Yesterday I canned some starter wort made from DME (used maltose falcons website method). When I look at the finished product I can see what I believe is hot break. My questions are as follows:
Is this hot break, or something else? I only had water and DME in the starter. Nothing else.
Should I cold crash and decant (or pour through a screen) before I pitch into a starter?
Anything of value in the hot break that should be carried over to the starter?
When I make starters for canning I boil and skim off the hot break surface crud, then take it just past the hot break boil point.
This reduces the hot break in the canning jars considerably.
I pitch the entire contents of the canning jar into the starter.
Never had any issues with this technique.
I can 12 gallon batches at a time which lasts almost a year.
Yes sir, all day into the evening.
Making the wort is the easy part.
The pressure cooker takes the most time.
Heat it up, let it cool down, repeat, repeat, repeat…
Worth the time spent to me.
Forty eight quarts of starter instantly available all year.
Like last night, pulled a pint of yeast out of the refrigerator, added two quarts canned starter, placed on the shaker plate at 76 degrees, 24 hours later big yeast propagated, then into the refrigerator at 35 degrees.
Ready to decant and pitch for the following weekend.
Took only minutes to prepare the starter.
Trade off more up front time.
Questions: Do you have to make your started in quarts, or is pints too small? How long do you think they would last on the shelf if canned properly? I don’t see myself making 48 batches in a year.
What SG do you aim for with the starter wort you can?
Shelf life ought to be years… the way you know they are still good is that the lid will still be sealed. Sucked down on jar, not popped up. Just push down on the lid, if it flexes it’s bad.
I do 600 ml starters because most of the time I’m doing vitality starters. I shoot for 1.035-1.040. I make a three gallon batch with 3 lbs dme and a little bit more than 3 gallons of water.
Yes, preferably in the dark and not too hot. The time savings really is worth it. I’m doing larger batches frequently. The cooling gets to be a PIA. Open lid, dump in, add yeast and finished.