New plastic starter container

I finally found a plastic container with a flat bottom. Container is food safe and has a lid which seals for cold crashing in the frig. I had been using a flask, but it had a domed bottom which would throw the stir bar and it transferred heat from the stir plate. I would put a small fan in front of it to keep the wort at ambient temperature. Plastic transfers very little heat to the wort. At $6 I couldn't pass up trying it out.

Pictured is step two for some WY1332 I had harvested this last June.

Hmmm... cool idea. I can't tell from the pic, but how many liters does it hold?

I do like that it has a big opening for ease of cleaning. Even with a bottle brush, it's tough to clean the inside of an erlenmeyer flask.

mtnagel said:

Hmmm... cool idea. I can't tell from the pic, but how many liters does it hold?

I do like that it has a big opening for ease of cleaning. Even with a bottle brush, it's tough to clean the inside of an erlenmeyer flask.

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It is 1.1 gallons (4.2 liters).

Even better! My erlenmeyers are only 2 L and that can be limiting. But I haven't wanted to buy a 4L one yet.

It has an good seal to keep nasties out while cold crashing in frig.

Where did you find it? Amazon wants $18.

Found it at K-Mart.

That is a great idea

mtnagel said:

Where did you find it? Amazon wants $18.

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The Tupperware worked so well for a starter I went back to KMart to get another one. Sometimes need to have two starters going at the same time. The container was on sale for $4.99.

Thanks for the update. I hate going to Kmart, but I'm going by one tomorrow, so I might just stop in.

I've drilled one of those Rubbermaid lids and installed a grommet so I can easily use it with an airlock. The lid happened to fit a 2.5 gallon glass container I had when I was given some fresh pressed cider and was without an empty fermentor. It's a $.50 upgrade if you have a 1/2 drill bit handy and probably better than using foil.

So that works fine on a stir plate? Do you use a stir bar?

Hello said:

So that works fine on a stir plate? Do you use a stir bar?

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Worksw very well on a stir plate. Plastic doesn't transmit the heat from the stir plate as glass does. My stir plate produces quite a bit of heat and there is no built heater. I had put a fan in front of it when I used glass.

I use three styles of stir bars. One is a straight one inch with flat sides and no pivot point. The second is a one inch '+' design. The third is a two inch round style with a pivot point in the middle.

I thought about using the airlock because it would be better than foil and look really cool. Need to find a nice plug for the hole when I cold crash in the frig before I go ahead with it. Proably just get a plastic threaded plug next visit to the hardware store.

God I hate Kmart. Stopped there yesterday. Took me a few minutes to find it. Found it on the shelf. No price tag to be found. Went to the front register with it and the 3 or 4 that were open had at least 4-5 people on each one. Decided getting it right now wasn't important so I left. Maybe I'll go back after the holidays.

Just wanted to let you know this saved by butt. I was planning on reusing the yeast from a batch for the next batch. Well, due to low attenuation, a touch of mold on the surface and the fact that I used a ton of chocolate powder that settled into the yeast cake, I decided I didn't want to reuse it. But I already had my next brew day planned (I brew with a friend, so I didn't want to change it). So I went and got one of these and it allowed me to grow enough yeast for my next batch and I can save some yeast for future batches in 1 step instead of the 2 that I would have needed with my 2L erlenmeyer flasks.

So thanks for posting!

mtnagel said:

Just wanted to let you know this saved by butt. I was planning on reusing the yeast from a batch for the next batch. Well, due to low attenuation, a touch of mold on the surface and the fact that I used a ton of chocolate powder that settled into the yeast cake, I decided I didn't want to reuse it. But I already had my next brew day planned (I brew with a friend, so I didn't want to change it). So I went and got one of these and it allowed me to grow enough yeast for my next batch and I can save some yeast for future batches in 1 step instead of the 2 that I would have needed with my 2L erlenmeyer flasks.

So thanks for posting!

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Helping out one brewer then makes it worth the time for posting.
Thanks for letting me know. I thought there would be a lot of negative responses since it is tradition to boil and ferment in one vessel.

Renoun said:

I've drilled one of those Rubbermaid lids and installed a grommet so I can easily use it with an airlock. The lid happened to fit a 2.5 gallon glass container I had when I was given some fresh pressed cider and was without an empty fermentor. It's a $.50 upgrade if you have a 1/2 drill bit handy and probably better than using foil.

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I know this is a very late reply but, you should not use an airlock when making starters. The yeast need oxygen to reproduce. Your aim is cell production at this point not good tasting beer. So, foil is better.

flars said:

Helping out one brewer then makes it worth the time for posting.
Thanks for letting me know. I thought there would be a lot of negative responses since it is tradition to boil and ferment in one vessel.

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I don't boil and cool in the erlenmeyer flask. I boil it in a pot and then transfer the hot wort to the erlenmeyer and then cool in a 2 gallon bucket with ice water.

With this, it was annoying to cool the 1 gallon wort in the pot, in my sink, but after the temp got down to low 100's, I then transferred it to the plastic container and finished cooling in the 2 gal bucket with ice. Took a little longer, but I was also cooling almost double I normally make.