I believe that one key to happiness in life is to create things. When you create something, it generates fulfillment, and perhaps even a little sense of purpose. If the creation is beer, you are sure to find appreciation and smiles.
My initial step into the brewing community has revealed a large group of friendly, intelligent people who are always helpful and love to speak of their craft. What's not to like about that?
My first brew will be the Belgian Strong Golden Ale Extract Kit w/ Specialty Grains - From Northern Brewer. It requires a 2-stage fermentation and a yeast starter.
A yeast starter is like making a miniature batch of beer a day or so before you brew, with the plan of using the growing yeast population from this tiny batch in your main brew later. This ensures more yeast and healthier yeast for your brew. The yeast starter requires oxygen and sugar (from dry malt extract, usually). To give the yeast a lot of oxygen and further enhance its growth, people use a stir plate to stir the yeast mixture.
Store-bought stir plates run from $90 to $160 and up. However, if you look on YouTube, you'll see that it's very popular to make your own stir plate from a computer fan and a rare earth magnet (readily available in old hard drives). I'll document here my version of the DIY Stir Plate. I hope you find it useful.
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