I recently bought a stir plate to aid with my yeast starters.  Using a stir plate can increase your yeast cell count considerably, resulting in quicker fermentation starts and less chance of off-flavors (specifically those that come from unwanted organisms beating the yeast to the yummy sugary nourishment of the wort).

The combined use of a yeast starter and stir plate can also make each batch of beer consierably cheaper, since you won’t need to pitch two (or even three) tubes of yeast to get an adequate starting cell count.  At $6 apiece per yeast tube or pouch, that can add up quickly.

Even so, commercially-made stir plates average $80 – $100 from homebrew supply stores, so I have put off getting one.  I had considered building one myself; the process is simple and instructions are easy to find, such as those on the HomeBrewTalk forum: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-stirplate-cheap-easy-build-86252/

However, following a tip from my good friend and good brewer Brad Smith, I ordered a stir plate from stirstarters.com   These are basically identical to one I would build myself (the guts are based around a computer fan, just like the home-made version), and they only cost $45 apiece!

I know I could build one for cheaper, but I’d much rather use the time I’d spend building one to make more beer.  I accept that this attitude puts me squarely at odds with a sizable portion of the homebrew community, which strongly embraces a DIY mentality that I admire but cannot completely adhere to.  Sorry.

In any case, the thing works great, and my yeast starter was thick and healthy when it came time to pitch.  I strongly recommend.  Here’s a quick video of it in action:  Stir Starter video