Wort carburetor? Oxygenation idea.

[hornswoggler]

So I finally got around to putting a spigot on my brew kettle.

I installed it an filled the kettle up with water to test it for leaks.

I found the seal was less than tight (but managed to fix the problem with another rubber washer), proof that testing your kit before brewing is time well spent.

When I drained it, I noticed that the imperfect seal was letting bubbles into the water, which gave me an idea.

Could somebody with a lot more know-how than me (engineers? Fitters and turners?) make a fitting that makes use of this phenomenon (to my understanding it kinda works like a carburetor) to oxygenate the wort?

I figure time saved on brew-day and oxygenated wort are both good things.

What do you guys think?

Maybe some kind of T-piece with another valve sticking out to the side that you could open up slightly to let some air into the wort as it drains from the kettle to the fermentor?

 

[tugger]

Or something like this.

 

[n87]

I have seen one setup that has a O2 stone in a T-piece on the way to the fermenter, this would be the easiest way I would imaging.

Otherwise if you want to use air [instead of O2](thinking of something that doesnt actually require a part to be made up), get a long thermowell, drill a hole in the end (so its just a tube) and have it in a T-piece pointing in the direction of the flow, this will pull air in provided it is gravity fed, or the pump is after the fitting

 

[Matplat]

I saw a youtube video where I guy had just put pin pricks in his silicone tubing to the same effect....

Not sure how that would go with sanitation, or how much o2 it would actually introduce, but a very simple idea none the less.

 

[Benn]

Venturi effect

 

[MHB]

Really not worth spending a lot of time and effort on - problem is that you really cant get enough Oxygen into solution using air, no matter what you do. You can get close if the wort is really cold, but that brings along another whole set of problems and expenses.
Oxygen is a much better answer, an airstone and an aquarium pump is reasonably cheap and will get as much as is possible into solution (with air) fairly quickly.
I know some waste water systems use at T in front of the pump (the suction side) and once the pump is drawing, open a small valve on the T some air is sucked in and mixed very thoroughly with the waste stream as it goes through the pump.

Again there are plenty of second best options to using O2.
Mark

 

[Adr_0]

The Bernoulli effect is pretty awesome. We could fairly easily get down to -0.9barg using ~10barg instrument air to evacuate the atmosphere around a cryogenic sample point.

Your Weed and Feed spray container is very similar.

The principle relies on a high starting pressure going through a nozzle which converts high pressure, low velocity to high velocity, lower pressure. This area around the nozzle is trying to fill the downstream volume with something, so draws in everything from around it. The downstream jet represents the mix of fluid flowing through the nozzle plus what is brought in from the surroundings to make up the low pressure.

I'm not sure that you really have enough starting pressure to create flow, and certainly don't have enough velocity of the wort at any point.

 

[Matplat]

Considering that vinturi wine aerator is able to do it with such little head, I'm confident 25-26l in a pot will be be able to create the same effect.

However I agree with MHB, if you're going to go the effort of buying bits of gear to create a venturi effect, you may as well just get a pond pump.