Beerrific

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Anyone own one of these?

I recently got a $150 gift certificate to Austin Homebrew and was considering buying one of these as part of my upcoming purchase from them. The reason I ask is because comparable products from Northern Brewer and MoreBeer are $15+ cheaper than AHS.

Are they better? I usually am willing to pay a couple more dollars for the option that has the better service and quickest shipping to Georgia, but I am not sure about this one.

Chriso

Recipes 

*subscribe* - Thinking of buying one too, but also need kegging equip.... trying to balance which is more important.

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GuateBrewer

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I just ordered one from AHS, that said I saw at home depot a MAPP/o2 gas deal for around the same money, all you would lack is the air stone and some hose and get some gas for free. Since I have to export mine, the gas is worthless to me. Most likely its the same gear as the other sites, just figure if the extra shipping makes it worth it.

Seawolf

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Which kit are you looking at?

I use this one, and I like it.

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/WILLIAM_S_OXYGEN_AERATION_SYST_P699.cfm

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Primary - Bluebird Bitter, Negra Modelo
Secondary - Flanders Red
Drinking - Independence Pale Ale V1.0, Trappist Style Dubbel, Dunkelweizen, Saison, Fat Tire, SNPA
Conditioning - Chimay Red, Imperial American Pale Ale, Independence Pale Ale V2.0, Belgian Wit
Kegged - Bluebird Bitter

Beerrific

Recipes 

This is the one I am looking at:
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=2437

And then Northern Brewer sells two types with a $25 price difference.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/aeration.html
All I can tell from the picture is it looks like the stone is bigger.

I guess I am just trying to figure out if any of these systems are better than any others.

Evan!

Recipes 

I had that AHS aeration kit for awhile. The pump is weak. The tubing between the HPEA filter and the pump is small and flimsy and easily gets a kink where it meets the HEPA filter, which restricts air flow so much as to render the thing useless. So you have to reinforce that connection with some kind of tape. Then, when you go to sanitize the thing, the HEPA filter somehow takes on liquid, which is odd. After awhile, it just stopped being able to push air through...like the stone was clogged or something, even though I went through great pains to never touch it with my hands or anything else. And on top of all that, aeration takes like an hour, whereas oxygenation takes like 2 minutes.

Go with the OXYGENATION kit, not the AERATION kit. The one from AHS works great. Go down to Lowes into the welding supply section and grab a few of those little red disposable O2 tanks, and you're ready to roll. Don't bother spending extra money on anything unless you're willing to go to Williamsbrewing and get the one that has a rigid wand (hehe, rigid wand...). As much as I like the AHS one, I do wish the tubing was rigid rather than flexible.

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MOSS HOLLOW BREWING CO.
Aristocratic Ales, Lascivious Lagers

.planned:
•Scottish 80/- •Sweet Stout •Roggenbier
.primary | bright:
98: Moss Hollow Soured '09 72: Oude Kriek 99: B-Weisse 102: Brett'd BDSA 104: Feat of Strength Helles Bock 105: Merkin Brown
.on tap | kegged:
XX: Moss Hollow Springs Sparkling Water 95: Gott Mit Uns German Pils 91b: Brown Willie's Oaked Abbey Ale 103: Merkin Stout
98: Yorkshire Special 100: Maple Porter 89: Cidre Saison 101: Steffiweizen '09 (#3)

springer

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I have the one from AHS I too liked the idea of a rigid wand so I used a piece of SS brake line from Advanced auto worked out great.

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billtzk

Recipes 

Is it really necessary to use a stone? What if you introduced oxy through a single very small orifice directly into the hose just before it goes into your fermenter. If you have a plate chiller or CFC, you'd put it between the outflow of the chiller and the fermenter, otherwise between the boil kettle valve and the fermenter.

I'd think you would not need a stone in that case since you'd be introducing a fine stream of tiny bubbles from the single orifice into a very small diameter (up to 1/2 inch ID) stream of wort.

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Revvy

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You can make your own rigid wand, like on the Williams kit... All you need is a racking cane. I just cut it about an inch below the bend. Then I cut a 1.5" piece of the vinyl hose from the kit to use as a "bridge" between the airstone and the cane. I don't know if you can get racking canes in various diameters, but if they do then just finding one that would accomodate both your hose and the airstone would be a little easier.

But my setup works great!

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flyangler18

Recipes 

This is, almost frighteningly so, the exact thing that I did in building my kit! I mean, we've all broken a racking cane, right??

I won't make some trite comment about 'great minds' and all though....