How to can wort for yeast starters

During our club brew yesterday, I made a batch of wort and canned it for future use as yeast starters. It was a learning experience being that I have never canned anything before, let alone with 3 pressure cookers at once. The first part was straight forward. I mashed 14.5 pounds of american 2-row for about an hour. Then, sparged it to collect about 11.5 gallons of wort. Next, I boiled it for 20 minutes to get the volume down to 11 gallons with a gravity of 1.035. I wouldn't boil it next time because of the vigorous boil during the canning process. Instead of chilling the wort, I put it in clean mason jars and loosely tightened the lids. With preheated water in the pressure cookers, the jars were added, the pressure cooker lids were fastened and the burner was turned up. The pressure cooking took about 20 minutes at 15psi and then another 20-30 minutes to naturally come down to 0 psi. The lids were then tightened and the jars were put aside to cool.
The process wasn't difficult, but it was time consuming. In the end though, we ended up with about 88 pints of wort to use for yeast starters. This means that next time we want to build up a yeast culture so that it's strong enough for a healthy fermentation, we don't need to boil dry malt extract for 15 minutes, cool it in an ice bath and add it to the yeast. Now, we just need to sanitize the top of a jar of wort and then add it to the yeast. A time savings of about 35 hours. Thanks to everyone who helped me out!

How to can wort for yeast starters

GaryW's picture

Mike,
Sorry I could not attend the canning session. This is a belated comment, but I'm sure you will read this from afar while eating some great Carolina pulled pork BBQ...and having a home brew. For planning purposes, here are a couple of general points from a long time home canner.

You are correct, the wort does not have to be boiled. When the pressure cooker gets to 15 psi, the liquid inside the jars within the cooker is boiling. At that point remove the cooker from the heat and let pressure drop of its own accord. As an alternate procedure, you can process at 5 psi for 8 minutes, then let pressure drop of its own accord.

Fill each jar leaving 1/2" of head space. Firmly tighten the bands on the jars after you put the lid on each jar. You should not disturb the bands after processing. Let the jars cool to room temperature. It is best to let them sit undistubed overnight. During this time, the lids will "pop" down indicating a proper seal. Then you can remove the bands. The bands and jars are reusable, the lids are not.