I got an oxygen bottle & regulator / flow meter today, now what?

Whats better? Using the stone in the wort just before pitching, or putting together a in-line system after my CFC.

How do you make an in-line oxygenator?

A write-up on an inline oxygenator was in an issue of BYO, but I don't remember which. Oxygenating with a stone in the wort would be a lot less hassle and probably net the same result if we're talking 5g of wort and not 7bbl.

Also, if you do oxygenate inline after your CFC make very sure the outflow temp is below 80F or so to avoid HSA (which may or may not be a problem depending on who you talk to, but why chance it ). I would put an aquarium thermometer on the inline oxygenator.

Depending on the type of flow meter you have, here are some starting point flow and durations for using the O2 stone in the fementer for 6 gallon batch size. the flow rate was .5 SCFH/.2LPM for a 3 minute duration, this seems to be enough to get the attenuation listed for the yeasts i have used. Upping the duration to 4 minutes at the same flow rate increased the fermentation activity but increased the attenuation 10+% over typical. Have tested higher flow rates but with diminising effect as the bubbles rose through the wort and made a nice head of foam but did not seem to have time to be absorbed into the wort. One of the more extreme test results was a SG 1.032-1.002 english ale that was pitched with a ready to pitch tube (no starter) , 5 minutes O2 @.5 SCFH, that finished in 36 hours, and blew off 3 quarts of wort into catch bucket.