Sir. Hopsimous wrote:I am working from my phone & can not find the search section so I figured this would be the most appropriate place to ask. I am looking for good info you trust on canning wort from a brew to use in a later starter to prime that beer with. I am fine with the priming just not the canning issues. Thanks for your help.
I've been canning wort for years and have been pressure canning other foods for over 40 years before that. One of the most important things to remember about canning wort is that you must pressure can it rather than rely on hot bath canning. To kill the really nasty stuff like botulism spores, you must get the temperature to at least 250° F for at least 20 minutes. You can't get the temperature high enough just using boiling water. This works out to 15-20 pounds of pressure.
The rest is pretty easy. I go the really cheap route and make up a 5 gallon batch of all grain wort with no hops. I mash enough 2 row to make a 1.040 wort. While boiling is not necessary, I do a 15 to 20 minute boil (the exact time depends on how long it takes me to get everything else ready). This allows the hot break to form so you transfer less of it to your jars. You will still get some hot break in the jars during the canning process, but preboiling will cut it down.
Preboiling the wort also cuts down the time it takes to get the pressure cooker up to temperature. You simply fill the jars with hot wort (no need to chill). You will need enough water in the bottom of the pressure cooker to come up a couple inches on the jars when you put them in. You will need to leave about 3/4" to 1" head space in each jar to keep them from boiling over.
When you have placed the filled jars into the cooker, set the lids into place and screw the rings onto the jars. DO NOT tighten the rings at this time. The rings at this point are to just keep the lids from coming off. Just screw them down to where they just touch the lid and then back off a fraction of a turn.
Once you get the lid sealed down on pressure cooker, set the weight onto the vent and turn up the heat. You begin the time of cooking when the weight starts bouncing around releasing steam. Once your time is up, turn the heat off and let the cooker cooler until the pressure drops back to zero. DO NOT try to release pressure to speed things up. The temperature of the wort is well over boiling temperature. If you drop pressure too quickly, the wort will begin to boil rapidly and boil over, making a mess in the cooker, and if you tightened the rings too much, exploding jars. The only way to safely speed up the process is to set the cooker in a sink full of cool or cold water.
When you take the jars out (use a jar lifter designed for that use) they will be very hot. Set them onto a towel and screw the rings down tight. I then cover them with another towel right away to keep a draft from hitting them. A rapid temperature change can burst the jars. As the jars cool, you will hear a loud pop as the vacuum forms and seals the jars tight. That pop is important. If a jar doesn't seal, it is often because the rim of the jar is either not completely clean, is chipped, or the ring was way too loose allowing the lid to shift. If the rim is clean and not chipped you can either run it through the cooker with the next batch or make sure you use that jar of starter in the next couple days.
I use a 21 quart cooker. It holds 7 quart jars at a time so a full 5 gallon batch will take three rounds of canning. The total time for the entire process is going to take a good 5-6 hours, pretty much like a leisurely all grain brew day.
Above all, be safe. Read all the instructions that come with your pressure cooker. Good print references for canning are the Ball Blue Book (pretty much the bible for canning for the past 50-60 years) or the book Putting Food By from the Rodale Press. Neither talk specifically about wort, but will tell you all you need to know to figure it out.
Hope this helps!