Brew Oxygenation

[Brew-noob]

So i was reading This artical in your wiki section and came across this which intrested me about Oxygenation

Oxygenation
Many brewers dont know that oxygenation is one of the biggest things you can do to make better beer. After wort is cooled make sure and oxygenate the wort by shaking, aquarium pump or the best pure oxygen. Pure oxygen gets the job done much fast but the other to will do.

So aquarium pump through a grommet to the bottom of the fermenter with a air stone or air grid would do?? if so how long would i leave it going for?? with a kit (tin) brew??

Cheers
Barry

 

[tcapach]

Apparently aquarium pump and airstone are what a lot of people use. I personally just shake and stir the crap out of it for a few minutes.

I read somewhere that the amount of oxygen dissolved with shaking is sufficient, but better with a pump set up.



You definitely DO NOT want to aerate after fermentation, or while the wort is too hot.

 

[peaky]

As far as I am aware the air stone should have really small holes (2 micron or so) meaning heaps of tiny air bubbles which equals a greater surface area to aerate the wort. I don't use a pump as yet but I'm looking to get one.

 

[Fat Bastard]

As far as I am aware the air stone should have really small holes (2 micron or so) meaning heaps of tiny air bubbles which equals a greater surface area to aerate the wort. I don't use a pump as yet but I'm looking to get one.

I've just set myself up for this. Picked up the 2 micron airstone from CB and found that the aquarium pump I have handy didn't have the guts to push air through it, so I've rigged it up with an oil-less airbrush compressor, which made the water fairly jump out of the 5l jug I tested it in.

According to Palmer's "How to Brew" the air needs to be clean, so I've bodged up a filter similar to the one in his book with a tube stuffed with sanitiser soaked cotton wool.

I'll let you know how it goes. I'm probably not experienced enough to say if it's improved things one way or the other, but I don't see it harming anything.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Dont even bother if you are Kit brewer

Air stones are really only usefull for VERY advanced brewers.

Even then , there is a lot of doubt as the the effectivenes of them

 

[Janelle Kerr]

Well, there you go. I heard that too (about the oxygen, cos my yeast wouldn't ferment properly). Now I just make sure I stir the wort vigorously, to fill it with bubbles, pitch the yeast, and Bob's your uncle. Especially with kit beer,that's all you need..

 

[Deebo]

Am I just paranoid thinking if you introduce a lot of air into the wort you risk introducing airborn bacteria also? Do many people use filters for their air pumps as described above?

I really just splash the wort when draining from cube but am paranoid even doing this, would like to get an o2 cylinder to test how that goes.
Haven't had a brew not ferment yet, but perhaps would improve them if I did aerate better?

Edit: Regarding kits, as I understand you wouldn't really need to aerate as tap water should have oxygen in it already? Also splashing when pouring the water in helps, whereas boiling the water in AG removes a lot of the oxygen?

 

[MHB]

Its critical to making sure your air supply is sterile.
For what they cost I would invest in an inline HEPA filter rather than take any risk with a bodgied up filter.
Oxygen is sterile (in fact its a steriliser), thats the one big advantage of using bottled O2, one of the down sides being the extra cost. The other is that O2 can in too high a dose can poison yeast.
Its possible to get reasonable amounts of O2 into the wort with an air stone, if you are propagating yeast you need to keep replacing the O2 the yeast consumes, so you need to keep pumping, problems is foaming. As mentioned a wort can foam like a bugger, commercial systems used a timed flow (of sterile air) often around 10 minutes on 10 minutes off and add antifoaming agents to the wort.
Whichever method you choose, make sure of your air supply sterility.
MHB

 

[mikk]

I consider wort oxygenation as a very important part of making a quality beer. It's critical to have your yeast happy & healthy, & have found the aquarium pump with a hepa filter the way to go. I do 30 mins aeration prior to pitching the yeast, by which stage the fermenter is pretty much full to the top with foam.

It's especially important for making big beers if you want proper attenuation too.

It's not something that kit brewers need to worry about, but for others trying to take all the necessary steps to make the absolute best beer possible, wort aeration is one of those necessary steps...

 

[pcmfisher]

Is it kit brewers that don't need to worry about it or anyone using dry yeast??

 

[stux]

When I made kits I diluted the kit with water from a fridge water filter. The tricking from height resulted in lots of foam over about 20 minutes

Great ferments

Moving to AG with full size boils I've had trouble with insufficient aeration.

I think it's a combination of boiling out the oxygen and not getting the bonus aeration from the dilution water

 

[Icewind]

/thread resurrection

what if the tap you are using to fill your jug already has an aerator attachment?