I've finally gotten almost everything together and am days away from my first brew. Im sure you can all understand how I can do almost nothing but obsess about particulars while I wait for my the rest of my equipment.
As far as aeration is concerned, can I use a double action bike pump to add enough oxygen to my wort for it to benefit my beer? I've read about aquarium filters and oxygen tanks but im just not ready for that yet. It'll either be the bike pump or the old swishing method (which i've read here is "better than nothing"). Let me know what you guys think
yeah, splash the wort into your bucket or carboy through a funnel, slosh it around, etc. It's good enough when you're doing partial boils and topping up with tap.
I would not use a bike pump, I would think that infection would be an issue. I just did my first AG/full boil. I was so frustrated with everything, I did hardly if any aeration, had signs of fermentation at 8 hours and blow out at 11.
a bike pump is not needed. just splash it around a little. i can almost guarantee that your fermentation will begin within 12 hours at the most. and from my experience if your using dry yeast aeration is not as important, even though i prefer liquid yeast. good luck
If you have a spigot on your kettle then use a slighty bent piece of copper with a couple of holes and the outside of the bend. Make sure the outside bden faces up. Attach to spigot with a short piece of hose, attach line going to kettle onto other end.
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I may not be an expert, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express........ 6 months ago.