Making yeast starters

[bendog15]

Maybe u can help me streamline my process. It's getting to be a pain in the ----

I always make starters. First I boil dme and water in a pot, cuz I have an elec stove and I'm paranoid to use my Erlenmeyer flask on the stove top. Then I pour the hot wort into 3 sanitized glass mason jars. I place the mason jars in a small cooler, add ice and water to chill. Within 30 min they are below 80 degrees and I pour chilled wort into flask, add yeast, add put on stir plate.
Is there an easier way to do this? It seems like a waste to put the pot into my big sink and fill it all the way up with ice and water.

 

[brewpool]

I use a small pot too because I'm paranoid about cracking a flask. Once the boil is done, I pour into the flask and use a cold water bath, no ice. After 10-15 minutes i dump the water and replace with ice and water to cool it the rest of the way. Only takes another 10 minutes tops to cool to ~70 F. It is important to keep the water moving around the flask so it can continue absorbing the heat. Hope this helps a bit.

 

[cowboy1]

I use a hot plate stirrer. Something similar to this. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Corning-PC-3...MAAOSweuxWR91z

This one was bought by a HBT member after I showed it to them.

Cheers,

David

 

[2005STi]

I find my process to be cheap and easy:

1) Boil my DME, water, yeast nutrient for 10-15 minutes in a pot on the stove,
2) After boiling I cover the pot with a lid and put it in an ice bath using a larger kitchen pan or pot
3) Once the temp gets around 130F or lower I pour the wort using a sanitized funnel into a 1 gallon glass jug. The 1 gallon jug is key to me since it can accommodate large starter sizes and it's much cheaper than a flask.
4) I place the jug with the wort in it into an bowl full of ice and top off with water so the bath is as high as the level of wort. I check the temp via a fermometer stuck to the jug every 30 of so (sanitized foil covering the top of the jug). This cools the wort down pretty fast without any effort or stirring.
5) I pitch and aerate with o2 when I've hit 64-68F after flaming the mouth of the jar with a creme brulee torch I have.

It sounds like our processes are pretty similar. I can't think of a way that'd be faster and/or less effort

 

[blizz81]

I put my pot in my freezer for a little bit. Come back, pour into starter jug.

 

[jwalkermed]

if you are into canning wort it could speed thingd up. you have a bit of time spent up front but after that its quick.

 

[DurtyChemist]

You could no chill the started and let it come down over night.