The Amazing Wort-aerator Bong

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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.
 
Sounds like a winner Deebee, any chance of some pics with the WAB in action???

Wat to go Deebee

Andrew
 
Sounds good deebee, although what's a bong B)
It would definitely work better with an aeration stone in the bottom of the jar. I look foward to hearing of your results in the future.
Hoops
 
Do not have a digi cam but I spose I could take a real photo and scan it. Then I would have to work out how to upload it. :huh:

My brain hurts already.
 
I used this device in a real beer on the weekend. After pitching the yeast I left the WAB pumping bong-filtered air into the wort for eight hours.

One problem. In pumping the sanitiser through the aquarium airstone to clean it, I may have damaged it. When I pulled it out of the wort, I pumped some more sanitiser through it to clean it for next time. Then, it was a little crumbly, so I tried to rub the grainy bits off and it broke up in my hand. Probably got little green grains of airstone at the bottom of my beer. *******.

So where do you get these stainless steel airstone jobbies?
 
I have been using a white plastic one without any problems. I was worried the "stone" ones would fall apart like yours has. I think it was about 50c-$1.

I am currently in the process of doing an order with St Pats who have a 0.5micron threaded stainless steel aeration stone. You can then screw on your desired fitting - barbed to go onto plastic tubing or compression fitting to fit it to SS tube.
Stone is U$11.50, barb U$3, comp fitt U$7.25 plus postage.
Check out this thread here and let me know.
St Pats link here

Hoops
 
At present I use an aquarium stone to airate starters , I use bleach to sanitize and it's still ok
Once I did soak it in phos. acid and that ate it up

Will be better after I get a stainless one from Hoops St Pat order
I think you will find the barb will not fit standard aquarium pump line
 
I think you are onto it batz. The ortho phos has rooted mine. But they only cost a buck so I might try again with bleach.

Thanks for the offer hoops. I think I will be going the way I always have with brewing and try to spend nothing or not much. Don't want to spook my wife who is starting to come round to the idea of me buying a kegging system to get rid of all the bottles around the house and so I don't spend all Saturday bottling.

I wonder if it might be possible to make an airstone? A ping pong ball with pin holes in it? Something with irrigation fittings? Will think of something...
 
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