Wormaeter, free,quick,effective, wort aerator!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

aarong

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2012
Messages
258
Reaction score
34
Location
Newport
Here is my free, two minute to build, wort aerator. I call it the Wormaeter!

All you do is drill a hole in vinyl tubing and cinch two worm clamps on either side and viola you made a Wormaeter.

Below is a photo.

Check out this video on YouTube of the Wormaeter.

http://youtu.be/Y6oTKyh-uXk


So I figured there would be some haters so I conducted an experiment to prove how effective the Wormaeter is at using the Venturi effect. Here is the you tube videos. Part one is the setup and part two is the experiment.

The experiment is taking a straw shoving it in the hole between the worm clamps and sucking up some colored water. It worked like a charm check out the videos.

YouTube part 1
[ame="http://youtu.be/tchWmkfPiN0"]http://youtu.be/tchWmkfPiN0[/ame]

You tube part 2
[ame="http://youtu.be/anNeRjOfZP4"]http://youtu.be/anNeRjOfZP4[/ame]

To make it reusable I took some narrow tubing and placed it on the end as a quick disconnect.

Seriously this thing takes like two minutes to make it is idiot proof and free! It is very effective.

The parts are removable if you are worried about keeping it clean.

There you have it my input to homebrew talk enjoy!

Hints: make sure you use some tubing after the Wormaeter it helps.

If it is not aerating enough use some pliers to hold the worm clamp and really tighten the screw down.
 
Here is another photo

image.jpg
 
So to add some clarification this device sucks the ambient air from your room through the hole into the wort stream so there is actually oxygen going into the wort which is different then some other methods that causes turbulent flow. I plan on placing the end of the wormaeter tube in the bottom of my fermentor to diffuse as much oxygen into the wort as possible. Theoretically this device should work like an aquarium pump by " pumping" ambient air into the bottom of the fermentor before pitching yeast.
 
Is there any way to sterilize the air coming in? Like wrap a paper towel tightly around this soaked in starsan?
 
I have been thinking about filtering and the answer is yes. Since it can suck air thought that hole I was thinking about attaching some type of filter at the end of the straw I used in the experiment. I will give the clean towel trick a try as well good idea!

Here is the filter I was thinking about

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/in-line-sanitary-filter.html

Anybody else have an idea of how to filter the air coming in?
 
The reason people don't want to shake the fermentor is because it can break glass carboys, disfigure better bottles, and it is laborious for those who can't lift. This project is free and it diffuses the same oxygen as an aquarium pump so why spend the extra money.

Engineering is about making something better and cheaper then the other guy this method of aeration does both.

Also most breweries shoot for 8 ppm and up so I'm good with that.

http://byo.com/stories/techniques/article/indices/7-aeration/1949-aerating-wort-techniques
 
Stirring the wort, or splashing it as it goes into the fermeter works, too. Not trying to disrespect your venturi design. Just saying that there's only so much you can aerate wort before you can't get any more O2 in it without using a pure oxygen supply.
 
You are absolutely correct water can only take 8 ppm from the air. Without pure oxygen you can't reach greater then 8 ppm. I am not claiming this device can get over 8 ppm it is just a simple to build and extremely inexpensive method to aerate wort. From what I see since I don't have a DO meter is that it infuses more air into the wort then the sprayer because it is pulling them together through the hosing and not simply spraying the wort on top of it. Also it is easier for some then shaking because of their equipment and I personally don't have luck stirring the wort. Again there is more then one way to skin a cat.

Cheers!
 
mbobhat said:
If you wanted to, could you hook up oxygen to that, and not have to buy an air stone?

Theoretically yes. That's a great idea.
 
I don't understand why people are always trying to build a better mousetrap for wort aeration. Unless you are using bottled O2, you are never going to get more than 8ppm oxygen into your wort. You can get to 8ppm by shaking the carboy for 40 seconds.

http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_oxygenation.cfm

Or by simpling pouring it through a funnel into the carboy, which causes tons of foaming and agitation by itself.
 
So there are a lot of great ways to aerate wort! I would like to find the best way though! So instead of talking about it I decided to conduct some experiments to aerate without buying pure oxygen(I'm cheap and the wife would not be happy :) )

I tried to make it as scientific as possible by keeping everything in a controlled environment and consistent.

I am planning on posting the experiment later tonight but for now here is the results.

Number one is the most effective way to aerate and number 7 is the least.

1) picking up the bucket and shaking vigorously like a bartender shaking a drink.
2) Venturi effect (Wormaeter) pouring on top
3) Venturi effect (Wormaeter) directly to the bottom
4) pouring through a funnel
5) siphoning on top of a spoon
6) rocking back and forth hard while keeping the bottom of the bucket on the ground(rocking method)
7) siphoning to the bottom of the bucket and doing nothing

I just want to reiterate that there are a ton of methods out there that make great beer. I just want to use the most effective, cheapest, safest, and easiest method.
 
For this experiment I wanted to find what aeration method put the most air in wort without buying a pump or pure oxygen.

So I did some research and found a diffused oxygen meter. The problem is that they cost a ton of money.

The cheapest way to test this that I could think of was using soap and water and making bubbles( who doesn't like bubbles)

Soap Bubbles are a thin layer of soap surrounding air.

Theoretically more bubbles equals more air.

To test this I took an empty jug and filled it with soapy water to the top. I then shook it as hard as I could and got no bubbles.

Photo 1

Next I drained half of the jug shook it violently like a bar tender and it created a thick layer of bubbles on top. Therefore the air in the free space mixed with the soap and water and it created soap bubbles.

Photo 2

So using the assumption more bubbles = more air I set up a simple experiment.

I took a pot and put soap and water in it and mixed it up with a spoon. This is the water I used for each experiment (control water). This is to make sure I had the same concentration of soap and water in each test.

I then took the same jug and drew a line on it. This is where I will fill it for each experiment.

I filled the jug by taking a siphons hose and filling the jug from the bottom up avoiding any air entering the soapy water.

So here are the photos of each test in the order I tested it
1) no shaking

Photo 3

2) vigorous shake (bartender) 40 seconds

Photo 2

3) siphon on top of spoon

Photo 4

4) rock the jug back and forth without picking up the jug. I did this as violent as possible for 40 seconds.

Photo 5

photo 1.jpg


photo 2.jpg


photo 3.jpg


photo 4.jpg


photo 5.jpg
 
5) Venturi attachment in line with the hose and running it to the bottom

Photo 6

6) Venturi attachment in line with the hose and running it on top

Photo 7

7) pouring in a funnel

Photo 8

Results in order of most bubbles(air) to least.

1) picking up the bucket and shaking vigorously like a bartender shaking a drink.
2) Venturi effect (Wormaeter) pouring on top
3) Venturi effect (Wormaeter) directly to the bottom
4) pouring through a funnel
5) siphoning on top of a spoon
6) rocking back and forth hard while keeping the bottom of the bucket on the ground(rocking method)
7) siphoning to the bottom of the bucket and doing nothing

Conclusion

The most effective way to aerate is to pick up the bucket and shake the crap out if it. Unfortunately I do 6 gallon batches so I can't pick it up and shake it like a bartender without pulling a muscle.

The next effective way is an inline Venturi which sucked air in with the soapy water and created a large amount of bubbles=air.

So for me the winner is the Venturi tube. It is simple it does not involve lifting the bucket and shaking it and it seemed to add the most amount of air to the water.

Sweet :)

photo 6.jpg


photo 7.jpg


photo 8.jpg
 
Nice work and good job with the illustrations! While I think I may try your wormaeter, I still may end up giving the carboy a shake or two because of my OCD;)

Edit: So that's just like the aerator on a kitchen faucet yes? Have you given any thought to the most optimal design (it looks like it works quite well and comparable to shaking), or do you think it's pretty good the way it is?
 
The optimal design for the test run was the Wormaeter design I just had the end of it outside of the water and not on the the bottom of the container. This created an overflow of bubbles in the container. The straw attachment in my video was for demonstration purposes during my test I didn't have and straws in the hole. :)

It is different then a faucet aerator. The faucet one is simply a grate that the water runs through and spreads the water flow like the common pouring on a spoon method.

The Venturi effects sucks in air at the same rate the water comes out the end so it mixes both in the siphon tube.

If you have any problems with the build or questions please let me know ill be more then Happy to help!
Cheers!
 
Nice experiment! I've built something similar in stainless steel and it works great. I've read a lot of people saying why bother, just shake the carboy? I ferment in 15.5 gal sankes, shaking isn't an option. For me I needed something different and didn't want to plunk down $70 on a oxygen system.
 
Awesome. I read up some more on the shaking method according to a test that wottaguy conducted with a diffused oxygen meter he shook a fermentation bucket for 6 min and only got 4.6 ppm well bellow the recommended 8 ppm.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/o2-results-my-new-o2-meter-318420/

Edit: jamils yeast book states shaking gets 2.5 - 4.5 ppm from the shaking method.
 
Hey,

Thanks for the testing. I tried a similar set up on my last brew. I used an old hard plastic tube - maybe from a bottling wand, but can't remember. I put the hard plastic tube with a small hole drilled into it between soft tubing (the hard plastic is smaller diameter) and let the wort the flow. It seemed to work pretty well. I could see the air bubbles circulating as they went down toward the carboy.

However, one thing that I've noticed from various threads is that to get the full effect, you seem to need to reduce the diameter both before and after the hole. In a sense, I'm just reducing the diameter before the hole but not after.

Anyway, I'll give this a try. I don't brew high gravity beer - usually pales ales around a starting OG of 1.050 - so 8 ppm should be fine, i.e. don't need the oxygen.

Thanks again for taking the time to test this out.
 
LoudounBrew said:
Hey,

Thanks for the testing. I tried a similar set up on my last brew. I used an old hard plastic tube - maybe from a bottling wand, but can't remember. I put the hard plastic tube with a small hole drilled into it between soft tubing (the hard plastic is smaller diameter) and let the wort the flow. It seemed to work pretty well. I could see the air bubbles circulating as they went down toward the carboy.

However, one thing that I've noticed from various threads is that to get the full effect, you seem to need to reduce the diameter both before and after the hole. In a sense, I'm just reducing the diameter before the hole but not after.

Anyway, I'll give this a try. I don't brew high gravity beer - usually pales ales around a starting OG of 1.050 - so 8 ppm should be fine, i.e. don't need the oxygen.

Thanks again for taking the time to test this out.

Chumpsteak
that's the exact effect I was pushing for but I put one together with some worm clamps I had laying around. I like to see the Venturi effect at work there looks awesome!


Londounbrew

I tried the hard plastic with small hole ideas I was unsuccessful with it. In my opinion it is creating a turbulence effect from the wort hitting the corner of the smaller tube called in fluid mechanics an "orifice in a pipe effect". The water around the changing diameter almost circulates and pulls in some air with it. The pressure difference is minimal compared to a full Venturi. http://www.efunda.com/formulae/fluids/calc_orifice_flowmeter.cfm#calc

Let me know how the device works out! I'm excited to hear about it and I'm more then happy to answer any questions about it.

Cheers

Aaron
 
Friedclutch said:
Lol.... I think the overflowing carboy is call for getting your money back!! This is all the OP's FAULT! ;)

It is my fault and I am ashamed. I will painfully take that batch away from you. :)
 
I've been using the venturi method of aeration for years with great results. I heated a paper clip and melted a tiny hole in the vinyl hose from my kettle valve. Much easier than shaking.
 
Aarong,

Very cool. Thanks for the supper simple version to create the venturi effect. I'm going to throw one of those tees on after my counterflow chiller and see how it works.

Have you seen the wortwizard? Which seems similar to this. People are using the venturi effect with the force of the garden hose flow before a chiller as a pump. If you're running the water anyway to chill your wort, why not use some of the potential energy to move it around?

I may have to incorporate one of these as well. Venturi Brewing! Maybe just to start a siphon? With a shut off for after I get the flow as far as I would like? I'll be siphoning into a bucket, so I won't have the carboy to create a vacuum, as required for the wortwizard setup.
 
Yeah that's it, just a "T" inline. If you look closely at the pic you can see a smaller tube inside a bigger tube on the input side. This is because the T I had was 1/2 inch and the tube coming from my kettle was 5/8 so I just cut a 3 inch piece of 3/8 and stuck it in the 5/8 tube. So the input side is a little bigger diameter than the output, but I don't think this matters. I now actually use a bigger T with a pump and silicon tubing and its the same diameter on both the input and output sides.
 
Make sure if you try using a T you keep it higher than the output tube end or you will get wort gushing out the top leg of the T. I just use my sanitized thumb to cover the T opening if and when I stop the flow.
 
This method rocks! I made it for my first BIAB and it worked great! I got my fermentation going in about 4 hours! Thanks for the tutorial!
 
Back
Top