Aeration set up (using aquarium stones)

Hello,

has anyone ever used an aquarium pump and diffusion stone for their brewing needs?

Any thoughts? -- I understand that the size of the 'diffusion holes' would need to be similar to a brewing stone (0.2 microns)

Thanks

Plenty of people use aquarium pumps for aeration, though generally with diffusion stones intended for brewing. Brewing aeration stones are usually 2 micron for air, or 0.5 micron for pure O2. I have a feeling that with a 0.2 micron stone an aquarium pump would have a hard time getting any flow.

Regardless, one thing you need to consider is sanitation - brewing stones are made of stainless steel. Aquarium stones that I've seen are usually made of some kind of plastic or something. They may get gummed up by the wort, and it may not be possible to effectively sanitize them like you can with stainless.

Would just a tube be effective as well instead of using an air stone?

Yes, you could just use the tube.

It's my understanding that just a tube is less useful than just shaking it up prior to pitching. I used an aquarium pump & air stone on my most recent brew and the fermentation was noticeably more vigirous; ran the pump for an hour, the stone was not a stainless steel but just an aquarium bubbler stone. Some discussion of it in this thread when the foam was more than I expected.

Rick

Using just a tube is incredibly inefficient. The surface area of a few big bubbles from a tube is miniscule compared to the surface area of many thousands of bubbles as you get from an airstone. While it's better than no aeration at all, part of the point of an airstone is to get aeration finished in a short period of time so you can get your fermenter all closed up and put away... Even with an airstone, using just air (as opposed to pure O2, which takes just about a minute) is rumored to take something like 30 minutes to saturate the wort... So I would guess that with no airstone it would take significantly longer, on the order of many hours, which is really not ideal for your vulnerable wort.

I tried to get an o2 canister setup from Lowes yesterday. They did have the cans, but I could not get just a regulator and some hose. Had to buy a whole welder setup for $50. I think I will try the HBS in the near future.

In the meantime, I got a $6 aquarium pump, 8ft of tiny hose, and a 5 pack of disposable air stones. I think it cost 10.99 total. I let it run in the kettle (after it cooled) till it nearly foamed over, about 25 minutes, racked to carboy, and hit it with the air again until it filled the headspace (another 15 or 20). Pitched a nice big starter, and stuffed the blowoff tube in. That was an hour ago. Nothing yet, holding breath. I added several things to the process this time:

- wort chiller (great investment)
- Turkey fryer al kettle for full boil
- added 3/4 of the LME with 15 minutes to go (all DME and 1/4 LME at 60 mins)
- Added 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient at 15 minutes
- washed yeast from last batch of imperial stout
- 2 step starter using home made stir plate
- air pump / stone

Trying to solve some high FG issues with first 2 batches. Will post back what I see when I see it. There are enough new variables that I am almost sure something will blow up.

Go to Williams Brewing. they sell the regulator, some airline, and a Stainless Steel airstone on a 22" stainless 'wand' that will reach to the bottom of any carboy.

its the bees knees for pure O2 aeration.

s3n8 said:

I got a $6 aquarium pump, 8ft of tiny hose, and a 5 pack of disposable air stones. I think it cost 10.99 total. I let it run in the kettle (after it cooled) till it nearly foamed over, about 25 minutes, racked to carboy, and hit it with the air again until it filled the headspace (another 15 or 20). Pitched a nice big starter, and stuffed the blowoff tube in. That was an hour ago. Nothing yet, holding breath.

Click to expand...

Well, $10 aeration setup seems to be a success. Checked on fermentation this am when I got up. Roughly 12 hours after pitching, I have enough krausen on a 5G batch of IPA to fill the headspace in the 6.5G carboy. Fermentation seems very happy. Hoping for a nice low FG on this one (1.012 or so).

I still think I will look into getting an o2 setup with a SS stone.

s3n8 said:

I still think I will look into getting an o2 setup with a SS stone.

Click to expand...

Before you do that, you may want to read this first:

http://www.beertools.com/html/articles.php?view=245

Scroll down to topic #3. Food for though. Perhaps the $10 aquarium pump is the way to go.

Cheers
Dave

GuitarLord5000 said:

Before you do that, you may want to read this first:

http://www.beertools.com/html/articles.php?view=245

Scroll down to topic #3. Food for though. Perhaps the $10 aquarium pump is the way to go.

Cheers
Dave

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By oxgenating the wort instead of the yeast starter, it will cause an over production of cells due to the excessive oxygen presence. This then leads to the production of unwanted esters and higher alcohols that will compromise beer flavor.

When oxygenating starters, you cannot use pure O2... the reason is that the uptake occurs too fast and without a dissolved O2 meter ($$$), you cannot tell when to stop. It is virtually impossible to over-aerate using air, so you will avoid oxygen toxicity problems that will occur if trying to do this with pure oxygen.

Click to expand...

Controversial at best. At worst, very wrong concerning fermentability vs. reproductability. I tend to think that information is dead wrong.

If I'm wrong, now would be a good time to know!

s3n8 said:

In the meantime, I got a $6 aquarium pump, 8ft of tiny hose, and a 5 pack of disposable air stones. I think it cost 10.99 total. I let it run in the kettle (after it cooled) till it nearly foamed over, about 25 minutes,

Click to expand...

So just the aquarium pump, standard small aquarium tubing, and the aquarium diffuser? No in-line filter or anything else?

tx_brewer said:

So just the aquarium pump, standard small aquarium tubing, and the aquarium diffuser? No in-line filter or anything else?

Click to expand...

Yes, but...

I have since retired that setup, and would recommend you get a SS stone and regulator from any of the online brew-supply stores. After reading more, and learning of the difficulty in sanitation of the aquarium stones, I decided not to chance it. I boil my SS o2 stone every once in a while, and toss it in the sanitizer while brewing.

GuitarLord5000 said:

Before you do that, you may want to read this first:

http://www.beertools.com/html/articles.php?view=245

Scroll down to topic #3. Food for though. Perhaps the $10 aquarium pump is the way to go.

Cheers
Dave

Click to expand...

I don't want to steal the thread but great article! I wrote an informational post https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/malt-modification-how-read-malt-analysis-sheet-143252/ because I felt too many homebrewers feel the need to step mash when only a single infusion mash is needed 99% of the time. This article seems to bear out my thoughts. I agree with just aerating the starter and not the wort.

s3n8 said:

Yes, but...

I have since retired that setup, and would recommend you get a SS stone and regulator from any of the online brew-supply stores. After reading more, and learning of the difficulty in sanitation of the aquarium stones, I decided not to chance it. I boil my SS o2 stone every once in a while, and toss it in the sanitizer while brewing.

Click to expand...

Your talking now about going to an O2 tank and regulator.

if you are just disposing of the aquarium stones after every other batch or so, there shouldnt be a problem with doing this method I wouldnt think. The aquarium stones are cheap, and I only brew about 1 a month or so.

A couple of questions -
1. I notice there are yeas and nays on some homebrew forums about using aquarium airstones becuz of the concerns about the quality of the plastics, etc. I don't suppose they are certified food-grade, but if they don't harm the fish, I wouldn't think the plastics would be toxic to humans either - am I wrong?
2. I checked with a local medical oxygen supplier and they told me that I have to get a prescription slip from a doctor to buy 'medical' oxygen. I have a oxy/acetylene setup with gauges, as well as a tank, so is the O2 you are talking about from a welding supply? (I've never aerated before other than pouring, stirring and shaking, so this airstone/O2 stuff is not something I've delved into before.)
3. I have a oxygenator (medical oxygen machine for home-use for persons that require oxygen for breathing) that produces 'almost pure oxygen' - something like 3/4 of what pure medical oxygen would be. Whaddya think, would this be better than using air supplied by an aquarium pump?
THX

O2 from your Oxy-Acetylene set up is acceptable..........It's O2 !

I came upon a medical setup tank that needed filling, and told my Physician what I wanted the prescription for, and he wrote me a script for it.

Just pick up a stainless steel aeration stone from one if the suppliers on here you'll be better off and they will last longer and no concerns. The best part with the stainless ones are they are durable (no concerns of it coming apart in the beer) and you can drop them in boiling water to sterilize them.

I use the stainless steel aireator connected to a sanitary air filter which then goes to a O2 tank for welding I got from Home Depot.

I have a quick question about this .5 micron stainless steel diffusion stone.

Is the stainless steel diffusion part supposed to pull off so easily?

I noticed a lot of bubbles coming out around where it slides onto the threaded part.

Should I epoxy it on?

olephart said:

I have a quick question about this .5 micron stainless steel diffusion stone.

Is the stainless steel diffusion part supposed to pull off so easily?

I noticed a lot of bubbles coming out around where it slides onto the threaded part.

Should I epoxy it on?

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No, it's not supposed to pop off at all! How old is it? can you contact the place you bought it from and exchange it??

dmcman73 said:

No, it's not supposed to pop off at all! How old is it? can you contact the place you bought it from and exchange it??

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It's brand new, I bought it on ebay from nybrewsupply. I've emailed them through ebay and awaiting their response...fingers crossed...

olephart said:

It's brand new, I bought it on ebay from nybrewsupply. I've emailed them through ebay and awaiting their response...fingers crossed...

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It looks like they also have a web store: http://www.nybrewsupply.com. Most brew stores sell on eBay as well.

olephart said:

It's brand new, I bought it on ebay from nybrewsupply. I've emailed them through ebay and awaiting their response...fingers crossed...

Click to expand...

Just got a response from nybrewsupply;
"Hi, The 2 parts are normally glued together by the manufacturer, A small dab of 5 minute epoxy where the fitting meet should glue it back together just fine. Just make sure not to hold the stone with your hands or the oils can clog the pores..."


Oh boy, maybe it's time to look somewhere else for a SS aeration system ...
How's this "5 minute epoxy" gonna hold up in boiling water???

olephart said:

Just got a response from nybrewsupply;
"Hi, The 2 parts are normally glued together by the manufacturer, A small dab of 5 minute epoxy where the fitting meet should glue it back together just fine. Just make sure not to hold the stone with your hands or the oils can clog the pores..."


Oh boy, maybe it's time to look somewhere else for a SS aeration system ...
How's this "5 minute epoxy" gonna hold up in boiling water???

Click to expand...

Not only that, is it food safe?

I purchased a few SS aeration stones (not from them, i got them through Morebeer.com) and never had an issue with them.

For the seller to tell you to just glue it together and not offer an exchange? Move along and don't do business with them again.

I've emailed em a couple more times with no response and it looks like my only option is to "glue" it back together.

If they do ever get back to me and offer a replacement I am going to decline. Who wants a stainless steel aeration stone that is GLUED together

Wow, it's almost been two years.
JB Weld has been holding up just fine. [emoji12]

Gotta love the internet.

I left my stone in boiling water and then, like a *******, walked away to do something else. Sure enough boiled all the water off and got that stone super hot, completely melted whatever factory glue had been in there so now I have two pieces. Looks like a stop at the hardware store will need to be done for some epoxy.