i had a thought today (which is rare) and it was as follows:
couldn't we use flyguy's cheap T-siphon and just leave the top of the 'T' open to allow air to flow in as the wort passes through the straight portion of it? the 'T' reduces the flow diameter and there's an open hole already to allow the oxygen to be sucked in.
A siphon works via suction. If you open up a hole, you no longer have suction. So, either your siphon would stop, or you would be siphoning out of both holes. At least, that's what I believe will happen. Give it a try and see, but I'd test it with water first before chancing wasting beer.
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i had a thought today (which is rare) and it was as follows:
couldn't we use flyguy's cheap T-siphon and just leave the top of the 'T' open to allow air to flow in as the wort passes through the straight portion of it? the 'T' reduces the flow diameter and there's an open hole already to allow the oxygen to be sucked in.
If you want to get fancy take that hour glass I posted above and cut off the tubing at the ends 2" to 3" beyond at the normal diameter area. Inside these tubing ends press in a 1" long piece of brass tubing that will have a press fit at both ends, (hardware or hobby section has thin wall model brass tubing). This to prevent the tubing from getting compressed to a smaller diameter at the next step. Add a tight fitting piece of tubing 1" long over the main hour glass piece at each end.
Over the full length of the whole hour glass part plus over the 1" pieces added to the ends of the hour glass add a piece of tubing that fits tightly around the 1" long end sleeves, later there will be clamps added but not yet. At the hour glass center section there should be a space between the reduced hour glass tubing and the outside tubing covering the whole hour glass over the full length. Take a thin head brass screw like a 10-32 thread (0.1960" OD) then solder on a small brass washer allowing for a larger head diameter, (this to prevent pulling the brass headed screw thru the vinyl tubing hole). This screw with a 3/8" long thread with the center drilled with a 0.030" hole thru the center. Cut or burn a small hole for this brass screw to pass from the inside of the outside tube with the thread sticking out. Off this outside thread add a brass fitting with a 10-32 thread at one end with a brass washer plus drilled thru the center with a 0.030" diameter hole. On the other end a nipple to the diameter to your liking then add the end clamps. Use a regulator with low pressure O2 off a bottle with the pressure set less than what you your pump pressure will be to prevent O2 from backing up stream against the pump. This way you will inject 100% O2 into the wort vs sucking 20.95% oxygen, 78.08% nitrogen, .038% carbon dioxide plus other rare earth gases and crap. Which gas would you like your little yeasties to feed off? Call me cheap or a DIY person. I'm off my podium now unless you can afford a sight glass with a O2 injection system for your wort or go back to basics with a stainless steel stone, tubing and O2 from a welding bottle.
This seems like it should work just fine, except that I tend to shoot for "Cheap and Easy" in my brewing process. A chunk of otherwise-trashed racking cane and a paperclip are cheap and easy. A pump and O2 system may be easy, but they ain't cheap.
I have taken a similar approach to oxygenating wort. Instead of drilling a hole in the siphon tube as folks in this thread are discussing, I use a hypodermic syringe needle, with a 1 micron sterile filter connected to the back end of the needle.
My counterflow chiller exit is 3/8” copper tubing. I connect it to a six inch piece of 3/8” OD straight copper tubing with a 1.5” section of 3/8" ID vinyl tubing. The second piece of copper tube drains into my fermenter. The needle gets inserted at an angle into the vinyl section between the two copper tubes. I have used an aquarium pump to push air through the needle, and also just let the flowing wort aspirate filtered air through the needle. Both seem to produce lots of bubbles.
The hypo needle is a medium diameter, I’m guessing 21 gauge since I don’t have it here. This produces a stream of very fine bubbles of air mixed well into the wort. When I fill a 6 gallon carboy, I get about 4.5 gallons of wort in before the foam starts to overflow, so I’m getting lots of air bubbles. I tape or wire the assembly to the chiller to keep my klutziness from knocking the needle out of the tubing during use. It is impossible to get the needle back exactly into the original hole (no comments please) if it does come out.
Advantages are sterile filtered air, fine bubbles for good mixing of O2 and wort, comnpact, and simple to add to an existing chiller set up. I use a new needle and new piece of vinyl connector tubing each time, so no fears of infection from the needle or tubing. I keep the sterile filter in a sanitized pill bottle between uses. I beg the syringe needles and filters from my lab buddies in exchange for the occasional beer.
thanks to hammacks for first suggesting the idea earlier in this thread, but i thought folks might be interested to see how the plastic 'T' works. i didn't need to plug the 'T' hole or anything, it worked like a charm, the siphon went right on through, reducing the diameter of flow and you could hear the air getting sucked in and the resulting bubbles let me know it was working properly. there is star san foam on the right side of the pic, further up the wall of the carboy, but the rest are all a result of the venturi. sorry for the fuzzy pic of the T.
__________________ primary: Schwarzbier kegged: A Lager, Irish Red, Oak Aged Dark Belgian
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