Beer Forum

Hello everyone.
I am thinking of making about 3 gallons of starter for my yeast and freezing it in smaller batches so I just have to pull a bag out. Will I have to boil longer than 20 min when I do a 2000ml starter? I won't get any bugs will I, if I sanitize the bags before the wort is to be frozen?

It seems I waste a lot of time just cooling down 2000ml at a time.

Thanks in advance.

I used to freeze a lot of starter wort before I started canning. Usually I would just plan recipes to have a couple of extra liters of wort and freeze those 500ml per "brick" in loaf pans. I found going straight to the plastic bags made the bags pretty soft and more leak prone. They were not boiled at all at that point, but run off from the mash tun, cooled on the counter covered with foil, and then frozen. Once frozen they pop right out of the loaf pan.

When I need a starter, I'd drop a brick in a pan on the stove, melt it, and pour that into a flask. I'd boil the wort (usually with a drop of foam control) for 10 min in that flask with foil on top, then just cut off the heat and go to bed. When I wake up in the morning, shake and pitch (or pitch and put on stir plate).

Does any of that help, or am I just pointlessly rambling again?

As long as you boil it before you freeze it you should be good. You will still need to boil it again for 10-15 minutes after you thaw it.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

Why do you have to boil it first, Bug? Seems like if it was covered at 170F and dropped to freezing in couple of hours that it shouldn't sour or anything. I don't recall getting any funky starters, anyway.

Basically, you need to get it hot enough to kill the lactobacillus. It is generally a function of both time and temperature. You can splash 170° water on yourself and it will hurt but not burn, but if you hold your hand in the same water for a couple minutes, you will raise blisters. Likewise, merely hitting 170° may damage or kill some of the bacilli, it won't get it all unless you hold it there for quite a while. Bringing it to a boil will pretty much guarantee that you killed them all. If you don't kill them all you can get a little souring during your cool down time if not done very quickly.

I pressure can my starters. The canning process takes care of my boil.
With the pressure canned wort, you don't need to worry at all about getting it hot again. Just dump into your flask and pitch your yeast. You can get up during a commercial on tv, get your starter going and pour a beer and get back to the couch without missing any of your show. Can't get much simpler.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company