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Is there a shelf life on boiled water in mason jars?

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Mickcr250

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I boiled a bunch of mason jars and water about 3 months ago and only used about half of them to rinse some yeast at the time. I was planning on rinsing some yeast this week and was wondering if I can use these jars/ water or should I re boil and cool. The lids are all still sucked down.

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Pure water has an indefinate shelf life.

If the lids are still sucked down I would say its still good.
 
If washing yeast I'd use cooled kettle water, personally.
 
I store jars of water out of an electric pressure cooker for months without fail. As long as the lids are still sealed I reckon they'd last a very long time. Only thing I've found is some of my lids (mainly washed passata jars) can retain a bit of a smell which can taint the water.
 
Why would you want to store water for long periods....apart from being pedantic.

Just use the stuff from your kettle you have in the kitchen.
 
Mickcr250 said:
I boiled a bunch of mason jars and water about 3 months ago and only used about half of them to rinse some yeast at the time. I was planning on rinsing some yeast this week and was wondering if I can use these jars/ water or should I re boil and cool. The lids are all still sucked down.

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good question, I've wondered that myself.
 
Yob said:
Pressure cooker... Kettle water is not sterile
2min rolling boil will make it medically sterile. Some bacteria can survive in volcano's, so mot even an autoclave can kill them.

But one would assume you are not sourcing water from volcano's
 
It takes me bugger all time to fill six jars and pressure cook for 15mins. Remove, tighten lids and slowly air cool. I do this a couple of times over an avo in the backyard and I've got a heap of sterile jars which are perfect for rinsing yeast. Sterile water and a sterile jar, too easy. No waiting for water to cool or sanitising vessels. I also do jars of wort for stepping starters. Once again no need to wait for wort to cool when there's jars of it in the starter fridge at about the same temp as the starter. I'm always looking for more efficient ways to do things and for me this works best. YMMV
 
I picked up the missus a 23qt (21L) presto pressure cooker for her canning stuff

514P46S2GDL.jpg


I reckon sterile water and ready to go wort is a good use for it ;)
 
Ducatiboy stu said:
What if you dont have a pressure cooker
Do you mean if I was stuck on a desert island and it went down with my yacht? In that case I'd probably fall back on my electric kettle.

Otherwise I'm not sure. As I said I have a pressure cooker and my process works for me. It sounds to me Stu that you're in a better position to advise as you've clearly stated you don't use one. :p

And I'm having a **** day so please excuse my sarcasm.
 
I have always just put all my jars in a big pot and boiled for 5-10 minutes then sealed and let cool. Is this not good practice?

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it's certainly better than not boiling but isnt ideal if you want pure samples, as shown above in the link above by stux and stated by me, spores will survive a single boil, to be considered water free of microbial load, it requires boiling over a 3 day period.
 
Camo6 said:
Otherwise I'm not sure. As I said I have a pressure cooker and my process works for me. It sounds to me Stu that you're in a better position to advise as you've clearly stated you don't use one. :p

And I'm having a **** day so please excuse my sarcasm.
Just throwing in the questions for the less fortunate non uber brewers and yeast rinsing folk.
 
Ha! Nothing uber about my brewing mate. I'm still just a babe in the woods when it comes to making good beer repeatably and I make more mediocre beers than I do great ones. But I like shiny things and FWIW my elec PC was only $50 from Aldi. Cheaper than most slabs really. While I don't have the experience to advise others on the intricacies of making great beer, sharing my processes and what works for me is one of the few ways I can contribute to this forum. As well as my funny, witty remarks.
 
The pensioners beat the general shopping folk to death at our Aldi just to buy a cheap preasure cooker.

Plenty of cheap kettles though.....
 
Hmmm so yob I take it that's a no from you as the spores will have hatched? Or would it not be any worse than if I had just boiled the jars/ water recently?

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In reality, I'd concede it is likely to make little difference, I just wanted to point out that water boiled once is not as 'clean' as people often think it is, having the ability to easily make sterile water I do.. Then, I used to boil it over 3 days too... Just to be totally sure ;)
 
Me too. In my Nasa designed vacuum chamber...
 
does that mean we should be boiling our wort over a 3 day period too?

honestly, i read all the infection threads, more often it's wild yeast from the brewing environment, relying on star san to fix everything when it doesnt, making a mistake with a dirty utensil, whole in cube or unclean fermenter, and waiting for a day for fermentation to start.

water boiled for over five minutes is not likely to have anything to challenge yeast, especially moreso with our chlorinated and filtered supply.

i wouldnt use tank water though.
 
Wort is known not to be sterile. We rely on our pitched yeast to be dominant and hence the risks associated with no chill... which I fully accept and is a process I use exclusively.. This isn't a discussion about no chill or wort though.
 
i wasnt referring to no chill but instead comparing the risk of infection from boiled water for five minutes vs other more likely sources. basically putting things in perspective
 
Anyone have the also pressure cookers? They have the pot style on weds and electric on sat. Both 6L. Any thoughts on why you would get the pot instead of the electric one?
 
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