Has anyone tried brewing a small batch (say about 6 liters or 6 quarts) of wort, and freezing it later, just for the purpose of having some yeast starter on hand? Any advice on how this should be done? Doing it on a stovetop would be preferable.
I have personally never produced a bulk amount of starter wort but I have read where others do. They pressure can vs. freeze the wort. Michael Tonsmiere (@OldSock) has a nice write-up here: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2014/11/pressure-canning-starter-wort.html Cheers!
Awesome write-up! Thanks! Interesting coincidence - I just received his "American Sour Beers" book in the mail today!!
All thanks are deserving to @OldSock. His blog posts and his participation in BA forum thread discussions is a welcomed contribution to the homebrewing community. Cheers!
I'm fairly new to BA, but already see that there are some amazing contributions! This is certainly one of - if not "the" - most helpful beer forums around. The amount of knowledge, experience and love of brewing expressed here is truly amazing!
If I have extra wort left over from brew day I will sometimes pour it into a freezer bag for a future starter. Works fine for me.
Usually, the last runnings of my mash is already quite thin. I guess I could always increase my grain bill so that there will be some left over at about 1.040 SG.
Should have clarified, I'm using the extra wort post boil. Every now and then my volume calcs are slightly off, and instead of adding the extra wort to the fermenter I'll bag and freeze for a future starter.
I usually shoot for 10.5 gallons going into the fermenter to end up with a 10 gallon batch. Sometimes I get more than 10.5 gallons, and use that excess for later starter wort.
That part I understand. The part that confuses me is the specific gravity of the excess. Wouldn't it be much below 1.040 in SG?
Save the pre- and post-boil hydro-samples as well as leftover runnings for the next batch's starter wort.
Now I understand. You are not referring to the last runnings, but to any wort that is left over after filling the primary - it will be at the same S.G. as the entire wort.
Thanks - that made me understand what kellyst was saying. The only problem with the pre-boil sample is that it wouldn't be sanitized. Mixing the left-over runnings with the post-boil sample makes sense since it would dilute the S.G. down closer to the ideal S.G. for a yeast starter.
Yes, that makes sense if you first freeze it as soon as possible. It still seems less risky to take the sample after the boil.
Saving hydro-samples and excess runnings is my process. It produces good ... no-risk results and saves a boatload money by not having to buy DME for starters. But wait ... there's more! The shelf-life of unfrozen wort is at least two weeks which hews to my brewing schedule.
Makes total sense. I often make a double starter (for lagers) and the cost of DME, on top of the cost for the liquid yeast itself, starts to become a significant cost in the overall cost of the beer. I usually try to make the yeast last for about a year or more by saving it from one batch to the next. The DME alone works out to about $4.00 per batch - sometimes more (double) if I don't brew for a while and have to make a starter between batches to keep the vitality of the yeast up. Add the cost of yeast, and for the yeast and DME alone, it costs about $13 if I were to do one batch.
