New type of stir plate?

Mechanism of wine swirling explained

I wonder if you could build this at home...it's probably more trouble than it would be worth, but maybe it has some applications on a larger scale. Basically, you make a stir-plate that swirls the container around rather than stirring it.

FTA: "The intuitive and efficient motion of wine swirling has inspired engineers in the field of biopharmaceuticals," Farhat says, where cell cultures can be placed in large cylindrical containers -- or bioreactors -- and "shaken" in a manner similar to the aeration of a glass of wine. The new work, he says, demonstrates that "such bioreactors offer better mixing and oxygenation over existing stirred tanks, provided that operating parameters are carefully optimized. Moreover, the gentle nature of orbital shaking also ensures a better viability and growth rate of the cells at reduced cost."

I know for a fact that Dogfish head uses this technique. I've seen it with my own eyes.

These things aren't really new at all, and are quite commonly used in all sorts of labs. They're called shakers.

Could we use them in brewing instead of a stirplate? Sure, but there's a substantial increase in price, especially over the DIY or homebrew-targeted stir-plates, for minimal benefit. And the stakes would be much higher for DIY... if you don't make it perfect the first time, you could end up with a shattered flask or carboy and gallons of spilled beer.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJwixpSfH94&feature=related]Richmond Laboratory Equipment - Shakers - SHA116 - YouTube[/ame]

They've been around for decades.

emjay said:

There's nothing new about this at all. Except perhaps in the application its referring to.

These are quite commonly used in all sorts of labs though, and are known as lab shakers.

Could we use them in brewing instead of a stirplate? But there's a substantial increase in price over the DIY or homebrew supply plates, for little benefit. And the stakes would be much higher for DIY... if you don't make it perfect the first time, you could end up with a shattered flask or carboy and gallons of spilled beer.

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Excuse my bad paint skills, but what about something like this?



Basically a motor turns a bar or disk with one castor wheel on the outside. A pot with the wort sits on top, inside another container. You might be able to use a motor from an old bread machine or mixer which are easy to find in thrift stores. You could also just set your pot that you used to boil your starter wort right inside it. I know it would probably take some fooling around, but wouldn't this be good if you were doing pretty large batches? Also, I see that lab shakers typically cost over a grand a piece.

I've got it: strap a 5L flask to the top of an orbital sander!

weirdboy said:

I've got it: strap a 5L flask to the top of an orbital sander!

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Get one cheap at a garage sale, flip it over on the underside of a table, and mount a base on it to hold a vessel, and you have one. Or dissasemble one and just use the motor and stuff.

weirdboy said:

I've got it: strap a 5L flask to the top of an orbital sander!

Click to expand...

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but this is dealing with exactly what I am going to do, and was just wondering if anyone has done this yet and has any tips or helpful hints.

Orbital sander upside down with rheostat?

Thoughts?

Dunno but disassembling my bread maker in abt 5min

Going to use to create a shaken but not stirred IPA

Retrofit a Symbian Machine?

That beer would be orgasmic