Yeast Agitators ?

[Bizier]

After reading about lazy yeasts, (and planning to use my pack of Ringwood Ale, this is making me too thirsty) I have been thinking of possible agitation methods.

Has anyone placed something such as sanitised ball bearings or similar in their fermenter to aid agitation? I figure that with a reasonable trub, these should give a deeper stir with less effort wrestling with your 20kg+.

 

[koongara]

I thought they would stick in the yeast like a stick in the mud? You should only need to roll the fermenter around on its bottom edge to get some agitation to rouse the yeast, not sure ball bearings would help this,

 

[drsmurto]

Bizier, the daily rousings generally required for 1187 and 1968 arent all that difficult.

Tilt the fermenter onto an edge and gently swirl it a few times.

Assuming you have an activator pack, throw it into a 2L starter and let it ferment out. this will reduce the need for daily rousings as TDA has inferred.

 

[Bizier]

OK, sizeable starter it is.

In my few re-culture attempts, I noticed that it takes a good amount of action to get the yeast thoroughly suspended. Maybe I was overestimating the amount of agitation necessary for a complete ferment.