Full Boil Vs. Yeast Starter Stir Plate

So I'm looking to upgrade to either a full boil or a stir plate and equipment for starters.


Which would you pick??

Definitely the chiller and kettle. You can make good starters in a growler with a sanitized tin foil cap and shaking it whenever you walk by it.

^^ Edit: like he said a stir plate isn't required. It just maximizes the amount of yeast growth. If you shake often enough it's not too much better.

Do you plan to go to all-grain anytime soon? If yes I'd say go for the full boil since you'll want all that stuff (propane burner, wort chiller, big-ass pot) anyway for AG. If no, I'd do the starter setup. I really noticed an improvement in my beers when I moved to making starters. Whereas for extract brews I really don't think full boil makes THAT much of a difference.

Look at the stir plates on the William's Brewing site. They are $60-100 cheaper than most places and mine works great. I think my starter shopping list was something like

1) 2L flask
2) Stir plate
3) Stir bar
4) Fermcap or another anti-foam thing
5) yeast nutrient

and it was well under $100. Keep a bag of DME around to make starter wort and you're good to go.

Another vote for full boil.

Big a$$ pot!!!

Hard to think of a better way to improve your brew than doing full boils.

full boil
you can do a starter in a gallon milk jug

Bringing it to boil faster and cooling it faster with a big(13+gallon) kettle and chiller by far the best choice!

Worst case scenario you can just throw in more yeast.

If you ever want to do 10 gallon batches you need at least a 15 gallon pot or (my favorite) a Keggle.:cross: