Adventures in homebrewing: Building a stir plate

Adventures in homebrewing: Building a stir plate

I’m planning to brew another batch of beer this weekend, however this one has a much higher estimated Starting Gravity (1.063) than any I’ve made in the past. Most of the advice I’ve read suggests that making a yeast starter would be a good idea.

The most efficient way of making a yeast starter would be to stick the starter on a stir plate. “Proper” stir plates can cost anywhere from £50 to over £200! So, I set about making my own on the cheap.

Armed with the following parts from Amazon, I set to work:

Remove all the rubber feet and then the mesh grills from the fan. Re-attach 2 of the feet to what will be the “bottom” of the fan on opposite corners & squeeze the lot into the project box. Glue a couple of magnets to the fan, noting the polarity so the sides facing up oppose each other – Double check with the stir bar to ensure it’s attracted to both magnets at once.

Push the fan into the box, but not too far – You want it so the magnets will spin just below the plastic lid without rubbing or getting caught on the ridges. Snip a little notch in the plastic on the base & lid of the box to let the cable through and screw the lid on. With luck powering it up will get you the following:

My starter should be ready for the weekend, when I’ll be giving my Zombie Dust clone a shot…

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