DIY Stir Plate part 2

Well I’ve done all the drilling, the mounting and the gluing.  Things seem to be working pretty well.  The magnet is sufficiently balanced that there is no shimmy at all that I can detect.  I think the only thing left optionally would be to add a rheostat/potentiometer to the circuit to make a variable speed dial.  I think I may just do that if I can find the parts needed locally. In a day or two I’ll be able to test it with a real stir bar and find out if it works to my satisfaction.

DIY Stir Plate from Apartmentbrewer on Vimeo.

 

DIY Stir Plate Project

All the parts necessary for a DIY Stir Plate (I hope)

It is kind of weird sometimes how plans go into motion.  Walking past a cigar shop in the area I noticed that they were selling empty cigar boxes for cheap and the idea occurred to me, “Why not make a stir plate out of one?”  I’m not by any means finished with my project, but so far the only things I’ve needed to buy were a T-8 Torx screwdriver and the cigar box.  Everything else I’ve re-purposed from things I had laying around.

A stir plate can be an extremely useful tool in saving money and in making better beer.  A normal Wyeast smack pack or other yeast manufacturers’ equivalent is made for pitching into 5 gallons of wort at about 1.048 SG according to this.  Using two smack packs or vials of yeast for high starting gravity worts is a fine practice, but why purchase two if you can just make a yeast starter and get the same results?