Have you dumped the stir bar?

I thought it would never happen to me but the last batch has my stir bar in it. Have you ever pitched your stir bar into the primary? I usually get the magnet out and keep hold of the little dude but this time I got distracted.

Yup. It's a nice reminder to either keep a spare stir bar or two, or to hold off your next brew until you rack to a secondary

Everyone has done this at least once. I actually use a lot of dried yeast so it's not a HUGE deal if I happen to dump it in a batch; I can just make something with US-05 or whatever for my next batch or two while I wait it out.

The trick for me is remembering that there's a stir bar in the fermenter when I finally rack it. There have been a couple of close calls with me nearly dumping that sucker down the kitchen sink.

For my full time job, I work in a chemical lab doing quality control testing via titration. To retain the stir bar when we dump the chemicals out of the flasks, take two spares and hold them on the bottom of the flask, then dump. They are magnetized so it will hold the stir bar inside the flask to the bottom. Then take off the ones on the outside to dump out the stir bar inside the flask. Done deal. :rockin:

First day I had the stir bar I was playing with the spacing and the magnet position in my DIY plate with several different containers to see what would work and then what would work best. (I didn't want to drop extra cash on a 3L+ flask) After finding one that worked good enough I dumped out the water in it into the sink......with the mother****ing stir bar. I was ready to kick in the wall and then spent the next 10 minutes trying to fish it out with another magnet since my hands won't fit into the kitchen sink and I didn't want to take the trap off if I didn't have to.

I've only used my stir plate once but I can honestly say that I've never dumped a stir bar. I used a spare hard drive magnet on the bottom of the glass to hold the sir bar while I pitched the yeast.

I haven't done this but I have helped a buddy use a magnet to fish his stir-bar out of the primary so he make could another starter.

Really wasn't that hard since there was not much in the bottom of the fermenter at that point. Just took some patience to avoid dropping the magnet back in.

one of my stir bars are at the bottom of my sanke right now.

Since I cold crash the flask for several days, it's pretty easy to remember at some point to take it out. And finally I decant and swirl, at which point you would hear the bar bouncing around. So no I've never done it. Made a ton of other mistakes however.

I now have a heavy duty magnet to hold it in the flask...

good news is I found the original stir bar... after i got a couple replacements. I expect I'll lose it again- hope I don't drink it

The only time I haven't pitched my stir bar into primary was when I was pitching the last ~10% of it into another starter to get more bang for my buck. I have two and both are in primary right now, will probably have to order another one.

Yes, I dumped the stirbar in the primary ...

but then, 2 weeks later, I dumped the stirbar in the toilet.empying the remains of the primary.(but rescued it after I heard the little 'clink' ..wondering "what was THAT ??" )

Hard drive magnets are crazy strong and great for putting on the outside of your primary to hold on the stir bar and just slide it up to the top to retrieve it. Not that I ever had to do this....

Dan

a_w_taylor said:

I now have a heavy duty magnet to hold it in the flask...

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+1 knock on wood I haven't yet

Did it just today. Oops.

Happens to the best of us, dude........

Dangit!!!
Completed my first all grain batch today and was so excited I dumped that stupid stir rod right in the fermenter. i guess I'll get ti out when I move to secondary.

I just pitched it into the primary for the first time in 36 batches using that stirplate. I was having a hell of an annoying brew day. We moved to a new place and the brew space is different. It's bigger and better, but it was just one of those days where you work out the kinks and everything was off.

Anyway, I put the magnet on the flask, had the stirbar there. But when I poured it, somehow I knocked the magnet off of the flask and bam, the stirbar went straight into the fermenter. Aargghhh!!!!!

Beer's fermenting nicely though! ;-)

I pitched my first stir plate starter into my primary Sunday night. I even had the magnet attached to it on the outside but I was dumb and swirled afterwards.

I've not got a stirbar, but what I have done is to knock the sediment trap off of the autosyphon into primary when draining and then I've poured the whole lot down the toilet when finished and not harvesting the cake.
I only remembered afterwards when I went to use the syphon again.

Yup, I did it this morning.

Just got that last one out today. Now I'll watch me drop another one this weekend!

Get yourself a magnet off a hard drive - put a sticky note on the starter when you pull it from the fridge - use the magnet on the bottom of ur flask to hold the stirrer.

Nope. Never. Dumb luck, I guess. I don't drink when I brew, so that probably is a factor in my luck (never broke a hydrometer, either).

I don't drink when I brew

I don't see that ever happening unless I go pro - hehe.

a_w_taylor said:

I don't drink when I brew

I don't see that ever happening unless I go pro - hehe.

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I brew really early in the am, so it's easy (I like coffee in the morning).

My Maibock has a stirbar buried in the trub and yeast of my better bottle. That was my first time dropping one in, usually I can catch it right as it starts to slide down the glass, but this time I was too slow.

Stir rod sitting happily in my barley wine brewed yesterday. (Spent twenty minutes looking for it). Ordered a new one from ebay. Hope it gets here soon, supposed to brew again this weekend.

i have, but i just stuck my arm into a bucket of starsan for a bit and grabbed it.

i like to live dangerously!

Just did it yesterday....whoops.

I have done it twice. I haven't done it in a long time, though. When I take the starter off my stir plate, I have a keeper magnet that I keep on the bottom of the stir plate, that I stick to the stir bar and move it up on the side of the flask so it is plainly obvious.

MrManifesto said:

i have, but i just stuck my arm into a bucket of starsan for a bit and grabbed it.

i like to live dangerously!

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Not sure that starsan would clean my arm, I know where its been.

I used to do it almost every batch until I bought a stir bar retrieval tool. It sits right next to the stir plate as a reminder.

Since I bought a stir starter from the guy on here, it came with a magnet and a piece of tape. I keep that on my beer fridge and remember it every time now.

And I came close to putting one down the toilet, so I like not having it in my fermentors.