Ok, so I am going to be doing my 3rd extract kit (hopefully in the next week as soon as my Weizenbier is ready to go in the 2nd) --- My first 2 kits were Brewers Best since that was all I could get locally same day, but I picked up my first kit from Northern Brewer (A Bavarian Hefeweizen) with directions to aerate the wort. I've seen this in videos and I thought it was only for partial or full mashes, anyway, can someone explain "aeration of the wort" I haven't seen too much on this and I am the type of person that likes to understand the "why" behind the "how". Thanks!
Noob Question about aeration
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Dr. Francois
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Yeast like oxygen.
The easiest way to aerate is to shake the carboy or bucket. Another good way is to pour the cooled wort back and forth between the pot and fermenter.
I've used a wire whisk to whip air into the wort. I don't know how successful I've been.
Pros use pure O2. You can get a killer setup from Williams HBS for just over 50 bucks.
I've moved back to partial boils and top-off water. Adding faucet water to the fermenter adds a ton of oxygen back into the wort for the yeasties.
The easiest way to aerate is to shake the carboy or bucket. Another good way is to pour the cooled wort back and forth between the pot and fermenter.
I've used a wire whisk to whip air into the wort. I don't know how successful I've been.
Pros use pure O2. You can get a killer setup from Williams HBS for just over 50 bucks.
I've moved back to partial boils and top-off water. Adding faucet water to the fermenter adds a ton of oxygen back into the wort for the yeasties.
BBL_Brewer
Well-Known Member
You need to aerate the wort after you chill it to increase dissolved oxygen available to the yeast. The yeast need oxygen to reproduce and build up numbers. Once all the oxygen is gone, they respirate anaerobically and begin to ferment the beer. You can aerate by dumping the wort vigorously back and forth between two buckets, by using an aquarium pump or by using pure compressed oxygen. Do a forum search and you should come up with some threads covering these methods in more detail.
BBL_Brewer
Well-Known Member
No problem, glad to help.
Cheers
Cheers
squirrelly
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By dumping the wort from vessel to vessel, shaking the fermenter, or adding tap water to the wort does indeed introduce a small amount of oxygen, but it also introduces all the microbes in the air as well. I strongly feel sterile O2 introduced using sterile equipment is really the best way to go. By using this method the brewer can regulate how much O2 is actually being dissolved into the wort. That way we can note how much oxygen was used in the wort, and next time that batch is brewed it can be replicated exactly to ensure consistency.
Good to know, I am definately sterilizing equipment, but not even close to replicating batches at this point. I sure hope experience and knowledge will get me there though, I am a quick learner thankfully, but still on kits and just learning the basics mostly....
Since you are starting, just shake the thing. I started with an aquarium pump, inline filter, and stone. it created a lot of beer foam out the top, and I found out later does little more than shaking.
There are a few threads on here linking to studies of shaking vs pump vs bottle O2.
I now shake, and with a stater it takes off quick. Less money, less to clean.
There are a few threads on here linking to studies of shaking vs pump vs bottle O2.
I now shake, and with a stater it takes off quick. Less money, less to clean.
squirrelly
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I don't know about the rest of you folks, but I can't put a price on sanitation and sterilization which results in a guaranteed clean beer.
My wife and I drop obscene amounts of coin on this hobby each year simply for the piece of mind that our beer is consistent, clean, and will place in competitions. To us a clean beer is priceless. With that being said I think our O2 system is the cheapest part of our setup. If I recall correctly it was 5.00 for the O2 can, 10.00 for 20 ft of tubing, 5.00 for the inline heap filter, and around 10-20.00 for the carbonating stone. After its all said and done we have invested 40.00 in an O2 system we use for about 6 months before having to replace any components. For us at least that is a worthwhile price for this step of our brewing process.
I feel strongly that if you are going to invest any amount of time or money into any hobby, you should be investing in the best and most professional tools used in that hobby. Anything else is just going about half hearted and not really a wise investment where one may get the most satisfactory results. For instance: I would not hit the trap range or go duck hunting with an old beat up shotgun simply because it saved me money. It's something I care a great deal about, so why cheat myself out of the full pleasure? Just my personal feelings on things like this.
My wife and I drop obscene amounts of coin on this hobby each year simply for the piece of mind that our beer is consistent, clean, and will place in competitions. To us a clean beer is priceless. With that being said I think our O2 system is the cheapest part of our setup. If I recall correctly it was 5.00 for the O2 can, 10.00 for 20 ft of tubing, 5.00 for the inline heap filter, and around 10-20.00 for the carbonating stone. After its all said and done we have invested 40.00 in an O2 system we use for about 6 months before having to replace any components. For us at least that is a worthwhile price for this step of our brewing process.
I feel strongly that if you are going to invest any amount of time or money into any hobby, you should be investing in the best and most professional tools used in that hobby. Anything else is just going about half hearted and not really a wise investment where one may get the most satisfactory results. For instance: I would not hit the trap range or go duck hunting with an old beat up shotgun simply because it saved me money. It's something I care a great deal about, so why cheat myself out of the full pleasure? Just my personal feelings on things like this.
Butter
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I use the oxygen aeration kit from Williams Brewing and I think its great. I just turn it in for like 30 sec to a minute and that's it. Fermentation takes off in a few hours.
cigarmitch
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I aerate through a fine wire mesh strainer, pitch my yeast and usually within an hour have a bubbling airlock. (most of that is due to healthy yeast).
The strainer keeps the hops and what not out of the fermentor and puts an insane amount of air into the beer.
The strainer keeps the hops and what not out of the fermentor and puts an insane amount of air into the beer.
Butter said:
So the aeration also speeds up the initial fermentation process as well? Can anyone say whether or not this adds or reduces time in fermentation or is it just a "more productive" fermentation? All great info so far! And @squirrelly - are you saying that inducing O2 into the wort helps sanitization or creates consistency?
squirrelly
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Aeration does increase how quickly your yeast takes off, and it also has a huge hand in how vigorous a ferment will be.
Yeast is a living breathing organism, and just as any other organism it must have oxygen to survive. You can have all the healthy yeast cells required mixed in with the most fermentable wort, but if there is not enough O2 dissolved into the solution the yeast will only eat until the oxygen supply is depleted. This is a lot of times where stuck fermentations or high final gravitates come from.
Since boiling the wort for 60-90 minutes robs all the liquid of O2, the brewer must reintroduce oxygen back into the wort. This is where the debate stems. I as well as many pro brewers feel that by adding the oxygen around us by shaking or otherwise disturbing the wort, not only are you adding a small amount of O2, but you have just reintroduced the wild yeast, pollen, dust, and foreign microbes you've been so careful to avoid. Another reason I don't like this method is our air around us contains about 20.9% O2. If you shake your fermenter for a few minutes you may add 12% of that O2 to the wort. Again not nearly enough for the yeast to attenuate down past 1.010 into the 1.005 range. By adding pure O2 with an inline closed transfer system you can easily regulate exactly how much oxygen gets dissolved into the wort, thus making you that much more consistent. You also have the piece of mind that no foreign microbes are being introduced to the wort.
Yeast is a living breathing organism, and just as any other organism it must have oxygen to survive. You can have all the healthy yeast cells required mixed in with the most fermentable wort, but if there is not enough O2 dissolved into the solution the yeast will only eat until the oxygen supply is depleted. This is a lot of times where stuck fermentations or high final gravitates come from.
Since boiling the wort for 60-90 minutes robs all the liquid of O2, the brewer must reintroduce oxygen back into the wort. This is where the debate stems. I as well as many pro brewers feel that by adding the oxygen around us by shaking or otherwise disturbing the wort, not only are you adding a small amount of O2, but you have just reintroduced the wild yeast, pollen, dust, and foreign microbes you've been so careful to avoid. Another reason I don't like this method is our air around us contains about 20.9% O2. If you shake your fermenter for a few minutes you may add 12% of that O2 to the wort. Again not nearly enough for the yeast to attenuate down past 1.010 into the 1.005 range. By adding pure O2 with an inline closed transfer system you can easily regulate exactly how much oxygen gets dissolved into the wort, thus making you that much more consistent. You also have the piece of mind that no foreign microbes are being introduced to the wort.
mcginnis842
Member
Yeah pure o2 is the way to go. After I switched my lag time dropped dramatically from ~18 hrs to ~6 hrs or less depending on yeast.
While it's a good idea to filter any room air you are pumping into your wort, it's not needed with canned o2 as it's sterile to start with (then again inline filters are cheap). I once asked a local AirGas guy what the difference between welding o2 and medical grade o2 and he said it was the same gas just med grade has a certification. I know when they dispense medical o2 they usually usually mix in a little moisture.
From reading on subject, the optimal o2 wort concentration for good fermentation is 10 ppm or greater. Shaking, aquarium pumps, etc can really only get you to about 8 ppm, which for home brew purposes is close enough. I believe pure o2 going into wort at room temp has a theoretical limit of something like 26 ppm, but usually the rule of thumb is 1 min of o2 through a stone will get you to about 12 ppm which puts you right in the butter zone.
As for as setup, I use the disposable red o2 welding tanks available at Home Depot or Lowes with a simple twist on/off regulator attached to a foot or two of vinyl tubing with 2 micron carb stone on the end. The tanks are usually about $9 and the carb stones and tubing can be found at your LHBS. I think I have 3/8 beverage tubing on mine only because I think that's what I had on hand at the time but 1/4 or 5/8 probably works too. The regulators can be difficult to find alone so I just got a welding kit from HD initially for ~$50 which had the o2 tank regulator and other welding stuff but obviously there are better ways. The tanks usually last me 10+ batches plus a large number of starters. Also try not to handle the carb stone too much as the oils from your hands can clog up the holes but again it hasn't been an issue for me.
While it's a good idea to filter any room air you are pumping into your wort, it's not needed with canned o2 as it's sterile to start with (then again inline filters are cheap). I once asked a local AirGas guy what the difference between welding o2 and medical grade o2 and he said it was the same gas just med grade has a certification. I know when they dispense medical o2 they usually usually mix in a little moisture.
From reading on subject, the optimal o2 wort concentration for good fermentation is 10 ppm or greater. Shaking, aquarium pumps, etc can really only get you to about 8 ppm, which for home brew purposes is close enough. I believe pure o2 going into wort at room temp has a theoretical limit of something like 26 ppm, but usually the rule of thumb is 1 min of o2 through a stone will get you to about 12 ppm which puts you right in the butter zone.
As for as setup, I use the disposable red o2 welding tanks available at Home Depot or Lowes with a simple twist on/off regulator attached to a foot or two of vinyl tubing with 2 micron carb stone on the end. The tanks are usually about $9 and the carb stones and tubing can be found at your LHBS. I think I have 3/8 beverage tubing on mine only because I think that's what I had on hand at the time but 1/4 or 5/8 probably works too. The regulators can be difficult to find alone so I just got a welding kit from HD initially for ~$50 which had the o2 tank regulator and other welding stuff but obviously there are better ways. The tanks usually last me 10+ batches plus a large number of starters. Also try not to handle the carb stone too much as the oils from your hands can clog up the holes but again it hasn't been an issue for me.
Ok so last night I whipped up my 3rd batch which happened to be a hefeweizen. I haven't invested in any CO2 or O2 setups but decided to pull out my electric mixer and give that a shot, I am using a pale bucket and it sounded better than trying to slosh it around with a lid that has a hole in it 
got up this morning and fermentation has already taken off Thanks for all the awesome input
got up this morning and fermentation has already taken off Thanks for all the awesome input 
Ok so last night I whipped up my 3rd batch which happened to be a hefeweizen. I haven't invested in any CO2 or O2 setups but decided to pull out my electric mixer and give that a shot, I am using a pale bucket and it sounded better than trying to slosh it around with a lid that has a hole in it
Neat, I like the ingenuity. If you do a search in the DIY forum for venturi, there is a great little device which will allow you to aerate with zero effort while racking to your fermentor. Basically you cut a small piece of racking cane or tubing of a smaller ID than your racking tubing, poke a small hole or two into it, and put it in the middle of your tubing. As long as the junction is smaller ID than the tubing you're using, air will be pulled in through the hole and make a ton of tiny bubbles that aerate your wort as well as a great shaking without the workout.
