Freezing Wort For Future Batch (not for a starter)

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by riptorn, May 7, 2021.

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  1. riptorn

    riptorn Pooh-Bah (1,776) Apr 26, 2018 Georgia
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Brewed an Imperial Stout yesterday. I considered a partigyle brew day, but it didn't happen completely and ended up being an interrupted partigyle brew.

    After getting the stout's pre-boil volume in the kettle I re-sparged to collect about 5-gallons of very small wort. It was drained directly from the mash tun into gallon plastic jugs and then put in the freezer.
    Several interweb searches for ‘freezing wort' (and similar) returned only anecdotal references to freezing raw wort for a future brew day. Most of the searches (including BA) resulted in freezing wort for starters, which doesn’t seem to be a rogue practice.

    My thought, if there aren’t any safety or potential health hazards, is to thaw the wort and pick up where I left off and do a full boil.

    Some of the web comments touched on the wort being potentially unsafe with undesirables (botulism?) that wouldn’t be neutralized by boiling. Can anyone here confirm there’s an enhanced possibility of getting something really off (not just botulism) if using standard sanitation practices?
    Anything else I should I be aware of or concerned about?

    Thanks for your support!
     
    #1 riptorn, May 7, 2021
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  2. MrOH

    MrOH Grand Pooh-Bah (3,995) Jul 5, 2010 Virginia
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah

    I'm not a microbiologist, but as someone who has passed the ServSafe certification exam with over 90% five times, I feel comfortable in saying that if you practiced normal brewing sanitation (all vessels and conduits were properly cleaned and sanitized), and that if the wort spent less than 3 hours between 40-140F, you should be fine.
     
    #2 MrOH, May 8, 2021
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  3. riptorn

    riptorn Pooh-Bah (1,776) Apr 26, 2018 Georgia
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    That's good to know.

    The runoff was ~ 165° to the jugs and they were put in the freezer around 7pm. This morning they were frozen rock hard at least on the periphery. But that's a 12-hour lapse and I have no clue in how fast it dropped.
    What I can do is put jug of ~ 145° water in the freezer, check the temp at about 3 hours and use that as a gauge.
     
    #3 riptorn, May 8, 2021
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  4. HerbMeowing

    HerbMeowing Maven (1,295) Nov 10, 2010 Virginia
    Trader

    i carbonate my batches with thawed wort recovered from chilled trub ...
     
    #4 HerbMeowing, May 8, 2021
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  5. riptorn

    riptorn Pooh-Bah (1,776) Apr 26, 2018 Georgia
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    About how much do you freeze? Pint, quart, gallon(s)?
     
    #5 riptorn, May 8, 2021
  6. HerbMeowing

    HerbMeowing Maven (1,295) Nov 10, 2010 Virginia
    Trader

    ~QT for a 2.5G batch size; although i only end up using ~70% of it.

    simply chill the trub for at least 24 hours ... draw off the clear wort ... then freeze.
    thaw in fridge 2 days before packaging.

    day of packaging:
    boil wort / speise 1 minute to ensure it's sanitary
    water bath until steam subsides; place in fridge until needed later that day

    speise is best ever for me at bottling
    and i package an extra 1/2L of beer to boot

    what other carbonation technique increases production?
     
    #6 HerbMeowing, May 9, 2021
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