Aeration - User Builds Discussions on Home Brew Forums

westcoastbrewer

Hello, can someone give me some advice on the best way to aerate wort prior to pitching my yeast?

Thanks,
Joe

Jayrizzle

I try to keep things simple. I just dump it in from a height. As long as it's mostly chilled that should be all that it needed.

ceannt

Dr_Jerryrigger said:
I try to keep things simple. I just dump it in from a height. As long as it's mostly chilled that should be all that it needed.

This is also what I do .... may be difficult with large batches though ...

Thym

Hi joe, welcome to the site. I've tried a couple methods, including an O2 bottle and an air-stone, dump it in and the shaken baby method. It depends a lot on your setup and batch size, but I basically just pump it into the fermenter at the neck height and it pulls air in.

Jayrizzle

Oh, I forgot the welcome thing, sorry, welcome. Also that's a really awesome logo!

jlw

Dr_Jerryrigger said:
I try to keep things simple. I just dump it in from a height. As long as it's mostly chilled that should be all that it needed.

Welcome to the site. This is also what I do.

C_B

I pump it in and hold the hose three feet up or so. With a good pitch of fresh yeast I usually get a pretty quick start to fermentation. Welcome.

Fuzzy

I alternate between the 'long pour' approach and stirring the wort like mad before I pitch the yeast. They seem to be about equally effective.

jeepinjeepin

I think I've tried it all. Pouring from height, siphoning or pumping through a small hose, aquarium pump through a plastic stone, and bottled oxygen through a stainless steel stone. Any method with a stone adds another level of sanitation. Using a wort pump will send the wort out with such force that it churns and foams, a sure sign that it is getting contact with the air. When siphoning I used a little diverter that sprays the wort in a 360* pattern inside the carboy to increase contact time. If you are using buckets to ferment in and have 2 the pour back and forth method is easy and works.

Thym

jeepinjeepin said:
I think I've tried it all. Pouring from height, siphoning or pumping through a small hose, aquarium pump through a plastic stone, and bottled oxygen through a stainless steel stone. Any method with a stone adds another level of sanitation. Using a wort pump will send the wort out with such force that it churns and foams, a sure sign that it is getting contact with the air. When siphoning I used a little diverter that sprays the wort in a 360* pattern inside the carboy to increase contact time. If you are using buckets to ferment in and have 2 the pour back and forth method is easy and works.

I stopped using air-stones due to the extra sanitation requirements. I used the plastic disposible ones mostly, but it gets expensive after a while.

Jayrizzle

Lakewood said:

jeepinjeepin said:
I think I've tried it all. Pouring from height, siphoning or pumping through a small hose, aquarium pump through a plastic stone, and bottled oxygen through a stainless steel stone. Any method with a stone adds another level of sanitation. Using a wort pump will send the wort out with such force that it churns and foams, a sure sign that it is getting contact with the air. When siphoning I used a little diverter that sprays the wort in a 360* pattern inside the carboy to increase contact time. If you are using buckets to ferment in and have 2 the pour back and forth method is easy and works.

I stopped using air-stones due to the extra sanitation requirements. I used the plastic disposible ones mostly, but it gets expensive after a while.

Just put them in your boil (on a sting if you like) for the last ten minutes.

Thym

Dr_Jerryrigger said:

Lakewood said:

jeepinjeepin said:
I think I've tried it all. Pouring from height, siphoning or pumping through a small hose, aquarium pump through a plastic stone, and bottled oxygen through a stainless steel stone. Any method with a stone adds another level of sanitation. Using a wort pump will send the wort out with such force that it churns and foams, a sure sign that it is getting contact with the air. When siphoning I used a little diverter that sprays the wort in a 360* pattern inside the carboy to increase contact time. If you are using buckets to ferment in and have 2 the pour back and forth method is easy and works.

I stopped using air-stones due to the extra sanitation requirements. I used the plastic disposible ones mostly, but it gets expensive after a while.

Just put them in your boil (on a sting if you like) for the last ten minutes.

its very difficult to ensure everything is cleaned out of the microscopic pores of a very fine airstone.

scoob

Instead of a stone that is as others have said is a pain to sanitize, I use my pump to do the oxygenating for me with one of these things, they are cheap and easy as pie to sanitize with the other little bits like airlocks, stoppers, and whatnot.

The wort is pumped onto the bottom cone causing a wide fan pattern and much aeration in the carboy during transfer.

Jayrizzle

Lakewood said:

Dr_Jerryrigger said:

Lakewood said:

jeepinjeepin said:
I think I've tried it all. Pouring from height, siphoning or pumping through a small hose, aquarium pump through a plastic stone, and bottled oxygen through a stainless steel stone. Any method with a stone adds another level of sanitation. Using a wort pump will send the wort out with such force that it churns and foams, a sure sign that it is getting contact with the air. When siphoning I used a little diverter that sprays the wort in a 360* pattern inside the carboy to increase contact time. If you are using buckets to ferment in and have 2 the pour back and forth method is easy and works.

I stopped using air-stones due to the extra sanitation requirements. I used the plastic disposible ones mostly, but it gets expensive after a while.

Just put them in your boil (on a sting if you like) for the last ten minutes.

its very difficult to ensure everything is cleaned out of the microscopic pores of a very fine airstone.

Why does it have to be clean? As long as everything is dead everything should work out fine.

Thym

Dr_Jerryrigger said:

Lakewood said:

Dr_Jerryrigger said:

Lakewood said:

jeepinjeepin said:
I think I've tried it all. Pouring from height, siphoning or pumping through a small hose, aquarium pump through a plastic stone, and bottled oxygen through a stainless steel stone. Any method with a stone adds another level of sanitation. Using a wort pump will send the wort out with such force that it churns and foams, a sure sign that it is getting contact with the air. When siphoning I used a little diverter that sprays the wort in a 360* pattern inside the carboy to increase contact time. If you are using buckets to ferment in and have 2 the pour back and forth method is easy and works.

I stopped using air-stones due to the extra sanitation requirements. I used the plastic disposible ones mostly, but it gets expensive after a while.

Just put them in your boil (on a sting if you like) for the last ten minutes.

its very difficult to ensure everything is cleaned out of the microscopic pores of a very fine airstone.

Why does it have to be clean? As long as everything is dead everything should work out fine.

clean is the first step of sanitary. if you dont get step #1 right, step #2 is hardly a guarantee.

Jayrizzle

Lakewood said:

Dr_Jerryrigger said:

Lakewood said:

Dr_Jerryrigger said:

Lakewood said:

jeepinjeepin said:
I think I've tried it all. Pouring from height, siphoning or pumping through a small hose, aquarium pump through a plastic stone, and bottled oxygen through a stainless steel stone. Any method with a stone adds another level of sanitation. Using a wort pump will send the wort out with such force that it churns and foams, a sure sign that it is getting contact with the air. When siphoning I used a little diverter that sprays the wort in a 360* pattern inside the carboy to increase contact time. If you are using buckets to ferment in and have 2 the pour back and forth method is easy and works.

I stopped using air-stones due to the extra sanitation requirements. I used the plastic disposible ones mostly, but it gets expensive after a while.

Just put them in your boil (on a sting if you like) for the last ten minutes.

its very difficult to ensure everything is cleaned out of the microscopic pores of a very fine airstone.

Why does it have to be clean? As long as everything is dead everything should work out fine.

clean is the first step of sanitary. if you dont get step #1 right, step #2 is hardly a guarantee.

True for chemical sanitizing, but not for thermal.

Benvarine

I use an air stone and pump. I have my kids nebulizer, but I think it pumps too much air, it seems to foam up like crazy after only a minute or two. I use a .5 micron stone. I put it in star San before using and try to always keep it on while in the wort so it won't suck any wort back into it. I notice as soon as I put the stone and hose into star San it sucks it into the hose. I also soak in star San after as well before storing. With a yeast starter and aeration, I get fermentation started within 8-10 hours. When you start with a healthy pitch and conditions are right, you have less chance of unwanted yeast or bacteria being able to get a foot hold and ruin your beer.

C_B

@westcoastbrewer What? You no come back and say hi?

westcoastbrewer

Thanks for the tips and the welcomes. I have been using a stainless air stone, filter and aquarium pump; but as a couple of you have suggested, I have concerns about how sanitary it is at such a fragile part of the brewing process. It is the tube that leads up to the air stone that I get most worried about. Humidity seems to collect in it during storage and who knows what type of mold or fungus is growing in it. I clean and sanitize it before use, but I still worry a bit.

For those of you who use pure oxygen, have you seen a noticeable improvement since switching? I would prefer not to have to maintain another tank of compressed gas, but would consider it if it made a considerable impact.

Fuzzy

what material is it? this stuff should stand up just fine to boiling:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/3-8-clear-hi-temp-tubing.html

and that should certainly kill off anything in or on it.

jeepinjeepin

westcoastbrewer said:

For those of you who use pure oxygen, have you seen a noticeable improvement since switching? I would prefer not to have to maintain another tank of compressed gas, but would consider it if it made a considerable impact.

That topic could go on forever. I can't remember if it was MrMalty or who, but someone measured O2 saturation after using different techniques. If I remember correctly they found that with an aquarium pump you came up short but with O2 you could over saturate. I can't remember the results for shaking and whatever else they did. My vote is for shaking/pouring/pumping for low and average gravity beers and pure O2 for high gravity beers. The idea there is that with a higher sugar content you have effectively a lower water content. Guess where the O2 collects.

Benvarine

I recall you can't get o2 into your wort by shaking, it just isn't feasible. You can't really shake a 5g batch and if you did, there is only a small amount of o2 actually in the small amount of head space left in our fermenter. The time you would have to shake it and vent to get more o2 in was ridiculous, like hours. That's what I recall from the study you are referring to.

I have read and heard 30 minutes with ambient air which is only 20% o2 or 30 sec with pure o2.

Jayrizzle

Or you could just use a starter.... If your pitching enough you don't want them to have O2

Benvarine

Yeast need o2 prior to actually fermenting, during their reproduction phase they will reproduce much more rapidly if o2 is supplied.

Thym

@westcoastbrewer - i've removed the link from your sig twice, we do not allow link backs to commercial/sponsored websites without express permission. usually that permission requires either a sponsor or member level commitment to this site. I'm sure you understand.

and to answer your question, in all of the times i ran pure O2 i did notice a small to moderate decrease in kick off time for comparable wort gravities and pitching rates.

Truthfully, you'll get more bang for your buck at the homebrewer scale (anything less than 2 BBL batches) just by creating a large starter and increasing your pitching rate. It's less susceptible to contamination and costs less than running O2.

We have some great stir plates for sale here that make it easy to get a big starter going.

jeepinjeepin

Benvarine said:
I recall you can't get o2 into your wort by shaking, it just isn't feasible. You can't really shake a 5g batch and if you did, there is only a small amount of o2 actually in the small amount of head space left in our fermenter. The time you would have to shake it and vent to get more o2 in was ridiculous, like hours. That's what I recall from the study you are referring to.

I have read and heard 30 minutes with ambient air which is only 20% o2 or 30 sec with pure o2.

I can shake a 5 gallon carboy well enough to make it foam up. I'm a beast though. I do agree with having to repeatedly vent the small headspace. Hmmm, measure the headspace. Purge with O2. Shake. Voila, calculated O2 incorporation.

ceannt

Benvarine said:
Yeast need o2 prior to actually fermenting, during their reproduction phase they will reproduce much more rapidly if o2 is supplied.

I just dim the lights and play some soft music ....

Benvarine

... then enjoy a cig and apologize to the neighbors in the morning.

Fuzzy

Benvarine said:
... then enjoy a cig and apologize to the neighbors in the morning.

no need for an apology, they watched the whole thing go down via binoculars. regret spreads like dandelions in the spring, but no one's going to admit to anything.

ceannt

I kinda like it when the neighbors watch ...

ceannt

.... its about the only fun the Baptist preacher gets .....

Jayrizzle

We need a mod in here to keep this on topic!

ceannt

Dr_Jerryrigger said:
We need a mod in here to keep this on topic!

Hey ... we are on topic ... taking about yeast ... right?