How long do you boil your starter wort?

BigTerp · Sep 18, 2015

I've made countless yeast starters from <1L to upwards of 1 gallon. I've always boiled my starters for 10-15 minutes then cooled and pitched my yeast. Have been recently using yeastcalculator.com to fine tune my yeast pitching rates and read a part that suggests only needing to boil starter wort for 1 minute. This would not only save me time, but would avoid the guesstimation of boil off, final volume and OG. I would be ending up with a more precise volume and OG wort to pitch my yeast. Before when boiling for 10-15 minutes I would just start off with some unofficial, unproven and completely unscientific amount of extra water and hope after boil off I'd be close to my desired volume. What say you guys about boiling starter wort for just a minute or two?

Here is the excerpt for yeastcalc I'm referring to.......

7. Bring the whole thing to a boil; you only need to boil for about 1 minute. According to The
Wilderness Medical Society, water temperatures above 160°F kill all pathogens within 30
minutes; temperatures above 185°F kill them within a few minutes. So in the time it takes for
the water to go from 160°F to 212°F (boiling point) all pathogens will be killed, even at high
altitude. To be extra safe, let the water boil rapidly for one minute, especially at higher altitudes
since water boils at a lower temperature; reducing the boil time to 1 minute also reduces the
amount boil-off significantly.

nettekdl · Sep 18, 2015

Since I boil direct in my flask and boil over happens so violently and quickly in them, I've only ever boiled my starters about 30 seconds sometimes up to a minute if it's a smaller starter in my 4l flask. I'm doing hundreds of starters this way I have never had one get infected or go sideways in any way so it must work

BigTerp · Sep 18, 2015

Thanks!!

The science makes sense to me as far as time needed to kill any bugs. Just never really thought about it before.

passedpawn · Sep 18, 2015

Yep, I turn it off as soon as it starts to boil. I've posted this graph many times on this forum, and this looks like another good time. It's from a brewing book.

I see what you're saying and it makes sense. If we were dumping the microbes into boiling water, we'd leave them there for a few minutes. But in the case of starter wort, they already went through all that heating time, and they're probably all dead long before the wort boils.

flars · Sep 18, 2015

I boil the water, to be used for the starter, for about three minutes to sanitize the kettle. I bring the wort to a boil after the DME is dissolved, then cool to pitching temperature.

IslandLizard · Sep 18, 2015

In a stainless pot, I get a rolling for a couple minutes, then turn low, cover, and let simmer for another 5. I use 1 drop of Fermcap to prevent excessive foaming and boilovers. I guess it's a bit of overkill, but I want to pasteurize the pot, lid, and rim in the process.

I use a little more water to compensate for evaporation and boil off and test the gravity with a refractometer after the 5 minute boil, and adjust to 1.036 if needed.

kombat · Sep 18, 2015

0 minutes.

I just grab as many jars of starter wort as I need from my cabinet, pop the lids, and dump them into my (sanitized) flask.

Wort canning is a huge time saver.

BigTerp · Sep 18, 2015

kombat said:
0 minutes.

I just grab as many jars of starter wort as I need from my cabinet, pop the lids, and dump them into my (sanitized) flask.

Wort canning is a huge time saver.

My wife is a big yard sale junky. Need to put her on the lookout for a pressure cooker. Having canned wort at the ready would be nice!!

JonM · Sep 18, 2015

It's harvest season, so lots of places have them on sale. I saw a huge display of pretty darn inexpensive, large pressure cookers at Ace last weekend.

Brew_G · Sep 18, 2015

I have a pressure cooker, but I've never actually used it to pressure cook/can! I use it to can jellies and salsa and to make chicken stock because of its size, but I haven't gotten around to using it for anything more than that.

As for how long I boil my starter wort, mine probably boils for 3-5 minutes. I bring it up to about 160F or so, add the DME, give it a nice stir to mix it all in, and then let it come to a boil. Easy peasy.

stpug · Sep 18, 2015

IslandLizard said:
In a stainless pot, I get a rolling for a couple minutes, then turn low, cover, and let simmer for another 5. I use 1 drop of Fermcap to prevent excessive foaming and boilovers. I guess it's a bit of overkill, but I want to pasteurize the pot, lid, and rim in the process.

I use a little more water to compensate for evaporation and boil off and test the gravity with a refractometer after the 5 minute boil, and adjust to 1.036 if needed.

^^I do pretty close to this. In stainless pot, fermcap, get to boil, reduce to simmer, hold lid over steam path until hot, put lid on and remove pot from heat and let sit for couple minutes to sanitize the interior of the pot/lid/rim; water bath until cool. I also use an additional 50ml water for evaporation. No gravity check on my end though - figure I'm close enough

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How long do you boil your starter wort?

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