Air Pump question

Shaking the fermenter like mad for 10-15 minutes can be very tiring. I am thinking of getting an air pump to aerate my wort. But is there any other equipment needed other than the pump and the tubing?

I have heard this thing about an air stone, what's the advantage of using a airstone?

An airstone will allow the oxygen to saturate faster because it is going through the tiny pores which creates really small bubbles, as opposed to big bubbles. I would highly recomend an inline filter, because air may not be 100% clean. Since only 20% of air is O2 you have to keep the pump going for at least 10 min.

I seem to remember reading on here somewhere that it took 50 minutes to reach 80% saturation... Anyone who actually knows care to clear up how long to let the air pump foam up the wort?

The aeration system on Morebeer.com recommends the following:

"Because the atmosphere is only about 20% oxygen, the diffusion stone must be left running in the wort for approximately 30-120 minutes (however even 5 minutes of aeration is better than shaking the carboy.) "

I normally would not post a link to another brewing forum...however, the green board had a post today...someone got an Oxygen tester, and started doing some comparisons with airpumps vs pure O2 aeration.

pretty interesting stuff too.
http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=88898

Get a wine degassing wand. Simple and effective.

mr x said:

Get a wine degassing wand. Simple and effective.

Click to expand...

Anyone have an account on the green board? I would like to see the guy with the o2 sensor do a comparison of common methods:

Pouring back and forth a few times
stirring with a wisk
shaking carboy
others (these seem to be the ones I have seen the most)
paint stirrer
degassing wand
air pump/aquarium stone
o2 (looks pretty efficient)

Sorry, im an engineer by training.

I know that this does not completely answer everything, but Wyeast has some information regarding aeration on their site.

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

This doesn't answer the question of will the O2 ppm go up if aerated longer on regular air w/ stone or if shaken longer. I typically use an aquarium pump w/ stone for 30-40 mins in my carboys before I pitch the yeast, or I will shake the carboy for 5 minutes. I have had acceptable results and usually full attenuation but, am beginning to think about straight O2 to save time and my arms on brewday.

Thanks for the link J.B.W.

Their results are fairly surprising... Shaking and splashing for 40 seconds appears to be as effective as an aquarium pump/stone setup for 5 minutes both resulting in 8ppm. I wonder what doubling each method yields... double the ppm? probably not.

I think I will just save some pennies for an o2 regulator and SS stone.

Could it also depend on how powerful the pump is?