Going to make my first starter ever. Is a stir plate required?

I'm going to make my first starter ever! For my first two batches, I used dry yeast (2 packs each time) and it worked well. But this time I'm using a liquid yeast and it seems it's better to make a starter for those.

Is a stir plate required to get a good starter?
If I do not have a stir plate, is making a starter still a good idea?
Does a stir plate really make a big difference?

Thanks!

I just started doing starters so no expert, but mine seem to do ok... I do the DME (1/2 cup, 2 cups water), boil for 10 mins, starsan mason jar and piece of foil, pour the DME into the jar, cool the DME to 60ish in an ice bath in sink, add yeast, put on foil and swirl when I walk past it. Eventually I'd like to get a stir plate but the last 7-8 starters I did seemed to do really well. I typically do it 2 days before pitching.

Save this link and always use it to answer your questions
http://www.yeastcalc.com/

Enter in your gravity, it will tell you how much yeast you need...then enter in your starters and method of agitation.

You can use this to play with it to see how big of a difference no stir plate vs intermittent shaking vs stir plate makes on any given starter. It does make quite a bit of difference, but that also can be mitigated a bit by shaking the thing to oxygenate it any time you walk by.

For example

No Starter: 100b cells
2L Starter No Touching: 200b cells
2L Starter Intermittent Shaking: 250b cells
2L Starter Stir Plate: 300b cells

If you need 300b cells, but with no stir plate, it just means you will have to do a second starter. You do your regular starter no shaking to get your 200b, then stick it in the fridge overnight and decant off all the liquid keeping as much yeast at the bottom as you can, then pour in some more chilled wort and let it multiply again...

Stir plates are nice because they are relatively cheap(except for the flask!), easy to DIY, give you maximum results, and saves time because your getting more cells out of each run you dont need to do as many stepped starters if your doing really big beers.

For example to get enough for a standard lager you'll need around 400b cells, without a stir plate thats 4 step starters, thats basically 8-9 days of planning ahead of brew day to have it ready and even then you arent even fully at 400b(380ish). Where with a stir plate you do 3 starters and are at nearly 500b.

Use a yeast calculator and it will show you the difference in resulting yeast cell counts of stir plate vs no stir plate.

Stir plates are not mandatory at all, but they definitely help to produce much more yeast cells. Another option is to simply pick up the starter and swirl it every hour or so.

Don't forget, though, that you can easily build your own stir plate in an hour. Stuff like that is tons of fun, so worth it on its own.

Thanks for the yeast calculator! I gotta start using that.

Oh duh I just noticed that BeerSmith has the calculator too.

Thanks for your help everybody.

Would a fermentation benefit from a big stir plate, if that existed?

Does all this starter process means it is good to shake the primary fermenter once in a while?

Yea im not sure how up to date that is, honestly i find the step starter portion of YeastCalc so useful, much more than other tools like MrMalty or Beersmith having to do it manually.

electrotype said:

Thanks for your help everybody.

Would a fermentation benefit from a big stir plate, if that existed?

Does all this starter process means it is good to shake the primary fermenter once in a while?

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The stir plate size doesnt matter it just needs to agitate the yeast and keep it in suspension. It DOES benefit from a larger starter. You will get more yeast out of a 2L starter than a 1L starter but less than a 5L starter....obviously.

If your doing 10G batches a 5L starter might make sense, if your doing 5g batches and arent just constantly making barley wine or something at > 1.1 sg you can get away with a 2L starter, 5L flasks are just ridiculously big and way overkill for most. I wouldnt waste money on a 1L flask, i did and found it was just too small, and a 2L flask is like an extra $5 or something...

But no, do not shake your beer. You should agitate it when you FIRST put it in before you pitch your yeast, a lot of people just shake their carboys/buckets to aerate, some use pumps or oxygen tanks and aeration stones to inject oxygen into the wort.

Shaking during a starter basically "ruins" the starter by oxygenating the hell out of it, it will be super stale tasting...but you dont care your not after the liquid, you should decant all of that off and only pitch your yeast. Stick it in the fridge for a day, it will all form a nice cake on the bottom, then slowly pour the liquid out until you start to see some of the yeast making an escape...leave a bit of liquid in there just enough to shake up the yeast and get them in suspension so you can pour them in!

FuzzeWuzze said:

Shaking during a starter basically "ruins" the starter by oxygenating the hell out of it, it will be super stale tasting...but you dont care your not after the liquid, you should decant all of that off and only pitch your yeast.

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Got it, thanks!

YeastCalc is the easiest to use for calculating single and multiple step starters.
Be sure to enter the production date of your yeast to find out how many viable yeast cells you have at hand. YeastCalc will use this number in the calculations.

Follow it through as FuzzeWuzzee outlined.

Happy brewing.

Read through the tabs on the left hand side. Asking the yeast to multiply to many times with an inital huge starter can produce weak and stressed yeast cells.

flars said:

YeastCalc is the easiest to use for calculating single and multiple step starters.
Be sure to enter the production date of your yeast to find out how many viable yeast cells you have at hand. YeastCalc will use this number in the calculations.

Follow it through as FuzzeWuzzee outlined.

Happy brewing.

Read through the tabs on the left hand side. Asking the yeast to multiply to many times with an inital huge starter can produce weak and stressed yeast cells.

Click to expand...

Also i am pretty sure for White labs that the "Born on Date" is 90 days before its printed expiration date.

FuzzeWuzze said:

Also i am pretty sure for White labs that the "Born on Date" is 90 days before its printed expiration date.

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It's 4 months per their website

I have another question :

I see a lot of people doing a starter in a flask with aluminium foil to cover it. But why doesn't it need an airlock? Isn't there CO2 produced?

The foil is on loosely, to allow o2 in and co2 out. O2 for better yeast growth. At least that's the theory behind it, seems to work.

Edit- airlock doesn't let air in, which you want for the growing yeast.

But you don't want infection either right?

Co2 will find it's way out between the foil and the glass. In theory, it also lets in a little bit of air for oxygenation.

electrotype said:

I have another question :

I see a lot of people doing a starter in a flask with aluminium foil to cover it. But why doesn't it need an airlock? Isn't there CO2 produced?

Click to expand...

The foil is on loose for CO2 to escape and air to get in. Foil should be more tight in the summer than winter, at least here in Wisconsin. In the summer there can be small flying things, like fruit flies. Dust with contaminants floating in the air just settle downward. Dust doesn't crawl upwards.

The foil is like the lid on a fermenting pail. The lids usually don't seal and the CO2 escapes at the seal area rather than through the airlock.

An airlock can be used on a flask or other container used to make a starter. Instead of sanitizer in the air lock, which keeps air out, foam would be used to allow the exchange of CO2 and air.

I'm going to start using an air lock. Not because it is a lot better than foil, but because it would look cool. Old men need something cool once in a while.