oxygenation vs aeration

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abracadabra

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I confused. What I've read said I could aerate my wort by shaking the fermenter or by using a stone and aquarium pump. but my brew store said I need oxygen.
I bought an oxygen fitting hose and disperson stone from him but the O2 bottles at the local home supply store are $8 for non returnable bottles. This seem like are really expensive way to go. And I'm not sure how long to do it. Is there an inexpensive way do measure the Disolved Oxygen?
And a DO level I need to shoot for?
Is a larger refillable bottle a better alternative?
and do I really need to be doing this unless I have a high gravity wort?
 
I don't oxygenate my beer, but that's something I plan to do in the future (I aerate with a strainer). If you have the hose and dispersion stone already, though, buy one of those O2 bottles; from what I've read, you only need to open it up for about two minutes, and then just enough to let it barely bubble to the surface. Not sure how you would measure the DO content directly, but from what I have read a couple minutes' use will get you nearly to the saturation point.

Plus, only running a couple minutes should get you about 20 batches' worth from one bottle, so the O2 cost is only about 40 cents per. In exchange, much shorter lag times and potentially more-complete fermenations.

The other option would be to hook your hose and stone up to an aquarium pump, but then you need to run it a lot longer (since air is only 20% O2). Longer running time means more time for infection.
 
You can aerate by shaking or an aquarium pump, but an O2 stone will get you there faster. It's also probably more effective for lagers and high gravity brews.

The amount of time you inject O2 depends on the gravity of your wort, but it's usually between 1 and 2 minutes with a lot of fudge factor. You don't want to open the regulator wide open, but rather just get bubbles gently streaming into the wort so that they stay in solution.

I get at least 8-12 batches per cyclinder, so I think it's pretty cost effective as well as a great time and back saver.
 
You'll have to run the aquarium pump for 30+ minutes to get real aeration. With the disspolved oxygen, as bird said, you are done in a few minutes, if that.

45 seconds on the oxygen is bettern than 45 minutes on the air! I'd buy the tank!
 
Since I have to place an order from Northern Brewer today anyway, I think I'm just going to go ahead and buy an O2 setup. This is one of those things that does have a direct impact on the quality of the brew, so I wouldn't skimp too much in this regard.
 
the_bird said:
Since I have to place an order from Northern Brewer today anyway, I think I'm just going to go ahead and buy an O2 setup. This is one of those things that does have a direct impact on the quality of the brew, so I wouldn't skimp too much in this regard.

Check out this one Bird. The wand is really nice to have. I don't think the offering from Northern or Midwest have it.
 
Perfect, thanks, dude!

I was just noticing that the O2 setup on Northern Brewer was more than $50, versus about $35 at morebeer - but this trumps both.

EDIT: Damn, are Williams malt prices high!
 
yes it is a pain without the wand - the hose just curls up
i bough a piece of rigid plastic tubing from the aquarium store and made my own wand
 
I was thinking of adding one of these to my kit but I've just had a brew start up rapidly and it's just about finished in under 24 hours. I don't see a need to get it going any faster. It was a 1060 brew and it's now at 1012
 
Decided before I buy any gear, I'm going to see if I can buy a regulator that will work directly from the Depot (so I'd just need a hose and a stone). Always seems that you label something as "regulator for homebrew making," it adds 50% to the cost.
 
Here's the numbers (from Wyeast);

Shake/stir/splash 6-8 ppm O2
Aerate with stone 12-15 ppm
Oxygen with stone 30-33 ppm.

More oxygen will delay the fermentation start a little, but you'll have more and stronger yeast.
 
Orfy,
Good luck finding just the O2 reg. I looked for two days and couldn't find a source. My gut tells me it's worth about $5 tops but I just couldn't find it. Don't forget the ones for disposable tanks are left hand thread. I thought I would cheap out and grab a propane torch reg and adapt it but it doesn't work.
 
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