Stir Plate question

I picked up a stir plate a few years ago on ebay, but never used it. Just got a stir bar to work with it. A few questions.

I saw a link on recommended times from 15-48 hours. Can it be affective in less time? I would like to start a batch tonight, after starting my starter in the stir plate today. It is going to be a cream ale, with not a very high OG. My other option would be to brew on Tuesday after starting the starter today, but this is SWMBO's batch and she wants to participate in the process.

How vigorous should the spinning be?

Thanks

At this point you would only be proofing the yeast, but depending on what you are starting with, that may be enough.

Hermit said:

At this point you would only be proofing the yeast, but depending on what you are starting with, that may be enough.

Click to expand...

Please define Proofing in terms of yeast.

There's nothing wrong with doing the batch today, you are just missing out on most of the benefits of making a starter and using the stir plate, but, it's probably better than no starter, and if you really want to brew today, go for it.

ruffdeezy said:

and if you really want to brew today,

Click to expand...

I want to brew every day.

Usually I brew in the morning. I try to allow 24 hours for my starter to get ready, then I stick it in the fridge overnight before brew day. In the morning, I pull it out of the fridge, decant most of the starter wort, give the remaining bit a healthy swirl to get all the yeast in suspension again, and then let that remaining bit come up to pitching temp.

Photopilot said:

Please define Proofing in terms of yeast.

Click to expand...

Making sure it is active. You never define what yeast you are using. When I rehydrate dry yeast I can tell if it is active or not. That is proofing. Proof it is active and not dead.

Photopilot said:

How vigorous should the spinning be?

Click to expand...

Good question- I'm also wondering this. My first yeast is on my new stir plate right now, and I have it at medium speed, but I was just about to ask this same question.

Photopilot said:

How vigorous should the spinning be?

Click to expand...

I asked the same question a couple weeks ago after I got my stir-plate... I got a variety of answers, including differing answers from the two LHBS that I frequent. One said to stir just enough to keep everything and in suspension, the other told me to stir quite vigorously so as to have a nice vortex.

In practice, so far I've done it both ways, though not entirely on purpose... I have two stir bars, one is about 1.5" and the other is about half that size... I accidentally dumped the larger one into my primary while pitching, so the next time I used the smaller. The larger one made a nice vortex when I set the stir speed to 8, whereas the smaller wouldn't even make a vortex with the speed set to the maximum (12 i believe). Both starters worked perfectly fine, so as long as you're stirring it fast enough to allow plenty of oxygen to dissolve into the wort, I think you're fine.

If you are creating a 1800ml starter that is 2 qts water to 8 oz DME it will thicken quite a bit during the 24-48 period it is on the SP. You will initially see a strong vortex, then the starter will thicken and you will just see a bit of white krausen spinning in the middle of the flask. I normally lose the vortex at some point (overnight) because the starter has thickened further and have to shake the flask up/manually swirl it off the SP the next morning and then center the magnet again to get a vortex going. If you get things going too fast you will continually throw the magnet so it is better to get a small vortex going which is all that is needed. Montanaandy

Thanks for all the replies. Turns out I did not brew yesterday but did brewing stuff, kegged my celebration ale and transfered wine into secondary, got the starter going on the spin plate, all between woodworking projects. I am on reserve all this week after today which means I do not have to work till 4pm as opposed to the other 4 normally. So I will brew this on tuesday, and Thursday maybe also.

It is a cream ale yeast, I pitched it at 1 PM yesterday 2 pints of water 1/2 cup DME. It is spinning with a vortex now, but at a varied speed. The reason the speed is varied is the room it is in is my fermenting room and the wiring in the house is such that when the heater goes on the power dims, meaning lights dim and the SP slows.

If a starter does not krausen how do I know if it is working, how do i proof it?

Should I fridge this starter tonight and then wam it tomorrow, poor off the wort and pitch the yeast slurry?

You may not see the krausen as you are really making a very small beer and it all happens quickly.

Gammon N Beer said:

You may not see the krausen as you are really making a very small beer and it all happens quickly.

Click to expand...

Thats what I am thinking It seems like the spin plate is not really a valid method of proofing if you can't tell if anything is occuring in the spin cycle. I am pretty confident the yeast is working as it was very fizzy when I opened the test tube.

Okay it sat on the stir plat for about 48 hours in a 72 degree room. Then overnight in the fridge. It is now back in the 72 degree room warming up. I plan on decanting, if that is what pouring off most of the wort is, then pitching into the wort.

Its been in the room for about an hour and is still very cold. Would it be okay to decant now to lessen the volume to speed up the warming. I would like to get the brewing process rolling so I do not come up against work this evening.

That will be fine, in fact it will probably be easier to decant while it's still cold, the yeast cake will be more solid then than when it warms up.

Okay the Cream Ale is down. Onto the next brew.

I am going to do my first all grain in the next couple of days. It will be a Black Butte Porter clone. I am looking to step up the starter size. For a 2 liter starter, do I need to do two steps? First a one pint starter then pitch that into the 2 liter starter, or can I just go from the vial to 2 liters?

Photopilot said:

I want to brew every day.

Click to expand...

Best smart-a$$ answer of the month!

lunchbox said:

Best smart-a$$ answer of the month!

Click to expand...

Maybe but its also true and i have come close this week. Would do more if every vessel i have was not full.

Now I have a question on SP starter.

I had made a 2 liter starter for a Porter I brewed. I was a little ambitious as it only required a 1 liter starter. So i agitated the starter and pitched about half of it. I took some new pint mason jars I had tossed it into my star-san filled bucket let it sit for a few minutes then poured the remaining starter into it. I still had some left over so added a 3rd mason jar about half full. I sealed the mason jars with their own sanitary lids and tossed these into the fridge. It is a little reminiscent of the yeast washing process I saw around HBT recently, except the bottles were boiled in that process.

Should the yeast be good from these mason jars?

Photopilot said:

Maybe but its also true and i have come close this week. Would do more if every vessel i have was not full.

Now I have a question on SP starter.

I had made a 2 liter starter for a Porter I brewed. I was a little ambitious as it only required a 1 liter starter. So i agitated the starter and pitched about half of it. I took some new pint mason jars I had tossed it into my star-san filled bucket let it sit for a few minutes then poured the remaining starter into it. I still had some left over so added a 3rd mason jar about half full. I sealed the mason jars with their own sanitary lids and tossed these into the fridge. It is a little reminiscent of the yeast washing process I saw around HBT recently, except the bottles were boiled in that process.

Should the yeast be good from these mason jars?

Click to expand...

Well, boiled/pressure cooked is better, but part of it depends on how long you try and keep them. I've seen people suggesting decanting the liquid and replacing it with water so they don't even 'think' about trying to grow. Also, if you boil the water then that should help too.

I've been thinking about doing this too. It seems to be more sanitary than washing yeast to me and less chance of something else being in with it.