Most Stupid Question Ever

Hi all, I just finished my stir plate and have a 3 litre starter on it right now.....I want to brew tomorrow. My only problem is how do you remove the stir bar from the starter?????

Eric

Trust me this is far from the dumbest question ever... A lot of people slap a "keeper" magnet on the outside of the flask that keeps the stir bar in place while you decant the starter. This is a little late to make a starter for brewing tomorrow. I recommend brewing and chilling, not pitching the yeast till Sunday morning. Also you don't want to dump the spent wort in your beer. Put the starter in the fridge for at least 12 hours and if the yeast drops pour off the clear layer of beer and only pitch the yeast portion. Spent starter tastes gross.

Most stupid answer...just pour it into your fermenter.


Just kidding. If you have another magnet place it on the side of the flask and it will hold the stir bar in place.

BB beat me to it. His was more insightful but in a dry way, mine was funny.

use a strong magnet to hold it and move it up the side and out the top. or if that fails, just use the magnet to hold it against the bottom while you pour it out.

Hey thanks for the quick replies. I do have another magnet that i could use to hold the stir bar. It's been a long day and when I started thinking about it i panicked.....i did not want to pitch my stir bar (i only have one). I started this starter on Wednesday and i am cold crashing it tonight. Tomorrow I will decant spent wort and pitch. Again, thanks for the responses and what can I say.....I wasn't thinking

Eric

Fwiw if you do happen to drop the stir bar in it won't hurt the beer but try not to because it can chip the Carboy ask me how I know this btw I'm referring to the larger stir bad though I'm sure a smaller one could cause damage as well.

I'd get another stir bar, and use the second bar as a keeper for the first. That way, when you do pitch the bar, you have another one ready for your next brew. Earlier this week, I dislodged the active bar from the keeper when shaking up the starter to get all the yeast into the fermenter. Now I have to find a second keeper magnet which I need to do before kegging this weeks brew. I know I have one in the basement somewhere. I'll probably spend 4 - 6 hours looking for it without success, go out and buy a magnet, and find the old one as soon as I get back.

-a.

Hahaha....isnt that the truth. I do that all the time......by next year I'll probably have a drawer full of stir bars because i have misplaced them and then refound them after I've bought a new one

Eric

On a side note regardless if loosing them I actually kinda have a collection of them different shapes egg, round,elongated,short, blue, yellow,red and green. I think they are kinda cool in general. Weird huh ?

stellaontap said:

Hi all, I just finished my stir plate and have a 3 litre starter on it right now.....I want to brew tomorrow. My only problem is how do you remove the stir bar from the starter?????

Eric

Click to expand...

I'm glad you asked because I was wondering the same thing! We're all stoopid now.

Just pour the liquid out slowly and the stir bar will stay at the bottom.

Thank god for the search function, cause I was just about to ask the same stupid question. First time using my stir plate.

I thought I had a magnet laying around, but it had lost it's charge. For now I use the fine strainer insert from a funnel, soak it in StarSan for a few minutes, and pour my starter through it to catch the stir bar. I will get a new magnet at some point....maybe.

Found this thread while searching for why and what to do with the Keeper Magnet that came with my new StirStarter. So a small magnet solves the problem of not pouring out the Stir Bar.

I've never bothered with a keeper magnet, with a bit of care you can keep a flea in the flask whilst pouring out the liquid.

Lab supply places will sell you a PTFE-covered stick with a magnet in the end, for fishing out fleas directly from the liquid, but I've never bothered.

??????????? My stir bars are little magnets....... what are yours? I just stick a sterile carbon steel knife into the flask and the stir bar sticks to it, and I lift it out..... What's so complicated about that? Any pieces of steel with the exception of some stainless alloys, will lift it right out.

H.W.

If you just buy a few extra stir bars you can pour them right into the wort and retrieve them when the beer is bottled.