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Making starters is one of the keys to ensuring not only quick active fermentation, but consistently better fermentation no matter what you brew or how old the yeast. The problem is, it's kind of a pain to pull out a pot, measure out DME, boil it, chill it, then finally pitch the yeast. And isn't that DME a little expensive? And isn't the whole process a little messy? Don't I have something better to do on a weeknight than stink up the house? Call me cheap and lazy, but there has to be better way. Enter canned wort!

Canning wort is pretty easy and fairly painless. The best part is it makes starters a snap, not to mention cheap. The idea is to fill a bunch of canning jars with unfermented wort, place them in a pressure cooker/canner, then stick them on the shelf in the basement until they're needed. You now have sterile wort with a long shelf life that's ready to use in minutes. Because it's sterile, it doesn't need to be boiled, and because it doesn't need to be boiled, it doesn't need to be chilled. All you have to do is pop the top, pour into your starter container, and then pitch the yeast. It'd a good idea to sterilize the outside lip of the jar with alcohol and/or flame.

What I do is when I'm running low I'll make a double batch of some session beer, or the second runnings of a big beer that's between 1.035 and 1.040. So, I've got a batch of beer for fermenting and another for canning jars. Since it's going to be re-boiled, the fun part is you don't have to be too fussy with sanitation. I just put it in a clean bucket and stick my arm in and scoop out a quart or wort.

Alternatively, you can just brew an extra gallon of wort, dillute to an appropriate gravity level, then can a few on brew day while you chill or something. Then you've got starter wort for your next brew session. Or, even another idea is you could brew up some 1.070 beer, can that, then can some regular water and dillute it at starter time. This way, you don't have to can so much wort and just do the water whever you feel like it. Or, really, you don't even need to really boil the wort prior to canning. You could just grab second runnings from a big mash, for example. You'll get more break material, but yeast like break material when propegating.

Process

To can the wort you'll need some Mason jars, rings, lids and a pressure cooker or pressure canner. If you don't have a canning basket, you'll need to place something on the bottom of the pressure cooker. A good substitute is to just place extra jar rings on the bottom and place the jars on top. If you've got a full pressure canning setup, then you're in business.

Since I only can fit three jars in my pressure cooker, I fill a second pot of water and use it to pre-heat my jars. This way, when it's time to put jars in the cooker, they're already hot. This almost cuts the time in half. Once in the cooker and reaches pressure, reduce heat to maintain pressure, and let it go 15 minutes or so, then kill the heat. Then remove the jars to a heat-safe surface, tighten the rings to make sure the lids are set, then let them cool. When the lids pop and are indented, you got a vacuum seal. If your lids don't seal, then you'll need to pressure cook them again, probably with a different lid. Certainly follow directions of your pressure equipment.

Special Equipment

Pressure Cooker or Canner (I think I have a 6 quart, which barely fits my jars. If buying new, check to make sure jars will fit.)
Mason Canning Jars (I got the 1 qt normal mouth jars. Extra lids wouldn't be a bad idea.)
Rubbing alcohol and torch to sterilize jars on starter day
Can extractor would be handy