I’ve been adding an extra gallon of water or so to my tun near the end of my sparge, and just let it gravity run off while I’m finishing up the rest of my brew day. I end up with a gallon or more which I can just boil up and use for my next starter.
I trust I don’t need to boil it all that long as most of it will be decanted off the yeast. I’ve been going with 15-20 minutes, or enough to evaporate it to around 1.026-30 gravity. Then I either can it, if I have a goodly amount, or refrigerate or freeze.
AFAIAC, 1.026-30 is perfect for a starter. Tom, if you’re reading, any significant difference to the yeast between 1.026 and 1.040? Would you prefer one over the other?
To your question, Diane, I agree with everybody else…that should be plenty of time.
There would be a difference to the yeast, but I am not sure it makes enough of a difference to worry about. I wouldn’t go above 1.040 though, I think it is just a waste of DME. I make my starters with ~10% DME and 100% water, which should have SG around 1.037. I should probably cut back to 8% DME.
I’ve used second runnings for starters and also “waking up” yeast slurrys prior to fermention with great success. I like to boil the wort if has been stored or frozen, as a precautionary (sanitation) measure. I’ll boil for 10 minutes minimum. I aim for 1.030-1.040.
I have done this in the past to great affect. I keep meaning to do it again but I am too lazy. Next time (we will see).
What I like to do is put about .75 qt in a 1 qt mason jar and pressure can it. This should make it totally safe and sterile for storage unfrozen for a very long time. and with .25 qt head space I can sanitize the outside, crack the seal, pitch the yeast and shake it up.
I make the starter with some amount of water (100%) and use 10% of the weight of the water for my DME weight. I wrote it that way because the gravity is different if the DME is 10% of the water weight vs. 10% DME and 90% water. Confusing I guess, but that’s the way I do it.
