Any of you guys ever mix up a gallon or two of yeast starter (water + DME) at once and save it in a container? I’ve seen canned Propper Starter wort for sale but $5/can is too steep for me. Seems like a neet idea to save some time.
Yes, use a pressure canner.
DANGER: Botulism is relevant here and as deadly as a Chinese virus. If you’re going to try storing wort like this, don’t store the wort for more than say, I dunno, maybe 6 months. Or better yet, just be sure to do your research, as I’m sure I don’t know as much about botulism as I should. But I don’t want anybody dying because they were too inconvenienced by making fresh starter wort.
Like dmtaylor strongly suggests (and I second), do your research; this is a well-researched thing.
Propper cans: Not having to weigh out DME (always a powdery, sticky mess AFAIC), and then boil it and cool it…if you factor in the time/effort/energy/materials required to make a starter using DME and whatnot, you might find that $5/can is a bargain.
Use a pressure canner, 250 degrees for 15 minutes, 15 psi, nothing survives that.
Been doing this for years.
Takes one day of my time every 1 1/2 years.
Started with LME, then DME, now just regular grain mash, way cheaper.
OG of only 1.040 so easy to make.
Little pH adjustment, that is it.
That part is fast.
The time consumer is running the pressure cooker.
Heat up, cool down, repeat.
i will typically make 60 quarts jars at a time.
The convenience for the rest of the year far outweighs the one day of production.
Thanks everyone! All things considered (pesky botulism), Propper does seem more reasonably priced now. I like the idea of spending a portion of a day pressure cooking a supply for the entire year though. It’s just ‘grab and go’ after that. For the cost of the cooker (Guessing the good ones are $200+) I might need to get into canning vegetables too. Not neccesarily a bad idea given the situation last year.
Like others have said, pressure can at 15 psi for 15 minutes. I am now doing no-sparge mash and on average size beers [1.048-1.053]. After collecting to BK I pour 1 gal RO water and save for the pressure canner. These quart jars are around 1.034-1.036 OG so perfect for starters. I use them according to their color, light color for light beer and darker in the dark beers.
These can be stored without refrigeration in a cool dark place, basement, closet etc.
botulism is a crazy thing, as a child i did in fact experience the “honey on pacifier = potential botulism infection” and got it as a kid.
it is something that is always there, if you try to make “homemade garlic infused olive oil” you can potentially introduce clostridium botulinum spores unless you fully cook the garlic before adding it to the oil. etc, it can be in anything that has ever touched nature essentially.
As long as the pH has been adjusted to below 4.6, one can boiling water bath can wort. Clostridium botulinum does not replicate below a pH of 4.6. That is why tomatoes/tomato sauce as well as well as pickled anything can be boiling water bath canned. It is also the reason why Clostridium botulinum and other pathogens do not grow in finished beer.
One more thing, the guideline of 15 minutes at 15psi is for sea level sterilization. Time extends slightly at elevation because a 15psi pressure canner does not reach 121C/250F. I used a T-Fal pressure cooker for making sterile media for years for over twenty years. It is a European design that only reaches 13psi above atmospheric pressure (i.e., most European design pressure cookers do not reach 15psi above atmospheric pressure). I just extended the processing time 25 minutes, which is overkill. I used to dry sterilize glass petri dishes in the oven for one hour at 171C/340F, pressure cook the malt-agar solution, and pour the plates hot after the media had cooled to between 49C/120F and 60C/140F. It is important to allow the media to cool to this temperature while keeping the dishes hot to minimize condensation. I would then proof the plates at room temperature for 3 days before sealing with Parafilm and storing them in a sealed container in my brewing refrigerator until ready for use. I never had a plate go bad on me. Slants were always pressure cooked.
I do a lot of vegetable canning. I bought an All American 941 several years ago. I can do 19qts at a time. I have learned that I much prefer to use straight ag wort. I boil the wort an it helps leave some break behind. That is the one thing I didn’t like about the wort made from DME. My canned wort would always have so much sediment. I make a batch for 2 runs. It takes a day, but man is it convenient. I do 15# for 25min
Oh man, now I need to find some space for a couple year’s worth of pre-made starter wort…
I’m sure that when they find my body surrounded by jars filled with cloudy, dark brown liquid my grandkids will assume the worst of their Pop-Pop.
Or adjust the wort to have a pH below 4.6 because growth of Clostridium botulinum and the production of its toxin is inhibited below a pH of 4.6.
Hmm… I usually adjust my mash water to around 5.1 (or whatever my $50 meter thinks is 5.1). I’ve not measured the pH of my harvested slurry so not sure it’s really at 4.6. Should this be something I need to be concerned with when refrigerating yeast for re-pitch?
No. Only for canned starter wort.
I would choose the pressure canner as the most conservative method. I’d hate to find out the hard way that my pH meter was reading high.