Size of Erlenmeyer conical flask for starter

[Dilettante Brewing]

Just about to get into making starters and wonder what size of flask I might need. Can I get away with 2L or do I need to get a 3L one, which seems to narrow down the options? Any advice welcome. Thanks.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

I have a 3 litre flask , working on the basis that you can fit 2 litres in a 3litre flask but can't fit 3 litres in a 2 litre.

It does of course also depend on the size of your batches and the gravity, if you were making high gravity lagers and cool fermenting a 3 litre might not be big enough. But if that kind of thing is rare for you ( it is for me ) then you'd find another big vessel to use as a supplement on those rare occasions.
Make sure your stir plate though can cope with the flask, most can.
I haven't wished I had a smaller flask.

 

[An Ankoù]

While I have a couple of 2 litre flasks, I've always found 1 litre perfectly adeqaute. I use about 600 ml of wort and away we go. I should point out that I'm not particularly into overbuilding starters. If there's sufficient yeast to do the job it gets pitched. if there isn't then I'll pitch a 10-12 litre batch of something I want to experiment with and then use the yeast from that. It doesn't take any longer and I've got something drinkable at the end of it.
So your 2 litre flasks should be just fine.

 

[Dilettante Brewing]

Thanks - I managed to find a sensibly priced 3L on eBay in the end so we'll see how that works out. Now to the inevitable next question - stir plate or not? And if so, which one do people find works best? Again lots of ones on Amazon but some mixed reviews.

 

[RichardM]

Thanks - I managed to find a sensibly priced 3L on eBay in the end so we'll see how that works out. Now to the inevitable next question - stir plate or not? And if so, which one do people find works best? Again lots of ones on Amazon but some mixed reviews.

A homemade stir plate is best. Commercial ones are vastly overpriced for what they are.

 

[Griff097]

A homemade stir plate is best. Commercial ones are vastly overpriced for what they are.

I went for a heated stir plate on advice as the homemade ones need to be kept somewhere at a suitable temperature.
Depends a lot on where your brewing though I guess.

 

[An Ankoù]

I went for a heated stir plate on advice as the homemade ones need to be kept somewhere at a suitable temperature.
Depends a lot on where your brewing though I guess.

Since I'm happily married, I can now put my right hand better purpose and give the flask an occasional shake. No need for a stir plate.

 

[Griff097]

Since I'm happily married, I can now put my right hand better purpose and give the flask an occasional shake. No need for a stir plate.

Is that a contradiction 'happily' and 'married' or are you the example

 

[An Ankoù]

Is that a contradiction 'happily' and 'married' or are you the example

Hahaha. I must be the example.

 

[fgoulding]

I have a 2L erlenmeyer and it works perfectly for my starters when using a decent size funnel.

But now I use a 5L demijohn jug (the one with the handle) to overbuild my starters and put half in the fridge until next time.

The demijohn doesn’t work with a stir plate but I just swirl the stater around each time I walk by.

So these days my flask and stir plate just collect dust.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Thanks - I managed to find a sensibly priced 3L on eBay in the end so we'll see how that works out. Now to the inevitable next question - stir plate or not? And if so, which one do people find works best? Again lots of ones on Amazon but some mixed reviews.

3L is a good size to use - just make sure that you don't make the mistake I did and fail to read the fine print that the reason for the low price was that it was a 'B' grade one that had a number of small faults in the glass and was not suitable for boiling in...

 

[Dilettante Brewing]

Thanks - hopefully the flask will be OK. I think I’m going to start without the stir plate and use the swirl it when you walk past method and see how it goes.

 

[foxbat]

I have 0.5, 2, 3 and 5 litres. The 3 litre sees the most use for ales and the 5 litre for lagers unless I'm not overbuilding the starter in which case it's generally one size step back to 2 litres for an ale and 3 litres for a lager. I try to buy fresh yeast packs though and generally won't buy anything that's been in a pack more than 2 months.

One of the good things about the influx of new home brewers during lockdown has been that liquid yeast stocks are being replenished faster at the online suppliers so it's easier to find fresh packs than it used to be.

 

[DJDave]

in production (albeit) 40 years ago we used a shaker table on slow so it just gently swirled the wort.