FINAL GRAVITY PODCAST

First I need to issue a little disclaimer:  DO NOT attempt to store wort that has not been pressure canned, a standard Water Bath Canner will NOT work for preserving wort.  If you use wort that has not been properly canned/sterilized you could potentially get botulism and die! 

Now that we have that settled, let's get in to the process.  First off you'll need a Pressure Canner and some Canning Jars, Rings, and Lids.

I use 2-Row Brewers Malt to make my starters and shoot for a 1.030 - 1.040 wort, to do this I use 1.5lbs of grain, 2tsp of yeast nutrient, and 2 gallons of water.  This yields approximately 1.75 gallons of finished wort and fills 7qt jars which is just perfect for my Pressure Canner. 

To start off, first crush your grain.  You can see here that I use my fancy Corona Flour Mill that I've modified a bit for crushing grain.  

Next, bring your 2 gallons of water up to 155F or so and add your crushed grain in a steeping bag. 

Keep checking your mash temperature to ensure that you stay within the 148-160F range, this small volume of water/grain won't hold it's temperature very well

Once you've mashed for around 60 minutes begin heating your mash and pull the grain bag at 168F.  I bring my mash to a boil to percipitate a little break material and then cool it in the kid's swimming pool so I can pour it in to the canning jars. 

Here is what the jars look like after they have been filled, allow around 1.5-2 inches of headspace in the jars so they don't boil over. 

Then put a lid on each of the jars and put the ring on, leave the ring loose enough that expanding gasses can escape the jars while you are pressure canning them. 

Follow the instructions for your canner to add water and the jars, mine calls for 3 quarts of water and 2 tablespoons of vinegar (to eliminate water rings on the jars) and begin heating your starters. 

Secure the lid on your canner and wait for steam to begin escaping the vent hole on top. 

Now add your pressure relief weight to the vent hole and bring the pressure up to 15PSI. Hold 15PSI for 15 minutes to sterilize your precious starter wort. 

Once finished you can kill the heat on your burner and let the pressure drop on the canner.  Do NOT remove the pressure relief weight or unlock the lid to your canner yet, wait until the pressure has dropped to 0 PSI!!! 

Once you can remove the lid from the canner, using some thick gloves go ahead and pull the jars out of the canner.  Be careful they are very HOT!  You should note that the color of the canned starter is much darker than it was originally. 

Leave the jars alone to sit and seal for a couple of hours before moving them around too much.  If the safety seal button does not pop in on one of the jars then you can give it another round in the pressure canner, discard it, or use it right away.

Pressure canning starter wort is an easy way to have starter wort ready at a moments notice, I like the convenience of just shaking up a jar and pouring it in to the vessel on my stirplate without having to boil up some DME and water. 

On several occasions I've poured more hot water on a spent mash and pulled 1.020 or so wort off after a brewday and canned that after boiling it down to 1.030.  It's a good way to get everything you can out of your grain. 

You can also use DME to make canned starter wort, I put 3oz of DME in each jar with a little yeast nutrient, fill them up with hot water and shake to dissolve the DME.  Then put them in the Pressure Canner and follow the same procedure as above.