Did buy two years ago. A starter kit. Stirplate and a 1 liter flask. Now i want to buy a 2 or 3 liter flask. Will my stirplate be stong enough. Or each starter kit works only. With a dedicated flask. Sounds like a dumb question.
Most stir plates will handle a larger flask. A huge whirlpool may not be created but the whirlpool isn’t necessary for a starter. The stir bar only needs to keep the wort moving and the yeast suspended.
I did have a problem with WY 1998. A very flocculant yeast. As the volume of yeast cells increased the yeast cells dropping out would stop the stir bar. Every so often I would need to free it using a heavy magnet from the outside of the flask.
Aerating the wort before pitching the yeast will build cell counts faster than just relying on the stir plate to aerate.
Normally do shake for a few min before i put it on the plate. Reason for a bigger flask. Came home last night. Had a blow over on my 1 liter starter. Damm.
Yup it will handle it. I have a smaller stir plate and run a 2L flask. Works good
1 Like
Think i did find the solution. My wife has a two liter glass flower vase. Gonna clean. The hell out of it and make a big starter. With it. Mean while. Gonna order one. Did see one on amazon. Nice price. But now. Question. Glass vs plastic flask. The stir bar dont scatch the plastic ???,
I bought a 5L flask from the LHBS just because it appeals to the mad scientist in me(looks cool)(probably overkill). The stir plate handles even that size just fine.
I haven’t noticed any scratches in my Tupperware container. There is a small ring in the bottom that the one inch stir bar almost fits in. Does make a slight rattling sound because of this. The rattling sound made it very easy to know that the stir bar was still spinning even without seeing a vortex in large starters. My first stir plate, in the picture, utilized a two inch bar that had a pivot ring in the middle. This stir bar was quiet.
I had been looking for an acrylic flower vase but couldn’t find any with a flat base. I also checked the internet for plastic flasks 2 liters and up but couldn’t find any. I would have gone the plastic route if I did. I would probably break a glass flask sooner than a glass carboy because the flask would be moved more often.
