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heated stir plate?
I have read about the need for proper yeast pitching rates and agree with many of my fellow home brewers that use of a stir plate is a good method to increase the quantity of yeast cells in a yeast starter. As a result, I plan to build a stir plate but I have a question: would a heated stir plat be beneficial? If so what would be the optimum temperature for the starter to propagate the healthiest yeast? Should I build a stir plate with a heated plate?
I am not sure how much heat is produced with the homemade varieties, but mine is a lab one (mag-mix) I bought off ebay, and it gets good and warm. My starters are probably at 80-85 deg, the heat I think is coming from the motor. Works well for me!
It all depends on where your stir plate and yeast start normally reside.
If you starter making process happens in normal room temps of say 65-75F, then the heat generated by the yeast and the stirplate itself will keep it plenty warm. ( I suspect this is what Thirsty is getting).
But if your brewing operation is say in a cold basement or a garage and you want to make the starter there because thats where all the other equipment is...then maybe a heated plate would work.
But I think for most applications a heated plate isn't needed.
On top of that, you'd really need to regulate the heat to be sure you didn't over heat the starter. Which means monitoring the temp of the starter...blah blah blah and that just increases contamination risks.
Most lab stir plates I work with that have heated bases are just controled with rheostats, not an actually temp gauge. I suspect an actual temp gauge would be more expensive than necessary for doing yeast starters.
thanks for the replys
Because my yeast starters will be at room tmperature I'll skip the heat for my stir plate build.
Happy brewing!
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