Beer Forum

I made a 1.5 L starter wort this evening from 4.5oz of DME. I was planning to pitch tomorrow morning for a brew session in the evening. Plans have changed. I have the wort in a sterilized growler with an airlock.

How long can i save it (if at all) & what temperature should i store it at. Planning on pitching the starter Friday night and brewing Saturday.

Is it worth saving it?

Thanks.

By pitching you mean pitching to the starter? Do it now and cover with foil (no airlock), let it ferment out, swirl every so often and pop it in the fridge to settle either when it is no longer active (no tiny bubbles rising), or late Friday. When you are ready to pitch Saturday, decant off spent wort and pitch the slurry.

Do i let the starter warm up to room temp before i pitch the slurry?

Not really needed, but I usually decant while I'm waiting on something else, so it will warm up some for me....

You should decant towards the start of your brew day, that way once you're ready to pitch the yeast will be up to temperature.

I treat the starter wort like slurry on Jamil's calculator. I keep it in the fridge and calculate the viability. Usually if you use it within a week or so, it's virtually the same. If it's longer, I sometimes toss it into some fresh wort to get it going again before using it.

Agree with everything said ..... just to add it's much better to store healthy yeast in a fermented starter than to store wort unless you have STERILIZED the wort in a pressure cooker at appropriate time and pressure, as opposed to SANITIZED wort, which may still contain some contaminants that you are relying on overwhelming with yeast. By storing sanitized wort, you are giving any bugs that might have gotten in time to build to a level that might contaminate your beer.

Pitch the yeast into the starter wort - the increase in yeast population, drop in pH, and decrease in nutrients will make the wort unfavorable for contaminants and your yeast will be ready and waiting whenever you are.

animaldoc wrote: just to add it's much better to store healthy yeast in a fermented starter than to store wort unless you have STERILIZED the wort in a pressure cooker at appropriate time and pressure

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