Stirplate vs shaking

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golphur

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Has anyone seen any real advantage of using a stirplate for yeast starters vs intermittent shaking when it comes to < 1.070 5 gallon batches?

I made my first liquid starter this week, and after being a little underwhelmed with the yeast in the flask, pitching into fermenter, and seeing fermentation within hours, I'm wondering if there is a benefit to building a stirplate vs just shaking.

I'm onto my second starter now and definitely not as worried as I was with the first one. Just curious if there is a more absolute certainty with yeast production with constant stirring or am I just overly paranoid.

I've also done dozens of dry yeast batches with rehydrating and never had an issue. I'm just finding the varieties of liquid yeast to be superior. Can't wait to taste them in a few weeks.
 
Stirplates provide continual oxygen as well as keeping yeast in suspension, it lets the yeast reproduce more in a given volume of starter than shaking alone.

Stirplates get it done faster, but as long as you're hitting the pitch rate you want it's all the same.
 
The stir-plate not only oxygenates the starter constantly, it also degasses it constantly, so the yeast are able to reproduce more, faster, in a smaller starter solution. Provided you get a decent vortex on the stir-plate, the starter can be complete within 24 hours. You then have the option to either pitch it all in, or cold crash, decant and pitch just the larger yeast volume into the fermenter.

With my batches, I typically get active fermentation (post lag-phase) well within 12 hours from pitching. I also infuse my wort with pure O2 prior to pitching the yeast, so they have more of what they need to get active quickly.

Personally, making a starter is so easy, that I just do it a day, or two, before brew-day. If I get to it more than a day before, I usually have enough time to cold crash the starter and pitch more of a slurry into the brew. I've made it a practice to use starters for all my batches (only have a couple where I didn't use a starter, most of those from before I knew about the benefits of using a starter). I would probably make a starter for a brew that had an OG of about 1.040... IF I was to ever make a brew with that low of an OG that is.

IMO, unless your yeast has a born-on date of under two to three weeks from your brew-day, make a starter. Even a small starter, even without a stir-plate, will give your yeast a leg-up.
 
MrManifesto said:
stir plate can create 6x as much yeast as shaking, so yeah.

I agree, I did the shake method a couple times and then got a stir plate and could not believe the difference in take off time, and the ability to hit lower FGs. Well worth the stir plate addition imo.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I have two 2000ml flasks and mrmalty has told me I can make a 1800 and 1780ml starter on both of my liquid yeasts with one vial of yeast. So I guess I'm in range. No issues with first brew with shaking, I'll see on the second in a couple of days.

Looks like stir plate is definitely better than not. I also have a ton of old PC and cell phone equipment laying around in my basement. +1 I like building electronic crap. I'll dig in and build it. More Homebrewing fun! Thanks again.
 
If you want to make a good one from the start and not have to deal with the frustration of crappy fan speed adjustment and thrown stir bars, look into using an LM317. You won't regret it.
 
Has anyone a link to some actual studies that show how much more yeast is being produced in a stirplate vs shaking a few times a day?

Maybe I could try a little test in lab. Make up some wort, spike it with yeast, shake well and divide into two containers. Stir one, shake one and measure yeast solids?
 
Maybe I could try a little test in lab. Make up some wort, spike it with yeast, shake well and divide into two containers. Stir one, shake one and measure yeast solids?

i have a graph from "yeast propagation and maintaince: principles and practices" that's a part of a PDF file so i'm not sure how to just post that one pic but it shows that stirring can create around 75 million cells, while a stir plate can create 275 million.
 
i have a graph from "yeast propagation and maintaince: principles and practices" that's a part of a PDF file so i'm not sure how to just post that one pic but it shows that stirring can create around 75 million cells, while a stir plate can create 275 million.

This one:
image002.gif


Figure 1. Effect of aeration on yeast cell number. 500 ml of BrewTek Superwort was pitched with a saturated 10 ml superstarter culture of BrewTek yeast and incubated at room temperature (75 °F) for two days. Cultures were either shaken 3-6 times a day, aerated with BrewTek aeration system for several minutes (foam permitting) 3-6 times a day, or continuously stirred on a magnetic stir plate. Yeast cell concentration was determined on the BrewTek hemacytometer. Traditional starter (with airlock) were taken from numbers published by Ray Daniels in HBD #1746 using Wyeast packet as inoculum.

Looks good to me.
 
I think it would be neat to see some results comparing a stirred starter with an airlock, vs a stirred starter with loose foil covering...

The foil has to be better, right? I mean with the air lock you are limited only to the oxygen in the flask.
 
The foil has to be better, right? I mean with the air lock you are limited only to the oxygen in the flask.

That is the theory, but what if the stirplate maintaining agitation is the real key to the awesome results? What if there is actually not much gas exchange happening? Can't tell until someone does a study to confirm!

If I had the tools to do this I would. But I'm guessing someone ou tthere has already done the work, I just want to see it.
 
That is the theory, but what if the stirplate maintaining agitation is the real key to the awesome results? What if there is actually not much gas exchange happening? Can't tell until someone does a study to confirm!

If I had the tools to do this I would. But I'm guessing someone ou tthere has already done the work, I just want to see it.

I'll keep my eyes out for it. Also, Go Tigers!
 
LOL! It's hockey season! I really should get around to updating my avatar. Maybe Lions for about 3 more weeks...

I love the automatic assumption of one and done :) I miss watching the Wings. North Carolina does not care about hockey at all. Even though they have a team (albeit a poor one).
 
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