Hotplate/stirrers

[Homegrown Hops]

Matt,
You have already bought a new stirrer, but I thought I'd post anyway. I have used several types of hotplate/stirrers the ones we used in the lab were corning and could bring a 4L Erlenmeyer to a boil. We used them all day some days to ready agar for the autoclave, make solutions etc... they arent cheap and you can find them on ebay, but if I were to buy one for my home lab I would go with Cynmar. They also sell huge stirbars for considerably less than the brew stores (even B3).

Cheers,
HH

[Lord Bia of Berkeley]

How long is it advised to stir a yeast starter? I stir my primaries for obvious reason of oxygenating the wort, but since I do it manually, I get bored after about 10minutes. How long do others stir their primaries if they can just plug it in, 0-.5 hrs, .5-1hr, 1-1.5hrs, etc?

[Bugeater]

My stirplate tends to get warm. So I initially run it for about half an hour and then check it. Basically everytime I walk past, I put my hand on the flask to check the temp. If warm, I turn it off and turn it back on the next time it feels cool. Generally about 1/2 hour to 45 minute increments depending on the speed, room temp, starter size, and whether I forget to check it.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[Danno]

That's funny Wayne. Mine has a similar problem. It goes faster as it warms up. I have to let it warm up before I use it as well.