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updated starter advise to include benefits of agitation
Starter mediums that brewers have used include unhopped DME wort starters and apple juice starters. These tend to be adequate for many brewers. However, [https://eurekabrewing.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/evaluate-starter-media-to-propagate-lactobacillus-sp/ Samuel Aeschlimann from Eureka Brewing Blog] showed that using DME with a little bit of apple juice, chalk, and yeast nutrients provides close to optimal cell densities that match MRS media cell densities.
Although more experiments and probably needed, agitation is believed to be an important factor for any species of microbe (yeast and bacteria). Gentle stirring on a stir plate or orbital shaker, or frequent gentle manual agitation leads to faster growth and a higher number of organisms. Agitation keeps the microbes in solution. It also maximizes the microbes' access to nutrients and disperses waste evenly. In a non-agitated starter, the microbes are limited to the diffusion rate of nutrients, leading to a slower and more stressful growth <ref>[https://www.facebook.com/groups/MilkTheFunk/permalink/1168024059892473/?comment_id=1174865305875015&reply_comment_id=1176092372418975&total_comments=1&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D Conversation with Bryan Heit about starters and agitation. 11/09/2015.]</ref>. Although ''Lactobacillus'' are aerotolerant and oxygen usually does not negatively affect their growth (except in hte case of ''L. plantarum'', which has been shown to produce acetic acid when exposed to oxygen), it is also generally not needed (an exception to this may be ''L. brevis'', which has been shown to increase growth rates in the presence of oxygen). Therefore, it is generally best practice to seal the starter with an airlock.
=====Samuel Aeschlimann's Starter Procedures=====