Continuous stirring vs continuous shaking

[Frodv]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone have tried to continuous shaking a starter instead of stirring?
My idea is to make some kind of table that rocks my starter flask from side to side continuously, that way the yeast is constantly in motion like it would be on a stirrplate.
The reason for doing this is because that way I can make bigger starters.

Have anyone tried this or have any thoughts?

 

[madscientist451]

Sure, here are my thoughts:
I make my starters in a 1/2 gallon jug with an airlock and keep it on my kitchen counter.
Every time I walk past, I give it a swirl. It works fine, but you don't really need to agitate the starter at all. The yeast will grow, it just might take a little longer. I don't worry about exact yeast cell counts, when I dump my "starter" in, the batch always takes right off. Note that using a stir bar or shaker agitation probably will make the starter grow faster, I'm just saying if you don't have the extra equipment, you can get by without it.
An interesting experiment would be to make two starters, on with a stir bar, one without, pitch them into two identical batches and see if anyone can tell the difference in a blind taste test.

 

[christyle]

That's how plenty of large breweries do it.

How big of a starter are you looking to make that a stirplate can't manage it? There's differing schools of thought on this, but I don't think you really need to be agitating the crap out of it to make a starter work, there just needs to be a little movement to keep yeast in suspension.

 

[Frodv]

Thank you for the reply, I'm not sure just how big starter I am going to make yet, but we are talking several gallons big ��

 

[christyle]

so...you're making a beer?

 

[motosapiens]

i sometimes do 5 gallon starters. and then i bottle them and drink them. i just aerate the wort when i pitch the yeast, and the yeast seems to grow just fine without me molesting it. Except for maybe being faster, i'm not sure what the whole benefit of stirplates and such is.

after tasting a difference in those starter batches, i started starting with a pre-starter instead, of 1/2 liter or so, and pitching that into the starter. Then the starter tastes just as good as the other beers i make from it.

 

[Frodv]

so...you're making a beer?

A starter is basically a beer 😉
I normally make 50 gallon batches of beer when I brew 😋

 

[dcbw]

It's called an orbital shaker and yes it works. Plenty of non beer labs use them for growing all kinds of cultures. I use a decommissioned one for starters with a normal flask. Something about its RPMs being a few off so it's no longer certified, but the yeast don't care!