Stir plate.....waste of money or worth it?

I have been entertaining the fact of buying a stirplate to rehydrate yeast. I was reading on the Safale website on how important it is to mix it into a creamy base for 15-30 minutes....obviously a stirplate would help.

Do alot of you use them?

Are they all hype or is it worth the money?

I can buy a nice one for 40.00 that comes with a 5 year warranty from brewershardware.com
I have purchased from this guy before and he makes nice stuff. From what I understand some heat up the yeast from the overpowered fan...this one does not which I like.

Any advice is welcome.


Thanks
Joe

I got one for Christmas, and I'm loving it so far. Making a Maibock today with yeast I got from a bottle of Rogue's Shakespeare Stout- doubt I could have done it without a stirplate.
From what I've read, yeast made on a stirplate will have a much higher cell count (3x?) than other methods, which seems worth it to me.

you dont need a stir plate to rehydrate dry yeast. it is recommended if you are planning on increasing pitching rates of liquid yeast.

Stir plate for growing yeast. I wouldn't bother for dry yeast. For liquid, it is highly recommended.

If you are growing yeast from cultures (me), it is a must.

Is it safe to assume that dry yeast packets can be directly pitched into the fermenter?

ILOVEBEER said:

Is it safe to assume that dry yeast packets can be directly pitched into the fermenter?

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You can, but it's better to rehydrate them first.

Could I use a stirplate to do this?....I figure eventually I am going to need a stirplate for starters and when I decide to utilize liquid yeast.

A starter is not needed for dry yeast. All that you need to do is rehydrate it in some warm water prior to pitching. If you're interested in starters for liquid yeast, you can also check out this post. This is how I built mine and it works great. (Cost me about $20 bucks)

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-stirplate-cheap-easy-build-86252/

matt415 said:

you dont need a stir plate to rehydrate dry yeast. it is recommended if you are planning on increasing pitching rates of liquid yeast.

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I would just get the stirplate when you need it.

When rehydrating, the package SPECIFICALLY says to dump the yeast into the water and not stir. You want the yeast to slowly hydrate over about 20 min.


If you use a lot of liquid yeast, a stirplate is a great tool. You will be surprised at how much more yeast it produces than a simple starter.

Edcculus,

I am kinda confused...so a stir plate is used to aerate liquid yeast vials to multiply cell count?

If that is the case why do people make starters if the same thing can be accomplished with a vial of liquid yeast and 20 minutes of swirling on a stirplate?


So say for example I buy 3 packages of Safale-05 for a 10 gallon batch and hydrate them before pitching into my fermenter...how many vials would I need to gain the same results if I use a stirplate.

Peraps I am overthinking this....any chance you could explain it?

Thanks
Joe

Used my stir plate for the first time last week to build up a large started for a lager - HOLY COW I was impressed with how much yeast I had after 18 hours on the stir plate. 3 inches deep on bottom of my 3L flask. My lager was fermenting within 6 hours!

ILOVEBEER: You can turn the dregs in the bottom of a single bottle into a pitchable amount of yeast with a stirplate rather quickly compared to traditional methods. It will take a couple additions of starter wort, but the constant aeration and suspension of the yeast on the stir plate allows excellent (and very healthy) cell reproduction. The end result would cost less than 3 packages of dry yeast. Not to mention if you wash your liquid yeast it would be even cheaper.

I think ed is saying don;t stir the dry yeast because dry yeast comes with the nutrients already built into the yeast cell walls. It has all it needs to do the job, where liquid yeast needs to be nurtured.

I built my stir plate using everything I already had in my house (with the exception of the project box from Radio shack) and a stir bar. Cost me a whopping $9 total.

I've never done it so I will ask alot of elementary questions.

When utilizing liquid yeast and a stir plate, aside from the obvious (stir plate/liquid yeast/container) is only sterile water used in addition to the liquid yeast or is DME and sterile water added?

A sirplate is just much more effective than a simple starter. Check out the pitching rate calculator to see the difference in different types of starters.

A stir plate keeps yeast from flocculating, introduces oxygen and keeps the yeast in constant contact with the wort. This essentially forces them to stay in the the growth phase longer. At the same time, longer exposure to oxygen at this stage will keep them from multuplying to a certain point and just fermenting the starter. After all, who cares if the starter attenuates properly? The whole point is to grow healthy yeast.

Like I siad, that pithcing rate calculator will show you the difference between different types of starters, and will even tell you equivalent amount of dry yeast.

ILOVEBEER said:

I've never done it so I will ask alot of elementary questions.

When utilizing liquid yeast and a stir plate, aside from the obvious (stir plate/liquid yeast/container) is only sterile water used in addition to the liquid yeast or is DME and sterile water added?

Click to expand...

I use a 2000mL flask and water do DME at a 10:1 ratio. This will put you in the 1.040 range. For a 1L starter, I use 1000mL of water and 100 g of DME. Dissolve dme in water, boil directly in the flask with foil on. Cool to ~80F then pitch the yeast. If you want to be technical, I use 875mL of water since the smack pack contains 125mL of liquid.

1 cup DME per quart of water.