Seminar?

[Steve Brown]

Always order more than one stirbar. Somehow they occassionally end up in the fermenter for a few weeks. Guess how I know.

I heard a tip from Jensen several months ago. He holds a magnet against the bottom of the flask during pitch to attract and hold the stirbar.

[Matt]

Yeah, I seriously considered ordering a few of them -- different sizes, etc -- so that not only would I have one that worked best for my plate and flask, but that when I either lost one (I'm sure I will), or one ended up in the fermenter, I'd have a spare. But I can always order more, and ideally, I'll find an even better, cheaper provider.

That, and holding a magnet to the side of the flask to keep the stirbar inside is a pretty easy trick (that I'm sure I'll forget at least once, and ideally only once). Then again, I'll have to start brewing a lot more frequently if I can't wait for primary to finish to start propping up more yeast for the next batch. That's a problem I'll look forward to having. If I do, buying a few more stir bars will be a joy.

Matt

[DJ in KC]

Always order more than one stirbar. Somehow they occassionally end up in the fermenter for a few weeks. Guess how I know.

I heard a tip from Jensen several months ago. He holds a magnet against the bottom of the flask during pitch to attract and hold the stirbar.

My flask has a SB label on it so I don't forget. Works most of the time now. I do the magnet trick when I move it to a dorm fridge to crash it - just slide it up the side so it's in plain sight. Pretty much a habit now. Still nice to have an extra or two. FWIW I found that the smaller the better for not getting thrown.

[Frank]

FWIW I found that the smaller the better for not getting thrown.

We actually discussed the reason for this very thought at the seminar. I have had a couple big papers due at school, I hope to get the videos up this weekend/early next week.

[Matt]

So my flask and stir bar showed up on Thursday -- just a couple days after ordering. Pretty sweet turn-around. Heck, they arrived BEFORE the yeast I ordered a couple of days earlier.

I've got my stir plate dialed in just right, and it stirs water nicely. Now on to the next phase! Prop'n yeast!

I've already talked to some of you about your best advice for making starters, but I figured it couldn't hurt to have a few of you share your tips on the forum for others in my shoes, looking to step up some yeast for the first time. I don't have any starter wort caned, so I'll probably be using a simple light DME mixture with an SG of around 1.040. That said, I'm always open to other advice and tips.

I've started a new thread on the subject here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2915

Thanks again to everyone who helped make this stir plate build such a fun and easy project.

Matt

[Matt]

Just a couple of quick photos of my first step: Step #1, White Labs 007, Dry English Ale Yeast

1600ml of water brought to a boil, then added 160g of light DME, boiled for a few more minutes, cooled in ice bath to 70 degrees, pitched in sanitized Erlenmeyer and set on the stir plate.

My bottle of fermcap hasn't arrived yet, so there isn't any in this one. I hope it doesn't go insane. Will be keeping a close eye on it. Tried setting the stir-plate and flask together in a high-sided container as a preventative measure against any blow off, but it made the stirplate un-level, and kept throwing the stir bar. So I guess I'll just hope for the best.

[DJ in KC]

No fermcap. That will probably get messy. I'd rig a plastic bag around it so the nice new stirplate doesn't get blowoff all over it.

[Matt]

Yeah, I figured as much. I've currently got a plastic bag between the flask and the stirplate. Should catch most of any mess that escapes the flask. (Thanks for the tip. A very good idea, and so simple I would never have thought of it.)

My bigger concern right now is that it's only 65 degrees in that room (basement shop), so do I need to move it upstairs to a warmer room? 65 is good for fermenting at, but I might want slightly warmer room for propagation, no?

Matt

[DJ in KC]

That yeast, not sure. But 65df is usually OK. Might slow it down a bit, or not. Your just growing yeast, not making beer. RDWHAHB

Dan

[Matt]

Well, it's been on the stir plate for about 5 hours now, and I'm starting to see a little bit of white foam at the surface. Looks like it will be just fine a that temp. Between the headspace I left in the 2L Erlenmeyer, the plastic bag it's sitting in, and the slightly low temp, I can hopefully prevent a mess.

Looks like Monday is going to be a nice day for brewing, so long as the weather holds out. Probably be the last day we get in the 50s for a while. Gonna fire up the grill, fire up the brew rig, and have one last glorious day outside, before the weather turns to shit. :)

Matt

[Blktre]

Just being on the plate will create heat. Sometimes I put a 1/4" piece of foam insulation in between the plate and the flask so it doesn't get to hot.

[Matt]

Just being on the plate will create heat. Sometimes I put a 1/4" piece of foam insulation in between the plate and the flask so it doesn't get to hot.

I had heard stories of people's plates getting really warm. I checked mine several times for heat, but it never got warm to the touch. The cool temp also never appeared to have much effect on the yeast, which were floc'ing nicely. At one point the foam got pretty high in the neck of the flask, so I turned off the stir plate, swirled the liquid to knock the foam down, and put it back on the plate. The inch or so of foam on top after that seemed to create almost a cap on the fluid, keeping it from climbing back up the neck, while the liquid and yeast below swirled nicely. I probably could have left it on the plate a bit longer, but I needed to get it in the fridge long enough to get everything to drop out overnight, so I could pitch tomorrow.

Which brings me to a question: On average, how long should a 1600ml starter from a single vial of yeast be kept on the plate for maximum propagation? In other words, at room temp, how long should it take for the yeast from a single vial (35ml) to burn through 1600 ml of wort, before it's ready for another step?

Next time I'll be able to do it more thoroughly. I'm confident I've got a good amount of yeast to pitch tomorrow, but I'm sure I probably could have had even more, given more time.

Matt