Evan!
Well-Known Member
I got my eBay stirplate in the mail today. I've seen them in action but never used one before. This one came with a little stir bar, maybe 1" long...in profile, it's octagonal, and in the middle, it has a little protruding ring which raises it off the surface a little bit as it spins.
At the same time, I have a 2" stir bar that I got from AHS awhile ago, anticipating getting a stirplate soon. That one is square in section, and has no protruding ring. I don't have a flask yet, so I tested it out using gallon glass juice jugs that have a very slight convex bottom. The little 1" octagonal one works fine at full speed; however, the 2" bar gets thrown every time before I can reach full speed.
My question is two-fold: first off, I don't really need the big 2" bar, do I? I mean, I got a pretty good little vortex going with the 1" bar. Second, if I were to get a flask, would the flat bottom help the 2" bar from getting thrown? I mean, aside from the obvious advantage of being able to boil the starter wort directly in the flask, I'm fine with these jugs. Plus, I always make big 2000mL starters, which, as far as I've seen, is the size of the biggest flasks (without spending an arm and a leg), which means that I'd have to lighten up my starter volumes to account for starter krausen...or...do you not even get a krausen with stirplates because of the vortex???
At the same time, I have a 2" stir bar that I got from AHS awhile ago, anticipating getting a stirplate soon. That one is square in section, and has no protruding ring. I don't have a flask yet, so I tested it out using gallon glass juice jugs that have a very slight convex bottom. The little 1" octagonal one works fine at full speed; however, the 2" bar gets thrown every time before I can reach full speed.
My question is two-fold: first off, I don't really need the big 2" bar, do I? I mean, I got a pretty good little vortex going with the 1" bar. Second, if I were to get a flask, would the flat bottom help the 2" bar from getting thrown? I mean, aside from the obvious advantage of being able to boil the starter wort directly in the flask, I'm fine with these jugs. Plus, I always make big 2000mL starters, which, as far as I've seen, is the size of the biggest flasks (without spending an arm and a leg), which means that I'd have to lighten up my starter volumes to account for starter krausen...or...do you not even get a krausen with stirplates because of the vortex???