making a starter with a pressure cooker?

[CIDERNUT]

Anyone ever put the DME and water in an erlenmayer flask and sterilize in a pressure cooker before adding the yeasties and putting on the stir plate?My reasoning behind this is that if you just leave the canner closed until it cools down to pitching temp,Probably overnite in my case,everything would be very sterile. I can then pull my quart of freshies out of the fridge and add a pint to the flask,and put it on the plate to grow out?Is this a bad idea or to labor intensive?I am a rank novice at brewing,but have over 20 yrs. experience in commercial kitchens,so I know my way around a recipe and the importance of cleanliness.Here is the rub-My brewing partner has a lot of experience as a commercial craft brewmaster here in Oregon,but he is chronically cheap & lazy.We are making 12 gallon all grain batches,and he is always complaining that the start of fermentation is taking to long to long(12 hours-overnite).When I ask him if it is because we are pitching cold yeast,right from the fridge, where it has been stored for a week or 2,since our last brew session,he says well yes,but it doesn't matter cause it gets going eventually,When i suggest that we make starters to rouse the yeast he says it is to much work(I mean really lazy).He is putting the task of making a starter on me,or it is not going to get done.I am trying to learn from him,he is super knowledgable & a great brewer, but it is hard 'cause he is such a slacker.So, how does this sound- 700-800ml water & 3-4oz DME plus some yeast nutrient in a 2 liter flask,twenty min in the pressure cooker and add yeasties next day,put on the plate day before brewing and I should be good to go,no??

 

[BigB]

You could do it that way... but sounds a bit like overkill. I am a huge fan of starters so I disagree with your friend on that note...unless you pitch enough yeast to begin with. Sure a direct pitch from a package of yeast will work, but it is rarely going to be the proper pitching rate. I've brewed dozens of batches of beer with starters... I simply boil the dme, water, and nutrient for 5 minutes, cool it down in a sink full of water, and put it into the flask that got sprayed with star san. Never had an issue. But you could certainly do it your way...and in some respects, might be easier.

 

[Homercidal]

I've mashed a small batch of beer and pressure canned the resultant wort. It takes a couple of hours, but when I want to make a starter, or step up a starter, I have sterile, room temperature wort on the shelf.

Just pop the lid and pour.

Now if you guys are re-using the yeast cake from previous batch, then it should be fine. I'd think about letting it warm to pitching temp at least, if not get it started the day before with some wort.

 

[zebbielm12]

I like it. The cleaner your process the better, especially if you're ever reusing yeast. How big is your pressure cooker that can fit an erlenmayer flask?

 

[CIDERNUT]

I have 2 canners and I am hoping the 2 liter flask that is in the mail will fit in the smaller of the two,it is taller than it is wide,otherwise it might be not worth it to fire up the giant 19 quart I use for processing my veggie garden.So can anybody confirm ratios for yeast,DME,H2o & yeast nutrient,for a 12 gallon batch?I was wrong in my earlier post ,I have a quart jar that has a pint of yeast under an inch of beer. So, would 800ml water,3 oz dme, .5 tsp nutrient Plus 8oz yeast get going enough in 18-24 hrs to pitch 12 gallon batch?