. So for my 7.5 liters of starter, I just put in 1/4 of a teaspoon. Note that this mixture doesn't have to boil (indeed, if you let it boil, you could have a mess on your hands). The goal here is simply to get everything evenly mixed.
Thoroughly Mix Together DME, Yeast Nutrient And Water
Once you're satisfied that everything is well mixed, pour the starter wort into your canning jars. A canning jar funnel makes this easier, but isn't necessarily required. Fill the jars up to the tops of their shoulders. You may need to let a little foam dissipate before you can do this without them overflowing.
Place the canning lids on the jars, making sure they make a good seal. I like to press down on them and twist a little bit. Finally, screw the canning rings on. Do not tighten these all the way! The purpose of the rings is to simply hold the lids in place, not form an airtight seal. If you tighten the rings too tightly, the steam and air cannot escape as the jars heat up. I tighten the rings down fairly snugly, and then back them off just 1/16th of a turn to ensure air and steam can escape.
Prepare The Canner
My canner's instructions specify pouring 3 liters of water in the canner. If your canner has a rack that sits on the bottom, ensure it is in place. This will keep the jars from making direct contact with the (soon to be VERY hot) bottom surface of the canner. My canner also recommends adding a couple tablespoons of white vinegar to the canning bath water, to prevent staining.
- Place the jars inside the canner. You may want to use the tongs for this, or some heat-proof gloves, as the jars are likely very hot, depending on the temperature of the starter wort mixture you had just prepared.
- From here, be sure to always follow your canner's directions. For mine, I place the lid on top and turn it to secure it in place. I heat it on my (electric) stove until the "locking" valve pops up and steam is venting out the relief pipe.
- After 10 minutes of venting to purge the canner of air, place the pressure regulator on the relief pipe and go watch TV while the pressure builds. Once the pressure gauge reads 15 psi, start a timer for 20 minutes.
The canner must reach and hold 15 psi for 20 minutes in order to completely sterilize the contents.
After 20 minutes has elapsed, turn off the stove and let the canner cool. If you'd like, you can gently slide the canner over to an unused burner to allow it to cool faster. Eventually, once the pressure has dropped back down to zero, the safety lock will drop on the canner's lid, allowing you to remove it. Be careful! Everything is still VERY hot! At this point, I remove the lid, remove the jars (using my tongs), and carefully place them on the counter to continue cooling off. If you have heat-resistant gloves, you can tighten the canning rings to help form a tight seal while the jars finish cooling. Sometimes, the jars will still be boiling a little as you remove them from the canner, so be very careful! Dropping a glass jar of boiling hot sugary wort is a recipe for a trip to the hospital for cuts and burns.
Carefully Place The Lids To Seal The Jars
After a while, you'll hear the lids "pop" inward as the jars cool, creating the seal. Allow the jars to finish cooling completely to ensure the seal is firm. I just leave them on the counter overnight. Once they're completely cool, give the center of each lid a tap with your finger to make sure they're "sucked in." Any jars whose lids flex when you press on them are not properly sealed and will have to be reprocessed with a new lid, discarded, frozen, or used immediately. Remove the rings and store the jars until you need them.
Congratulations! You've canned starter wort! If you were successful, the jars should keep indefinitely, as the canning process will have killed absolutely anything living in the wort.
One Last Point
Do not leave the rings on the jars! The whole point of the design of the jars and lids is so that if for some reason the canning was unsuccessful in killing everything in the contents, and something in there begins multiplying and eating those sugars and producing CO2, the lid will pop off. This serves two valuable purposes: it indicates to you that the particular jar was contaminated and should not be used, but more importantly, it prevents CO2 from building up in the jar and causing it to explode, producing a mess (at best) or an injury (at worst). If you did everything correctly, then the lid sealing compound and the vacuum inside the jars will be more than sufficient to hold the lids in place. Do not leave the rings on the jars.
Wort Canning Jars Completed With Rings Removed
Hopefully, this article has shown you how convenient it can be to have a supply of canned starter wort, and how easy it can be to prepare such a supply of your own.
