Aeration prior to ferment

How do all of you aerate your beer before you pitch the yeast? Some members of my brew club just use like an aquarium pump and a couple stones.. Ive never been concerned about aeration, but recently my beers have suffered, and picking up a full glass carboy and shaking it for a few mins is not fun lol

If thats all it really takes.. then what kind of stone? for how long?

Believe it or not I have an extra aquarium pump.. but its a 4 nozzle pump.. i would be able to run 4 stones.. should i get the regular stones, or the bars?

TIA!

I've had good results from placing my carboy/fermenting bucket on a cushion or pillow and vigorously rocking it for up to five minutes. Prior to this I make sure that my hands are clean and sanitized. Every 30-40 seconds I move my hand from the mouth of the carboy to let in air.

It's worked pretty well for me and you don't have to support the majority of the weight yourself.

I have an aquarium pump with a small stainless stone attached. I plop that in while I finish cleaning the kettle and other various things. Usually ends up being 5 minutes or longer. I have great fermentations.

I went cheap and got a wine degasser at my LHBS. Been using it for over 6 years and haven't had any fermentation issues since.

Hammy71 said:

I went cheap and got a wine degasser at my LHBS. Been using it for over 6 years and haven't had any fermentation issues since.

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That bike hanging back there looks like it's a bumpy ride.

OT: I shake it like crazy, don't even pick it up off the floor. No issues yet, but my next step up would definitely be the wine degasser method or something like it (if I ever see the need).

I use the shake and swirl method with my carboys. The carboy is on a pine board to protect it from the concrete floor. I sit in a chair to shake and swirl the carboy. Do this for about a minute. When I tilt the carboy and white foam begins swirling up from the bottom, I'm done.

Venturi. I found this medical grade valve that I can adjust the air flow with. Any small orifice will do. Works better when the hose is submerged.
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Sanatized whisk or I just let it fall into the bucket from my burner on the Blichmann extension legs.

I use a venturi in my tube going from the chiller to the carboys as well. Generates a lot of foam. Assuming conservatively I get 4ppm dissolved o2 from that, I also hit it with 60 sec of pure o2 from through a diffusion stone.

If you cany/wont/dont feel like shaking, and have no other means of oxygenation, I would really recommend using the venturi effect.

Here was my first test

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90 seconds with pure oxygen via a diffusion stone works for me. Not a fan of shaking a full glass carboy.

Is it essential kit. Certainly not.

Are there lots of cheaper effective simple ways to aerate the wort yes.

Is oxygenation preferable to aeration? Higher ppm of dissolved O2 are obtainable with oxygen so perhaps yes for some higher gravity beers.

Am I happy with the simple oxygenation system I use? Yes

Oxygenation setup.

I recommend looking at the book "Yeast the Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation". It gives great data on how oxygen affects yeasts ability to ferment. You want to achieve around 8-10ppm of Oxygen. Here is the data:

Shaking for 5 minutes = 2.71ppm
30 seconds pure Oxygen = 5.12 ppm
60 seconds pure Oxygen = 9.20 ppm
120 seconds pure Oxygen = 14.08 ppm

This is based off of 20 litres of work at 18.7 degrees Plato at 75 degrees F. Oxygen injection at 1 liter per minute.

Honestly, shaking it or using a diffusion stone has worked great for me and oxygen levels have never been a problem for me and my 5 gal batches. I feel like it mainly affects the bigger scaled breweries