Stir plate for growing yeast

I’m lame. Most homebrewers would have the drive, ingenuity and thrift to to build one of these things out of a few magnets and an old hard drive fan. Not me. I just walked into Northern Brewer and dropped $80. Sorry, but case closed. Call me lazy or good at delegation, but now I can focus on making lots of yeast instead of making things to make lots of yeast. Much more interesting. Here’s a similar stir plate to the one I bought that you can find on Amazon.com.

The first brew I used this on was for my Malinois Belgian Pale Ale, working the WLP-510 Bastogne ale yeast I’d washing from the sour beer primary into a viable amount to pitch for a 1.049 wort. There was a full 24 hrs. between making this starter and pitching. Fermentation took off within 6 hrs. of pitch at 65* so I think this worked out ok.

The only thing I’ll say is that the upgraded $10 stir bar I bought is as loud as shit unless you turn the speed down pretty low. I still think it’s fast enough but I’d be interested to see next time if the smaller stir bar that came with the plate is quieter. Is the noise worth the extra awesomeness of the larger stir bar? Not sure…