adam01 said:
Hmmm
Special stand
Special stir plate
special stir bar
........
Ebay it and buy a E-flask. If you can get $35 you can net a 1L E-flask.
1L e-flasks are so useless... ugh. You can barely grow any yeast in it at all.
A 1L flask is somewhat more useful if having to propagate from a slant or petrified dish, but if starting from a smackpack or WL vial, it is extremely inflexible.
This is largely due to the fact that, at any given combination of volume and gravity, there is a limit to how much yeast can be supported while still allowing growth (the method, such as basic starter vs stirplate, also affects this, but it's not very scalable and we'll assume one is using a stirplate anyways). A starter made with 100% or more of this maximum yeast level won't see any growth at all. So the only way to further increase growth is to adjust one of the two factors in the previously mentioned combination.
You can increase the gravity, which provides more yeast food, but this results in their environment containing a higher concentration of alcohol, which hurts yeast vitality (health) - arguably an even more important function of making a starter than increasing viability (cell counts) - and so is wisely considered such a bad idea that pitching rate calculators never even let users change the gravity of the starter.
The other variable that can be changed is starter volume. Wyeast XL smackpacks and White Labs vials are produced with roughly the maximum that could be produced in a 1 pint flask. Meaning a starter smaller than a pint will not produce yeast. Since there are about 2 pints in a liter, this means that only about half of the flask - 1 pint - is even useful to begin with (assuming a fresh pitch). And I've never even used a calculator that will even calculate for volumes less than 1L!
But you make good beer with just a 1L flask, so it's obviously not necessary, right? Well no, it's not strictly necessary, but neither is making a starter in the first place. People make starters to make better beer, and not spending just a tiny bit more for a flask twice the size is a pretty big compromise, unless you're doing extremely small batches. To demonstrate in quantitative terms just how big a compromise it is, we'll assume one is brewing 5gallon batches - very few brewers exclusively stick to much smaller batches. As I mentioned before, there is a limit to how many yeast cells can be in a given volume of starter wort where viable cell counts can no longer increase. With a 1L starter, you can only provide enough yeast to provide an adequate pitching rate for a wort with an OG of roughly 1.065 (with a stirplate) and about 1.045 (with a basic starter). Those numbers are pretty awful IMO, but it gets worse. Those are based on typical pitching rates for ALES. Want to make a lager? Cut the number after the decimal point in half - in a 5gal batch of lager, a 1L flask only allows proper pitching rates for wort with an OG of up to roughly 1.033, and a mere 1.023 if using just a simple starter! That is beyond pathetic.
So it really makes far more sense to invest in a 2L flask, as it provides a much better balance between functionality and cost. I personally own a 2L and a 5L, and had originally planned to add a 1L flask next - but knowing what I know now, I am definitely just going to get an extra 2L flask.
good call... I love having the option of my 5L E-flask. Even with older yeast of roughly 10% viability, I build a starter for a 5gal batch of 1.100 ale in only 2 steps (and that is with the initial starter in the 1-1.5L range, as there IS no point in making a bigger starter for only 10mil cells). With a 3rd step, I could make more yeast than I could possibly need, a pitching rate adequate for an ale with a gravity a bit higher than 1.320 (or even a 1.160 lager). And that is starting with just 10% viability. Everything is assuming the use of a stirplate, of course.
