Making and Canning Sterile Starter Wort

If you travel to the following link, there are pictures to go with the steps. It is just easier for me to upload and keep pictures there.
Step by Step: Making and Canning Sterile Starter Wort

I didn’t see a true tutorial for making and canning sterile starter wort on HBT, so after doing my own little piecing together of things, I figured I would post one to help out some others.

Obligatory warning: All pressure cookers are different, and you should consult the manual for the one you have to ensure you are using it correctly. These are instructions on how to use MINE, not YOURS. I take no responsibility for any injury that may occur by you following these instructions.

OK then…

Advantages of Canned Sterile Wort:

Sterile, so no botulism or spores of any kind live in your wort. This is important for small starters, like when using slants.
Ready to use: You can just dump it on top of some yeast and watch it do its thing.
Cost: If you switch to 2-row (since you are now doing more than 1 starter at a time) you can cut the cost by 2/3.

Disadvantages:

Can take more time, depending on previous methods.

What you will need:

• Mason Jars
• A pressure cooker
• Light DME or 2-row grain
• A Mash Tun (if using 2-row)
• A ball valve on your MLT or a funnel

That’s really it.

Step 1: Making Wort
This step should be one you are familiar with, but I will go into it anyway. You are looking to create wort that is 1.040 in OG. If you are using DME, use this calculator and mix the DME and water together. If you are using 2-row, like I am, then it’s time to mash. 2-row can save some money, and that is really the only reason to use it, since we aren’t caring at all about taste here. Anyway, the exact volumes depend on your efficiency and size, but for example sake, I am using 5lbs for 3gal. This is calculated using a 70% efficiency since I am going back to my stovetop pot, because it makes me wistful of old brewing days, and because I am only making 3gal. I use beersmith to get the exact volume.
Mash the wort as normal, I target around 152-154F just so the wort is normal and similar to most beers, but I have thought about going lower to have more fermentables. I use a 2qt/lb ratio, but you can do what you like. I also use 60min and then do a mashout at 168F. Try not to mash at above 3qt/lb, it can make it taste funny I hear. Also, anything below 1.25qt/lb could hurt efficiency.
After you are done mashing, sparge the grains however you do it, and get the total volume to your target END volume, not what the pre-boil target would be. In my case, this is 3gal. (Note: If you do not decant your starter wort then there may be an advantage to boiling the wort before doing the canning process to drive off DMS. I myself do not care what the “beer” in my starter tastes like since it goes down the drain) (Also note that hitting your OG is more important than hitting your volume because you can half fill a jar, or throw some away, no biggie.) If you need a lower OG, add water. If you need a higher one, boil the wort down.

Step 2: Filling the jars
Now that you have 3gal of hot wort in a pot, comes the part that is actually different than things you have done before. If you have a ball valve, you are on easy street. If you don’t, like I didn’t on my old system, a funnel inside the jar should be all you need. If you feel precarious about a big pot of hot wort, cool it down, no biggie.
Many places will say watch out for air bubbles or headspace. This is mostly for making sure the veggies or fruits are covered. A good practice for food, but we don’t really care. If I want to top off, I use a turkey baster (stainless steel for heat) or just pour into a measuring cup and pour from there. You can use whatever size jars you want, I use quarts.
On a side note, since you have not boiled this wort, it will look a little messy in the jar, but still works great.

Step 3: Preparing jars for Canning
Tighten the caps on the jars. Prepare your pressure cooker according to the manual. Mine calls for the rack and 3qts water. Add a tablespoon or two of white vinegar to prevent water stains. Put the jars inside the pressure cooker, mine holds 7, so I need two loads.

Step 4: Canning
Can according to your manual, but here is what I do: Start the cooker on high heat until it has vented lots of steam. Add the pressure regulator and adjust heat until it hits about 15psi. Start time when it does, and go for 15min. Let your pressure cooker cool down after on its own, do not ice bath it or cool more quickly in any way. If you do, you risk breaking the jars, or the pressure cooker.

Step 5: Repeat and store
If you have more to do, repeat steps 3 & 4. If not, you are done. Store your jars wherever you want and get them starters on the stir plate!

 

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Good point about the white vinegar. I sterilized some water/jars for yeast washing, and all my jars and 2L flask have hard water stains on them now.

 

if one tightens the band, one won't get the vacuum seal when the contents cools down. so how is seal integrity maintained long-term?

 

So I can can the wort and not store it in the fridge if I use a pressure system?

 

Hand tightening the jars actually doesn't seal them, it just hold the cap in place. The heat from the canner forms the seal while sucking the air out. Seemed weird to me, but they are definitely much better sealed after the canning. You can actually remove the ring afterward and store them without, it's hard to open even without the ring.

 

Correct.
10char

 

Did I read your directions incorrectly or do you not have to boil a mix of DME and water?

 

It is boiled and sterilized inside the pressure cooker at a temperature greater than 212F. So no, you do not have to beforehand. You can heat it to help it mix though.

 

Do ypu have to use a pressure cooker? It seems like you could boil the wort and the jars and lids together. Then grab the jars with some tongs and carefully put the lids on. Once they cool, you wash off the wort on the outside.

 

The pressure cooker is necessary for this process. Conventional boiling at 212 F will not kill botulism and other spores, thus sterility of the wort is not obtained. As a result, this wort is not shelf stable at room temperature, and could potentially harbor harmful microorganisms. Heating under pressure allows us to attain temperatures of 250 F or so, much like an autoclave, to truly sterilize the wort. Jars of pressure canned starter wort can be stored more or less indefinitely at room temperature.

 

Hi I just canned my first starter wort. I started from all grain. Looks like there are some flooties in the jars. Not sure what this is. Any ideas. Not a big deal?

thanks

 

Probably some kind of break material. Wouldn't worry about it.

 

I've thought about this a bit, and I do use my pressure canner for safety sake, but I'm not entirely convinced it's necessary. Because of the sugars present in wort, it's boiling temperature is higher than 212 - I think it's in the 230 degree range. So a long enough boil might be adequate, though I'm not absolutely certain of that

 

The maximum boiling point elevation for a wort of SG-1.050 is about .075 deg. C or .135 deg. F.

Follow the derivation with me here:

A wort of 1.050 has a density of 1.050 g/mL or 1050 g/L. Water has a density of 1000 g/L. So there are about 50 g of dissolved solids in a wort of SG-1.050.

Maltose (the simplest sugar in a wort) has a molecular weight of 342.3 g/mole. So a liter of wort at SG-1.050 contains .146 moles of dissolved sugar (best case scenario, if you consider dissolved proteins, starches, etc. the number is lower). The molality (moles of solute/kg of solvent) of such a soltution would therefore be .146 (.146 moles/1 kg).

Boiling Point Elevation is calculated by the equation:

delta T=Kb*mb

Where delta T is the boiling point elevation, Kb is the ebullioscopic constant (0.512 for water), and mb is the molality of the solution.

delta T=.512*.146=.075 deg. C=.153 deg. F

 

hm, I thought it was more.

Nevermind, then

 

Just thought I'd add that I measure out about 75g of DME with my drug dealer scale I use for hops and dump it into an empty quart jar. I drop in a few drops of anti-foam and fill with water to about 1/2 inch from the top. Put the lid on and process.

 

Finally got around to doing this yesterday, via the good ol' bag in a pot on my stove method. Mashed high, stupidly enough, and by high I mean it got to over 160 at one point since I left the stove on (Man, using a brutus has made me lazy and sloppy!)

The volume of hot break material in my jars after pressure canning these (15psi for 15 mins) is enormous, though, and am wondering if this is as a result of overshooting the mash. Seriously, I've never seen trub the likes of this before, and while I know folks mentioned floaties in their jars, this is ridiculous, especially coming from a simple three gallon batch with five pounds of 2-row. I'm hugely tempted to dump all this instead of relying on it:



Bear in mind, they're ALL like this, not just these ones.

 

That's more break material than I normally get, although I am not sure I would be too worried about it. Might be a little annoying later, but that's about the worst thing I can think of.

 

all my canned wort looks like that. Works fine

 

Not to worry, mine looked like this too my first time. And, the worked just fine. I am doing my second batch tomorrow. I'll let you know if i have the same amount of Hot Break.

 

Good to know lads, cheers for the reassurances. I may do a "test starter" with a cheap packet of US-05 just to put my mind at rest and cover my bases. The next project with the canner is going to be getting a frozen yeast bank going, and experience has taught me that while you can be over-anal about sanitizing most equipment, you can never be too careful about your yeasties.

 

Looks about right to me. The break material will completely settle out after a week or so and you can easily decant the wort for making starters.

I've been canning wort for over a year now and the time it saves (vs boiling DME and cooling it) is worth it to me. I also regularly can RO water for rinsing yeast.

 

genius!!!

 

Yep. Lots of hot break.

 

I did this yesterday. I canned:
4 quart jars of wort by splitting a pound of dme 4 ways;
4 pints of priming solution (a pint jar filled with water and 5oz of corn sugar;
I also canned up some water to be used as make-up water as needed.

It was easy and I probably have enough to get me to the end of November now.

The DME (sparkling amber from breiss?) did not generate as much break material as I'm seeing the previous pictures. I have some, but not clouds of it; mine looks really great.

 

Outstanding Idea!

This cuts another step out of bottling day, and you can just use less of the Canned Primer if you need fewer volumes of CO2.

 

i just picked up my pressure canner and i am going to try this tomarrow. has anybody tried boiling and cooling the wort to get rid of the hot and cold break then canning it?

i dont have a ball valve on the small pot that i am going to use so if i am going to cool it down it would not take that much longer to wirl pull it and let the break material to settle to the bottom. has anybody tried this method?

if i cooled the wort down would i haft to reheat it before i put it in the canner? the directions say to peheat the jars does the wort haft to be hot or will it just take longer to get up to temp for canning?

sorry for all the questions i have never used a pressure canner before

 

kgfitz, What you're saying would work, and you're right it will take a little longer to get everything up to temp. An extra couple of minutes would probably do well enough.

The disadvantage is that the wort will be that much darker after boiling it twice, and it's a whole lot more work. If you have any beer pouring skills at all, you can probably manage pouring the wort off and leave the break material in the jar after it settles out.

Remember, you're making yeast food at this point; not great beer.

 

Yep. My pint jars have embossed ounce-volumes on them, so it was easy to just pour in the appropriate amount for a 4 gallon batch like I did a week ago.

I really like doing it like this as it saves some time but mostly a lot of running up and down stairs and temperature/sanitation management.

 

+1. If you let the wort sit for any length of time, you can easily pour off clear wort into your starter and leave the trub behind. Also, a pound of light DME split 4 ways makes 4 quart jars of starter wort. Its the simplest thing to do if you have the pressure cannner.

 

thanks for the fast replays i am mashing right now from the pics. posted from before it looked like a lot of trub. I am going to do it as the OP has posted. The best thing I have lurned from HBT is to trust the advice from HBT.

thaks for the advice

fitz

 

Na, lurnin' is overrated.

 

Hi Folks. First time poster here.

I'm curious, for those who don't have a pressure cooker, could you boil the starter wort in a pot, transfer it to sterilized mason jars, seal them, and process them in a boiling water bath? If the wort is brought to a full boil before canning, I don't think it would have any remaining organisms that would need to be killed off in the canning process...

I've done this a couple of times with no issues so far, and a lot less break material!

 

Two points i'd like to add to this:

I brew to 1.080, can in quarts, this will provide you with enough to make a 2l starter in a single jar. When i do this with DME I actually end up with 1800ml of 1040 wort when leaving the break behind.

If you "brew" your starter, boil, cool, then can, you'll have far less break. its a lot of extra steps though and totally silly unless you're bored...

 

Nope. The process requires a pressure cooker. In a pressure cooker the boiling point of water can get up to 250F, while not underpressure only gets up to 212F. You need to get up to 250 to kill the bacteria that can create toxins that cause botulism and kill you.