Thoughts once you’ve seen it?
Boil, cool, no airation mentioned, bung and airlock it, stir plate… pitch. That’s what I got anyway.
Did it ever reappear?
Not yet. Someone who knows better must have yanked it.
I have held my tongue long enough.
Mark is not some super genius micro biologist. He is certainly a smart guy that did perform a lot of research while honing his method, but then again so did Kai, JZ and Chris White.
I am amazed at how quick the sheep on this forum have gone from using stir plates to accepting his method to decrying all others as so inferior they should be mocked. This forum is starting to become a collection of elitist snobs.
Stir plates work for people as does Mark’s method. I don’t know which is better, but I still use both and my beers are good either way.
id be interested in the blind triangle of stir plate vs shaken and pitched high krausen. only difference I’ve seen is sometimes the lag time is less for high krausen pitched. as someone said in another post- we don’t drink lag time-we drink beer.
both methods work- but is one better or worse than the other…haven’t experienced that conclusion.
Unfortunately it’s gone now, but the video showed boiling 150g of dme in 1000ml water with 1/4tsp nutrients. So 1.060 wort if I’m adding right. After 15 min boil, cover with foil and cool to 70F. Then pitch yeast and put a stopper with air lock on it. Stirplate for I forget how long. Then pitch the whole thing.
I was just curious what folks thought of that. I’ll bet it would make beer. If my post enraged anyone so much that they had to resort to insults, that was not my point.
Dude…settle down. I haven’t seen anyone denouncing or mocking other methods. I have seen people using Mark’s method, like myself, report great results with it. elitist snobs? I’m not sure where that comes from. In the end, its HOMEbrewing. There are many roads to the same destination.
Despite my best efforts I find it impossible to be a sheep and elitist snob at the same time. [emoji6]
Maybe I took it too far, but I stand by my opinions.
Jim’s posts read like a mock of the method. I will admit that this could be my bias, but maybe others read it the same way.
If somebody asks a question about a stirred starter, don’t reply with the shaken not stirred method. Answer his/her questions and add the other method as a side note. Imagine if you were a new brewer and were told that the latest purchase was a waste, which is how it reads, when in fact it’s still one of many viable methods.
In the past I cringed whenever I would read Denny’s “try it for yourself” response. I would say to myself, “the guy is looking for a simple answer and you pull this Master Po ‘grab the pebble from my hand’ BS?” But now I’m an honest believe. People shouldn’t take any of the posts here as gospel and should run their own tests to find what works.
I honestly do feel that there is a bit of a hive mentality here. Maybe it is because there is a core group that posts a large majority of the replies, but either way hive minds are bad for growth and innovation.
My first starters were un stirred and randomly shaken when I remembered. Then I got a stir plate and did a couple batches that way. Then I tried and have been still using The James Bond method. All 3 methods did make beers I was happy with. Were they great, I’m not the one to answer that. In my short experience with home brewing, about 35 batches, I have rarely made the same batch twice, and when I did, I followed almost exactly the same procedure as the first time. Did one way produce better beer for me? I really don’t have that answer because my early brews had poor or more likely, no notes. For me going forward, the shaken not stirred method is fairly simple and easy, and I will continue to use it. I have an interested new Comer coming to brew with me, and we be be making 2 batches: 1 extract with rehydrated dry yeast and 1 AG batch with a shaken starter. He won’t see that starter really until we are ready to pitch, but I will explain it to him as well as its benefits. In the end, if he wants my stir plate, I’ll give him a great deal on it. Just my $0.02
I think the feeling here is that even if you use a stirplate, what was (supposedly) shown in the video wasn’t even the best approach to the stirplate method.
I prefer S. Cerevsiae’s approach simply because it’s easier. No stir bar to worry about dumping in the beer, which was something I was stupid enough to do regularly.
I think it’s very possible for people to hear the proper scientific approach to doing things, then turn around and assume that that is the only way to do things. In reality, the best idea is to make that science work for you. It’s like engineering, there’s usually a perfect way to do things that ends up not being used due to cost or difficulty. Brewing is no different IMO.
Steve, in my mind the hive mentality and telling someone to experiment for themselves are polar opposites. I’ve brewed long enough that I don’t feel that I have to take anyone’s advice out of some sort of peer pressure. I will try a technique from a brewer I have confidence in to see if I like it better or worse than what I was doing prior. I try hard not to tell someone what they need to do - I try to tell them what I do, then suggest to try it for themselves, to form their own opinion. To me, that runs counter to ‘conform and do what we do’.
This is how I read it.
For lagers I still use a stirplate, crash and decant. Just can’t bring myself to pitch 2.5 liters of starter into 19.
Heck, I don’t even boil my starters…
Yeah, I’ve never been on board with pitching that much spent wort. The shaken thing worked fine for 1.050 ales, but I wouldn’t use it for big beers or lagers.
I wonder if yeast starters should be added to the list with religion and politics
I am more than happy to learn from someone else’s research and experience. We all have, and all continue to. My brewing library, this forum, and podcasts are the primary ways I have learned how to brew. For me, if the explanation is cogent, I try it. The shaken yeast starter process makes sense to me, so I have begun using it. What I like about it is it is easier, quicker, and requires less equipment. I have yet to decide whether it makes better beer.
I always appreciated Mark’s contributions here. I’ve made the point elsewhere that part of the constellation of characteristics that include the desire to research exhaustively includes the characteristic that some perceive as being too blunt, too know-it-all, or even rude. I don’t think this is actually the case, just how they come across to some people. These people are not aggressive with people, but they are aggressive with ideas.
I have offended others as I tend to make categorical statements too. It is never my intention to offend or be abrasive, but sometimes it is perceived that way. Now my area of expertise is not brewing, so I tend to be far less categorical here, but in my area of expertise, I have no problem saying “You’re wrong, and I’m going to tell you why.” I hope to have learned better ways of communicating over my life, so that I offend fewer people, but sometimes encountering ideas other than what one already knows makes people mad regardless.
Is this post too ‘preachy?’ Perhaps. My reason for writing it is not to be parental with anyone, but hopefully to contribute to understanding so that this forum remains a place that all persons feel a valued.
Chris has a lot more money to spend on this sort of stuff than you or I do. 
[quote]I am amazed at how quick the sheep on this forum have gone from using stir plates to accepting his method to decrying all others as so inferior they should be mocked.
[/quote]
Did some comments I didn’t see either get deleted? Honestly, my method is similar to Mark’s, but I was using it for way longer than he started posting about it.
[quote]This forum is starting to become a collection of elitist snobs.
[/quote]
So, if I happen to agree that shaking instead of spending the money on a stirplate works just as well, I’m an elitist snob? RDWHAHB.
Did some comments I didn’t see either get deleted? Honestly, my method is similar to Mark’s, but I was using it for way longer than he started posting about it.
[quote]This forum is starting to become a collection of elitist snobs.
[/quote]
So, if I happen to agree that shaking instead of spending the money on a stirplate works just as well, I’m an elitist snob? RDWHAHB.
[/quote]
Nothing deleted. Post 1 and 3 apparently was elitist sheep snob hive mentality