Stir plate making crazy big krausen?

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dankev

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I just built a stir plate, and I'm doing my first starter with it. It's a 2l starter in a 2l jar, so there's not a lot of headspace. However, I thought I'd be ok, since I've been reading that using a stir plate doesn't give big krausens.

I started it last night, and I woke up to a bunch of spilled yeast on the stir plate. :( When I turn the plate off, the krausen dies down after about 5 minutes, but it comes back in a couple minutes when I turn it back on.

Am I doing something wrong?

Btw, my scale was hiding from me last night, so I used just over 1.5 cups dme in 2l water, with a pack of Wyeast 1056.
 
I would say trying to do a 2L starter in a 2L jar is what you're doing wrong. Depending on what yeast I use a 1L starter in my 2L flask is barely enough room to keep the krausen from hitting the foam stopper.
 
Every starter I've done has had a big K, since using a stir plate. Leftover from my 10 gallon days is a 5L flask so I'm not in danger of running out of room on my starters.
 
dankev said:
I just built a stir plate, and I'm doing my first starter with it. It's a 2l starter in a 2l jar, so there's not a lot of headspace. However, I thought I'd be ok, since I've been reading that using a stir plate doesn't give big krausens.

I started it last night, and I woke up to a bunch of spilled yeast on the stir plate. :( When I turn the plate off, the krausen dies down after about 5 minutes, but it comes back in a couple minutes when I turn it back on.

Am I doing something wrong?

Btw, my scale was hiding from me last night, so I used just over 1.5 cups dme in 2l water, with a pack of Wyeast 1056.
Click to expand...

Ya, been there done that. Even a 1500ml starter in a 2000ml flask on a stir plate ends up in a mess. For my lagers i have a 5000ml flask that I make 3000ml starters in and that works well.
 
OK, sounds like we've figured out the problem. I moved it to a 3l container, which is the biggest I have.

Next question: Did I lose too much yeast? I'm making a pretty big beer, and the 2l starter was pretty much exactly what it called for. I definitely lost some yeast, but I have no idea how much. At what point do I decide I need more yeast, or a step up, or...?
 
Try foam control. I use it when boiling the starter in the flask and I think it helps after the fact too cuz I have no problems at all doing a 2 liter starter in a 2 liter flask. YMMV.
 

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