deebee
The Bludgeon Brewery
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The thread on wort aerration techniques got me thinking. Now, with some low-tech thinking and a trip to City Farmers, I have come up with the amazing new Wort-Aerator Bong.
The WAB is simple. I bought a $14 aquarium pump and run a tube ($1-ish) from it through the lid of a tall jar and down into the bottom of some sanitiser. I use Grumpys one shot which is orthoph. acid with a detergent. The air bubbles up through the sanitiser and another tube feeds it out and through an airstone ($1.50) into the wort. I know that bacteria are really small really really small and that this wont stop many of them but it may stop a few. And it makes me feel better. The air doesnt just travel through a liquid, it has to make its way through the foam that settles on top of the sanitiser and this will allow some wild yeast spores, dust and microbes to settle out, contact the sanitiser and stay in the jar rather than travel down the tube and into the wort. I might try to increase this process by adding an airstone to the tube in the sanitiser or even some cotton balls or something to catch more flotsam.
I have only tried it on a starter so far, and will wait to see the results before I use it on a brew.
All this is pretty standard and probably nothing you havent thought or heard of. But the beauty of the WAB is that it makes it so easy to clean the airstone. Just push the tube feeding the airstone down into the sanitiser so that instead of picking up air, it draws up sanitiser and forces it through the airstone. After a few minutes, (and recirculating some sanitiser) I force air through it again for a few minutes and guess that it is clean. A quick dip in boiled water and it goes in the wort.
After aerating the wort, the WAB goes into action again pushing sanitiser through the airstone leaving it clean for next time.
I felt so clever, I wanted to share it with you all.
The WAB is simple. I bought a $14 aquarium pump and run a tube ($1-ish) from it through the lid of a tall jar and down into the bottom of some sanitiser. I use Grumpys one shot which is orthoph. acid with a detergent. The air bubbles up through the sanitiser and another tube feeds it out and through an airstone ($1.50) into the wort. I know that bacteria are really small really really small and that this wont stop many of them but it may stop a few. And it makes me feel better. The air doesnt just travel through a liquid, it has to make its way through the foam that settles on top of the sanitiser and this will allow some wild yeast spores, dust and microbes to settle out, contact the sanitiser and stay in the jar rather than travel down the tube and into the wort. I might try to increase this process by adding an airstone to the tube in the sanitiser or even some cotton balls or something to catch more flotsam.
I have only tried it on a starter so far, and will wait to see the results before I use it on a brew.
All this is pretty standard and probably nothing you havent thought or heard of. But the beauty of the WAB is that it makes it so easy to clean the airstone. Just push the tube feeding the airstone down into the sanitiser so that instead of picking up air, it draws up sanitiser and forces it through the airstone. After a few minutes, (and recirculating some sanitiser) I force air through it again for a few minutes and guess that it is clean. A quick dip in boiled water and it goes in the wort.
After aerating the wort, the WAB goes into action again pushing sanitiser through the airstone leaving it clean for next time.
I felt so clever, I wanted to share it with you all.