Stir plate = GO!

No elves were injured in the making of this stir plate

I'm so stoked. I accomplished the (almost) last thing on my list of brew to-dos for 2011, namely, getting a stir plate built. Stir plate? What the hell is that? say all you who are not my Facebook friends yet. I'll tell you what I told them:

This is part of my home brewery. It's for stirring a yeast culture, to help it propagate more and make healthier yeast. You put liquid yeast in a liter or 2 of wort in a conical flask, along with a small magnetic bar. When you turn on the stir plate, the fan spins and the magnet that's attached to that makes the magnet in the flask spin, creating a vortex in the liquid solution. This keeps the yeast in suspension (otherwise they would settle out after a while) and provides lots and lots of oxygen, which the yeast use to build up their cell walls. You get really healthy yeast this way, for making really excellent beer.


You: Still talkin' Greek dude. I'm looking at a Mac mini computer or sump'n.


K, more pics then:

Mac Mini, repurposed for the forces of good

My brew brother Lee (might be his real name) and I gutted this Mac Mini and put a fan inside with the blades removed, so that it would fit in with the speed controller doohicky thingy-majig with the wires behind it. Then we stuck a rare earth magnet to the top. Reread the bit before the photo now, and look at the first photo again.

Back 2 tha Front

That knobby thing controls the speed of the fan, and thus the speed of the stirring going on inside your flask of yeast soup. The neat-o red light inside is to remind you of the Cylons, and how they will one day rise up to overthrow us, and sometimes mate with us, producing pretty cute little semi-cyborg offsprings to repopulate the universe. This is a pretty good motivator for me to brew more beer and not waste time, actually. (Currently rewatching the BSG series, in case you hadn't surmised.)

Um, anyhoo. I may post a video of this bad boy in action next time I make a yeast starter. Or I may not. There are only like a metric shit-ton of stir plate videos on youtube already. Sheesh.

--

UPDATE: 26 Dec 11

Here is proof positive that this thing works! It took a few tries, but finally, here it is going to town on some Scottish ale yeast in anticipation of my next brew a couple of days from now.

Stir it up, little darling, stir it up... (obvious, I know)

And for you movie buffs, a still from the soon to be released special edition of the DVD/Blu-Ray box set, from the bonus disc, "The Making of the Stir Plate Video"

Geek filming