Bye Bye Stir Bar

I recently made a DIY stir plate from a usb fan . I tested it last night with water and pepper to make sure it would work well and hold up to a night of work. Everything worked perfectly.

So tonight I start boiling the wort for my starter, sanitize my jar, get everything all ready to go. Except ... where's my stir bar? After countless warnings on here not to pitch your bar into the primary, I swear I made sure to strain the stir bar when I dumped the pepper water earlier. But lo and behold, what do I spy with my little eye wedged into my garbage disposal -- stir bar.

It would be be one thing if it was just sitting there and I could pluck it out. But noooo, I had to use the disposal for some scraps from dinner, and now the stir bar is more snug than a bug in a rug.

Oh well, I guess there is plenty of shaking in my future.

ouch sorry! I have like 3 stir bars cus they always end up in the primary.

Take the garbage disposal apart and get it! Man made it, man can take it apart.

BradleyBrew said:

ouch sorry! I have like 3 stir bars cus they always end up in the primary.

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And that's why I just ordered 2 more from Amazon.

veritas524 said:

Take the garbage disposal apart and get it! Man made it, man can take it apart.

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I will indeed be doing that ... tomorrow. Especially since the disposal is currently incapacitated by the lodged stir bar. My only concern with using the recovered stir bar would be infection. I saw a few posts on here where people were talking about microbes living in the imperfections in the plastic, that alone worries me, let alone after the disposal has chopped it up and it's sat in the disposal itself for many hours.

If you have any remaining hard drive magnets from your stir plate build, secure them tightly to something with enough length to reach your stir bar and simply capture it and pull it out.

While working in labs, I've watched dozens of stir bars lost to the drain and rescued them in a similar way.

Dog ate mine!!

ChuckCollins said:

Dog ate mine!!

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LOL, no metal left in that dog!

BradleyBrew said:

ouch sorry! I have like 3 stir bars cus they always end up in the primary.

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Same here. When I empty one, retrieve stir bar for next starter.

I have lost acouple by pitching them in to primary too. I got a big magnet when i pitch my starter i put the magnet on the bottom of my flask it holds the bar in place so it doesn't get in to my primary

I totally agree with you as far as the dings on the surface harboring contaminants, but if you unplug the disposal from power, can't you get it out? I've gotten some very firmly lodged bottle caps and the like out with a screwdriver, and a slightly bent hook made of a coat hanger works wonders in pulling things upwards and out from between the disposal drum and the housing.

*Please don't sue me for any injury or property damage that may or may not ensue*

Fun little fact for you all about clogged garbage disposals - *WARNING* make sure you unplug the disposal first! - there's a hex bolt on the underside of most disposals; if you put an Allen wrench in there and turn it back and forth a few times, it manually turns the disposal, and hopefully dislodges whatever is stuck in there.

I was able to get the stir bar out, but immediately threw it away.

yet another stir bar in primary as of last night. when shaking to get some stubborn yeast clumps out of the bottom of my flask I realized as the bar bounced off of the glass and into the carboy that those weren't stubborn yeast clumps. see you in 3 weeks, stir bar.

I'd toss it. Too much chance of infection from something so easy to replace.

The technique I use is to take one of the extra magnets from my hard drive and stick it on the bottom of the flask when the starter's ready. It will hold the stir bar in place when you dump it. I keep it with the rest of my yeast starter stuff so I don't forget.

Just use a magnet to pull it out of the flask before you dump anything.

Edit> Beat me to it.

yep, I had a magnet I was going to use for keeping the bar in place but the thought of actually using it escaped me before I pitched. This was my first starter so next time I'll get it right.

I figure since the flask and stir bar were sanitized prior to the starter being created and the stir bar was in the starter for almost two days with the yeast it helped create I'm probably OK leaving it in the carboy. Looks like others on this forum have left theirs in their primaries as well. I have an extra stir bar so I'm not too worried about this one being MIA for a while.

Side note, fermentation was off to a running start after about 8 hours this morning.

When you order another.. order a stir bar retreiver.. it's another magnet encased in a piece of tubing. Sanitize it and drop it to the bottom of your stir flask to pluck it out. Works every time

HbgBill said:

When you order another.. order a stir bar retreiver.. it's another magnet encased in a piece of tubing. Sanitize it and drop it to the bottom of your stir flask to pluck it out. Works every time

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I will do that. Thanks!

I can't remember where I got my stir bars, but the shipping was considerably more than the bars. I ordered 5 to account for one down the disposal, two pending in primaries, and still having two for starters. Maybe it wasn't that planned out, but spares worked out.

Boiling will sanitize ANYTHING. Crevices do nothing to protect from heat.