Carboy-sized Magnetic Stirring

I want to re-suspend yeast and generally keep a brew uniformly mixed in a carboy without having to open it and expose it to oxygen every time. Is there a hobbist-priced magnetic stirrer that works for this kind of application? Right now, I'm thinking about the long-term aging process of a red wine.

In a quick test I found that the dome of the carboy makes it a little hard for the stirrer. Most chemistry mixing flasks have flat bottoms it seems for this reason. The magnetic field from the external mixing plate is also weaker at the top of the dome (farther away). I'm fine if one side of the carboy is mixed more than others.

Topic lees stir-plate red-wine homebrew

Category Mac

1
answered at

Yes you can. I've fermented apple wine this way on a DIY stirplate, 1 inch magnet, and a vintage arrowhead carboy (flat bottom).

It wasn't powerful enough to make a deep cone for oxygenating which actually worked nice as I just wanted to deny the yeast the option to flocculate.

My stirplate uses an old SCSI external 5.25 tape drive, so it's platform is about 12x12inches. With a 6 inch fan for the magnet.

Edit: I've seen a stir plate successfully used on stainless 15.5g keg. It was used with a herms system for kettle souring. Many do use these kegs as fermentors too. Maybe an option?

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