sanitizing mason jars for frozen/cold water addition

[brewpood]

Newbie here, about to brew my third batch with extract. I add cold water to the boiled wort since I don't yet have a pot big enough for a full boil. The first time I used bagged ice to top up the wort, and the second time I prepared my own cold water to add to the wort. To prepare the cold water, I first boiled some wide-mouthed Mason jars, lids, and rings, filtered water into the jars, sealed them up, and then put them in the freezer for later use.

Could I skip the step of boiling the Mason jars and just fill them with filtered water after I've soaked them in a Starsan solution instead?

I'm also going to shake up the jars as I prepare them this time, so that the water will be aerated. I learned that somewhere on here, and it sounds like a neat trick.

Thanks!

 

[duboman]

Newbie here, about to brew my third batch with extract. I add cold water to the boiled wort since I don't yet have a pot big enough for a full boil. The first time I used bagged ice to top up the wort, and the second time I prepared my own cold water to add to the wort. To prepare the cold water, I first boiled some wide-mouthed Mason jars, lids, and rings, filtered water into the jars, sealed them up, and then put them in the freezer for later use.

Could I skip the step of boiling the Mason jars and just fill them with filtered water after I've soaked them in a Starsan solution instead?

I'm also going to shake up the jars as I prepare them this time, so that the water will be aerated. I learned that somewhere on here, and it sounds like a neat trick.

Thanks!

Personally you can save a lot of steps, when is did partial boils I used to just add cold water from the tap, never boiled , never infected

 

[masterfool101]

Personally you can save a lot of steps, when is did partial boils I used to just add cold water from the tap, never boiled , never infected

^^ This. If you've got good tap water, you'll never have a problem. I do this regularly, and have never had an infection.

If you're REALLY worried about it, there's nothing wrong with sanitizing the jars with just StarSan.

 

[two_one_seven]

+3 don't make it any harder than you need to. I used to get spring water from the store when I was doing partial boils. Never had an infection.

 

[Yooper]

don't freeze water in glass! Glass will break.

Use tupperware/plastic or something if you feel you have to do this.

I wouldn't.

Cool the wort to 80 in the sink in an ice bath, put in the fermenter and top up with cool/cold water. Just as quick (as the ice doesn't cool it all that quick and you have more volume to cool) and easier.

 

[two_one_seven]

don't freeze water in glass! Glass will break.

Use tupperware/plastic or something if you feel you have to do this.

I wouldn't.

Cool the wort to 80 in the sink in an ice bath, put in the fermenter and top up with cool/cold water. Just as quick (as the ice doesn't cool it all that quick and you have more volume to cool) and easier.

Nice catch Yooper. I didn't even catch the freezing part.......

 

[Revvy]

All talk of feezing aside, if you're already boiling the jars, you might as well just fill them with water and sterilze everything at once.

 

[brewpood]

Thank you for your responses and concern.

Wide-mouth Mason jars with a little headspace freeze beautifully; narrow-mouth Mason jars will freeze and break reliably. I have tested this theory with gallons and gallons of chicken stock and other stocks frozen in quart jars, and now with water squirreled away in the freezer for my wort additions.

The question is whether boiling the jars is necessary, or if I can just do a Star-San soak instead. (And another Starsan bath for the jars right before pouring out the chilled water in them into the waiting wort.) If memory serves, I also boiled the water I put in the jars. Necessary, or undue caution?

The reason I froze the jars is to help lower the wort temperature. I add the cool water or ice to make up 5 gallons.

 

[unionrdr]

Instead of doing all that,I saved 1 gallon spring water jugs from the store. I go to a local spring water source to fill them for 25c a gallon. I santize them with a quick starsan rinse right before I leave to get the water. I keep all but 2-3 gallons bt the fermenter stand. The others in the fridge at least 24 hours before brewday.
I chill the wort in an ice bath down to 75F. Then strain into fermenter & top off with the cold fridged water to about 64F. Works well with minimal work.

 

[brewpood]

Cool! My process of boiling the jars did seem like it might be a bit much. So I'm gathering that I just need to sanitize the jars and don't need to boil my filtered tap water that goes into them. I put them into the freezer (or fridge) so that the water will chill and I can use it to help cool the wort. When I take them out of the chiller, I guess I should probably go one step further and put them in a Starsan or other sanitizing solution shortly before pouring them into the wort.

Thanks very much, and I have faith you'll correct me if this is still wrong-headed.

 

[brewpood]

Update: After boasting that I wouldn't have any problem with jars breaking, jars broke. 6 of 8 are kaput. I did manage to contain things before they got catastrophic. Hubris will get ya every time! Me, anyway.