Did my yearly batch of canned starters today and thought I’d share in case anyone has ever (or has never) thought about canning pre-made wort. Hopefully it inspires someone. It’s totally worth it! Especially if you already own the stuff to can and know how.
Today was a bit of a shitshow, but in general it is a pretty quick, easy job. If you usually make a starter each time you need one, it only takes negligibly longer than making 2 or 3 to have 16 ready to go whenever you want.
Cheers!
Oh that’s really nice!
I saw a video on the Youtube Brülosophy Show channel explaining the whole process, and was wondering if I should do it too at some point, I think this can be helpful for people who’d like to do it!
Anyway, congrats, those looks really great, maybe when I’ll be able to start again to brew more, I’ll do it too! 
Just wondering how long you processed the cans after filling. Normal water bath or under pressure?
You have to do them under pressure due to the pH. I’ve yet to find a hard and fast time given specifically for wort, so I do 30 minutes. I’ve done 20 in the past based on someone’s blog post or something but bumped it to 30 out of an abundance of caution.
This is the answer. You absolutely need to autoclave the wort or else it will spoil.
I suspect that dropping the pH below 4.2-4.3 might spare you from that lengthy sterilization step and just boiling it for 30 minutes may be sufficient. I haven’t tried myself but may give it a shot at one point.
Did you simply made 1.040 wort with pilsner malt using the BIAB technique, skip sparging and boil it with some hops for 15-20 minutes before filling the jars?
I’ve wondered about that too and almost tried this time, but I wondered if the lower pH would be less-than-ideal for the starter. No idea, just a hunch.
I just did Pils DME (666g), water (7L), a couple hop pellets and some yeast nutrient. Boiled it for 10 minutes.
In the past I’ve aimed for 1.037 and 1.040 but found that the concentration actually goes up a few points during the canning, so this time I aimed lower than my target by a few points (1.035ish).
**I am now changing the text so that I can post this since I deleted a previous post that I forgot to do as a Reply and the site says this post Is too similar haha
Thanks for sharing Jesse. I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while now but just haven’t gotten around to doing it. I even bought a bunch of mason jars for this purpose.
In combination with freezing yeast samples and building up a yeast bank (Making a Frozen Stock Yeast Bank - Homebrew Notes), I’ll be set to brew what I want without worrying about having the right yeasts on hand.
One caveat I just thought of in regards to the SG, in case any of you ever try this.
I do normal starter gravity for these because I brew small batches and rarely need more than a pint. For those of you brewing “normal” batch sizes, I’d concentrate it so that you can dilute it to a 1L 1.037-1.040 SG starter.
If you ever end up making a yeast bank let me/us know so you can get a good-sized collection together! Seems like a cool project, but a bit daunting maybe.
Tu l’as-tu encore?
Oui! Une quinzaine de souches (ou mélanges) congelées. Je suis un peu paraisseux parce que je dois avoir 5-6 autres souches à propager et puis congeler.
Norm’s microbes culture collection
Ça me ferait plaisir d’en partager avec d’autres brasseurs!
You were part of my inspiration 
