What do you guys do for aeration of wort?

[kharper6]

I typically pour the wort through a sanitized super-fine mesh strainer between the boiling pot and the sanitized fermentation bucket.

Then remove the filter and repeat the exchange 2-3 more times.

I've been looking at ways of gassing it with O2 because I picked up a cheaper O2 tank on craigslist.

What do you guys do?

 

[thadass]

I used to just shake the heck out of it. Now I use an oxygen tank from the hardware store hooked up to the oxygenation kit I bought at my LHBS. Works great!

 

[fartinmartin]

When the wort is cool, let it stand or whirlpool, then rack of into FV from a great height, loads of splashing , then pitch, that's all .

 

[Newsman]

I use an O2 tank from the hardware store with a metal aerating "stone" attached to like a 30" steel "hose".

 

[grathan]

I have an aerating metal stone .2 micron with the metal wand from Williams Brewing with a 02 tank and regulator. The beer I am drinking atm I used no aeration and it tastes pretty good. I definitely plan to do some more no aeration batches in the future. (i use a 2L starter).

 

[jrgtr42]

I do the same as the OP, but I just pour once through the strainer.
It does the double duty of aeration (I have never had any issues that I can trace to not enough air in there) and keeping the trub / hop residue out of the fermenter.

 

[IvanTheTerribrew]

I use an o2 tank with a regulator and use a 5 micron air stone and gas it for about 30 seconds at 1 lpm. I do that ontop of putting it through a strainer that causes it to splash.

 

[NickTheGreat]

When the wort is cool, let it stand or whirlpool, then rack of into FV from a great height, loads of splashing , then pitch, that's all .

Same here. I've been accused of over-thinking things before, but . . .

 

[NorthRiverS]

After the beer is cooled and poured into the fermentation bucket, I snap the lid "on", pour in the yeast, cover the airlock with a plug and shake the bucket for several minutes. This accomplishes two things. 1. It aerates the wert and 2. it seals the bucket lid.

I've used this method for years without any problems.

NRS

 

[smccarter]

Nothing. And it works.

I do all of the normal things that take place during the brew process... including draining the wort into the glass carboy.

11 years.... Nothing in the way of aerating... NOTHING... I haven't purchased an oxygen tank or pump, or anything of the like... and ... I brew good beer.

I think people over-think the process. Just brew the beer, ferment, bottle/keg, then drink.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Venturi airation via siphon.

Wouldn't mind one of those cool O2 kits, though. Maybe in the future.

 

[C-Rider]

I pour it into the FB thru a paint strainer and I guess this aerates it enough as that's all I do.

 

[kharper6]

Yeah I'm starting to think that aerating isn't so important if you do a proper starter.

A few pours and i pitch my 1.5L and I'm fermenting a storm 6 hours later, every time.

 

[Curtis2010]

I have an air pump, filter, and metal "stone" I use for meads. Also use on HG beers and lagers...and sometimes others just because I have it.

 

[how1]

I use a paint stirring attachment on my drill, but pitching the correct starter also makes sense.

 

[thisisbeer]

Oxygen is extremely important! Depending on what you are doing anyway. If you are doing a huge beer and you want it to finish pretty low I couldn't over state the necessity of using pure oxygen. When I do I IIPA around 1.085 and want it to finish less than 1.015 I will use pure oxygen. It helps a lot on big beers where the yeast will be more stressed. Just to give the beer a cleaner flavor and better attenuation. for this I use a pure oxygen tank and a 2 micron stone. Now for most of my other beers I brew ,around the 1.050, range I just poor into the carboy and let it splash around a lot. I have made plenty of good beers with that method, but in did notice a difference using the pure oxygen with my bigger beers.

 

[rodwha]

I use a whisk and spoon.

 

[helibrewer]

I use an o2 tank with a regulator and use a 5 micron air stone and gas it for about 30 seconds at 1 lpm. I do that ontop of putting it through a strainer that causes it to splash.

Same here but without the strainer.

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

O2 tank and a stone.

 

[BigFloyd]

Liquid yeast - O2 tank and stone (especially for lagers)

Dry yeast - I recirculate full bore in my keggle towards the end of the chill. That foams things up pretty good. Besides, dry is packaged with sterols that will provide sufficient O2 to assist the cells through the aerobic portion of fermentation.

 

[budonze]

I do the shake method in the bucket.

 

[KGB09]

I'm curious as to why some think aeration is not important. Does not make any sense. If you want healthy yeast you need to aerate somehow. If you want good beer you should have healthy yeast.

 

[boydster]

I'm curious as to why some think aeration is not important. Does not make any sense. If you want healthy yeast you need to aerate somehow. If you want good beer you should have healthy yeast.

As I understand it, with dry yeast it is less of a concern because the yeast is packaged with the nutrients it needs to synthesize sterols to build cell walls, which is one of the main reasons oxygen is so important with liquid yeast. Clayton Cone and others have said this, I'm pretty sure.

That said, I like to aerate regardless, it certainly doesn't hurt and it's an easy step.

Edit: BigFloyd, didn't notice until now you already mentioned this. Should have started at the beginning of the thread before I commented!

 

[thisisbeer]

I don't think anybody is saying it's not important at all. Everybody splashes or does some form of adding oxygen. But on a homebrew scale brewing a 1.045 beer you don't really need to do anything special to still get good beer in my experience. As I stated earlier I think its hugely important in larger beers. But as far as most of us go how do you really know how much oxygen your putting in the beer. Do you really nees more than 10 ppm in a 1.040 beer? I don't know. But I do know I haven't seen a difference in those beers regardless if I used my air stone or just shook the carboy. I guess it depends on what you brew the most of.

 

[plankbr]

I use a SS strainer from kettle to fermenter bucket then use this to aerate thoroughly:

 

[dickproenneke]

I use a Venturi tube attached to my auto-siphon. Aerates my chilled wort as I rack into the fermenter... That said, I would love love love one of those air stones

 

[dlester]

There was an experiment done, where an individual dipped the end of a paper clip in olive oil and put the oil in the wort. It appears that it works. I believe it was in a BYO magazine.

I know a lot of people shake the heck out of the carboy/bucket. However, it doesn't provide enough O2. The best way to provide the proper amount is with an air pump and an oxygen stone.

I use an oxygen stone hooked up to an 02 bottle from the hardware store. However, I have over aerated a strong beer and I think it was the caused of funky and harsh flavor.

If you want the cheapest and easiest, use an 02 bottle and a connector with a stone from the brew store. It's cheap and works well. Only aerate about 1.5 minutes.


Cheers

 

[thisisbeer]

That was written by a guy at New Belgium I believe. Here is there other statement on it from them though.

"The basic concept is that since yeast uses an oxygen atom to pull a hydrogen away from an 18 carbon chain unsaturated fatty acid to make a monounsaturated fatty acid chain to help it grow, you could simply provide an 18 carbon monounsaturated fatty acid and it would be able to use that. This works well in practice, we made a little over 1 million bottles with beer where the yeast had had olive oil added."The main thing to remember is that since you're working on a molecular level, and the olive oil has a high concentration of that molecule, the amount you actually need is pretty small. Additionally, you want to use a very small amount to avoid any detrimental effects that the oil would have on the beer's head retention."For the volume of wort we normally ferment, we would pitch about 4500L of yeast, and to that we would add around 300mL of olive oil. To translate that into a 5 gallon size, you would need to measure about 0.0000833mL of olive oil. For any practical purpose, that is much too small an amount to accurately measure out. You could fudge and just add the tiniest imaginable drop to the yeast you have, but you'd be over-dosing the oil by thousands of times the required amount, and run the risk of having zero foam retention. Not a good compromise in my opinion.

 

[Lemieuxp]

Take this for face value as I only have one batch under my belt... I just slop it into my fermentation pail as rigorously as possible. I had my bubbler going within 14hrs... Seemed to work ok with me and it is how the guy at the labs told me to do it... Simple cheap and effective.

 

[Lemieuxp]

Take this for face value as I only have one batch under my belt... I just slop it into my fermentation pail as rigorously as possible. I had my bubbler going within 14hrs... Seemed to work ok with me and it is how the guy at the labs told me to do it... Simple cheap and effective.

lhbs got auto corrected to labs.. Sorry.

 

[rodwha]

It seems to me that a whisk is about the cheapest (maybe not easiest as you do have to whip it around for a minute or so) way to aerate. It doesn't take long either, though I have no clue as to how long is necessary or just how aerated it actually is. But it works well enough for me.

 

[thisisbeer]

Its my understanding that any splashing whisking or similiar method can only put a maximum of 8 or 10 ppm of oxygen in the wort. It also takes a while if I remember right to get that much. Don't quote me though! There are plenty of studies on the internet about it.

 

[Lemieuxp]

Its my understanding that any splashing whisking or similiar method can only put a maximum of 8 or 10 ppm of oxygen in the wort. It also takes a while if I remember right to get that much. Don't quote me though! There are plenty of studies on the internet about it.

newbie here.. Is that too low?

 

[Hello]

Good ole' lady muscle.

 

[thisisbeer]

No, 8-10 ppm is where you want to be. But it takes 10-15 minutes using something like an aquarium pump with a stainless stone on it to get 10ppm roughly. So I would imagine it would take some work to get that from splashing or straining method. That's more or less an educated guess though. Also if you don't have a filter on the air pump set up you can have problems with airborne yeast. Its cheaper but it takes more time and work.

With pure O2 and a .5 micron stone you don't have to worry about airborne yeast and you can achieve 8-10 ppm in about 45-60 seconds. Less hassle with the set up but cost a little more. I got my set up for about $60 bucks. But I did not shop around at all.

 

[butterpants]

No, 8-10 ppm is where you want to be. But it takes 10-15 minutes using something like an aquarium pump with a stainless stone on it to get 10ppm roughly. So I would imagine it would take some work to get that from splashing or straining method. That's more or less an educated guess though. Also if you don't have a filter on the air pump set up you can have problems with airborne yeast. Its cheaper but it takes more time and work.

With pure O2 and a .5 micron stone you don't have to worry about airborne yeast and you can achieve 8-10 ppm in about 45-60 seconds. Less hassle with the set up but cost a little more. I got my set up for about $60 bucks. But I did not shop around at all.

Doesn't YEAST talk about being in the 15-20ppm range as 'ideal' and 10ppm as a bare minimum (and the highest you can get without a pure O2 infusion)??

 

[thisisbeer]

10ppm is bare minimum recommended by white labs or wyeast. The ideal amount depends on gravity, lager or ale, and the requirements of the yeast strain. I don't know of a general ideal amount. The yeast will generally use what's available so I wouldn't worry about over oxygenation in the wort. So 15-20 ppm im sure would work great and is ideal in a lot of situations. But if you shoot for 10 everytime you will do ok until you learn more about it.

But I try not to worry to much on ppm as it's not easy to get an accurate answer on a homebrew scale. Oxygen is less soluble in higher gravity wort, temperature when adding oxygen, amount of o2 added, size of stone all make a difference in how much is dissolved.

Like I said earlier I worry about it a lot on beers over 1.060. But anything under I shoot for the typical 8-10 ppm. I used to worry more but I never noticed a difference on the smaller beers. Some I splashed and some a dissolved pure 02 in. I didn't notice a difference in any of them. I'm not saying its not important, just that you can achieve good results with these beers without going to 15+ ppm.

Edit: Also the highest you can get without pure o2 is 10% and with pure o2 you can achieve up to 26%.