aeration?

I only have a 4 gallon brewpot so when it comes to aerating I'm a little confused.... When I used my plastic fermenter I use a whisk but I have beer fermenting in it right now and am just finishing up another batch so I'm going to use my glass carboy for the first time.... How do I aerate the wort when I'm going to have to add water to get the volume up? do I just aerate it in my pot and add it too the cool water in the carboy?

only aerate before pitching yeast, just dumping from your brewpot into your fermenter bucket is plenty of aeration.

if you top up with water in secondary, you should rack it on top of the wort to prevent aeration.

or you could just do what everyone else does and skip the secondary.

No. Don't aerate in the pot.

The best way to do this is to add your water, then shake the crap out of the carboy. This is why I hate using glass. It's so heavy that it can be pretty hard to shake them when they're full. If you use a funnel to dump our cool water in, it will probably aerate pretty well from splashing, but an extra shake won't hurt.

Cool the wort in the pot, then transfer into glass carboy. Stick a stopper in there and shake the **** out of it. Yeah it's tiring but shake it for a good few minutes. Take breaks if you have to. Just make sure you shake it up thoroughly before you pitch the yeast.

If you don't feel up to the task, you could always pour the wort into the bucket, and back into the pot, and back into the bucket a few times. But I feel that shaking it up works better. I've tried both options but when I shake it, I find that my lag time is always shorter and the yeast attenuated better.

I use an airpump and stone, $30, it dosen't need to rest and I have a set process that doesn't vary. Let's see, did I shake this batch as much as I did the last batch? I let it run for 15 min.

I"m using Venturi effect to aerate my wort and it is pretty effective. Most of all, it is cheap and we are doing two things at the same time- racking into primary and aerating.

If you"re interested, there is great threads to learn more:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-aeration-gadget-68218/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/simple-wort-aerator-192661/

I use a sanitized paint mixer attachment with my cordless drill. After cooling, I pour the wort into a brew bucket and swirl like mad for a couple minutes with the drill on high. Works like a champ and cost $8 at home Depot.

You can buy a mixer at most lhbs .It has little ears that fold down so it will fit in your glass carboy.Its also food grade plastic.Just dump it in and give it a good shake if you don't have one.

rege said:

I use an airpump and stone, $30, it dosen't need to rest and I have a set process that doesn't vary. Let's see, did I shake this batch as much as I did the last batch? I let it run for 15 min.

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I do the same, bought a small fish pump and stones from wal mart for less than $10, works great.