Quick yeast washing question.

[TheHogue]

Why do you have an airlock/blowoff tube on your starter? You want as much oxygen as possible being disolved in your starter. If the stirplate is running fast enough and the vessel is appropriately large it shouldn't be able krausen out and over should it?

 

[kiblerjd]

The only reason I did that was to keep the mess down. I had a foam stopper on it but the krausen pushed it right out. So the blow off tube was just to direct it somewhere other than the counter

 

[kiblerjd]

I have never had that happen making a 1L starter in that big flask.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Why do you have an airlock/blowoff tube on your starter? You want as much oxygen as possible being disolved in your starter. If the stirplate is running fast enough and the vessel is appropriately large it shouldn't be able krausen out and over should it?

Foam stopper, not airlock. And I've had starters blow off before and make a big ass mess. Stirplate usually makes it worse, creating more foam and pushing it out the top. I've never thought of sticking a blow off tube on there though! I just spray it down with Star San and turn the stirplate off for a while while it calms down.

 

[RM-MN]

Have you ever considered how much air gets through under that foil you put on your flask when the yeast start putting out CO2? My guess it that it doesn't matter much if you have foil, airlock, blowoff, or even an open top. Most of the gas movement is going to be out, not in. The oxygen in the air inside the flask is probably the only oxygen the yeast are going to get.

 

[Komocabo]

RM-MN, though I have to research to support, I absolutely agree with you. It makes no sense for O2 to enter from the top of the flask.. if O2 can get in, bacteria would be able too, right?

Sent from my LG-P769 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[kiblerjd]

I use the foam stopper because it's dirt cheap and easy to clean. I think initially it will let a little air exchange through the filter but once fermentation starts the only thing that happens is co2 leaves. Quite frankly the stopper is easier to clean and takes up less space than the airlock. I do think there is some merit in their use at the beginning of the process though but maybe not a ton.

 

[kiblerjd]

I also think people go crazy with this bacteria stuff sometimes too. I think you could put nothing on the lid of a starter and 99/100 times it will be fine as long as the stuff was clean when you started. I guess this debate is probably for another thread though.