Aeration of first All grain

Hi,

I'm tackling my first all grain this weekend

Question: I think I still need something for aeration of the wort for fermentation. I understand with Extract and Partials adding the extra couple of gallons of water introduces oxygen for the yeast, but an all-grain full-boil doesn't have this attribute.

What is the best way to accomplish this?

Cheers,
J

Well, I bought an aquarium aerator to add the oxygen. After putting my wort into the primary, I turn that on for about 20-30 minutes and get a nice foamy head. Some people do the "pour and shake" method. Pouring and splashing the cooled wort into the fermenter and then shaking it seems to be a way for many of us. Some use a shot of pure oxygen with an O2 tank for 30 seconds or so.

I guess the "best" way is whatever works for you. I think that given enough time, all of those methods work well.

A local machinist who is a fellow homebrewer makes all stainless wine degassers. I was getting rid of bunch of kegs and traded him a keg for one of the degassers. I just used it for the first time Friday, it was amazing. My safale 05 was visibly fermenting within 2 hours. I have found that all grain batches seem to ferment much faster and more complete in comparison to extract batches, perhaps you will observe similar results.

I'm a "pour and shake" guy. It's nice, as I was born with all the equipment required.

One of these days, I probably will buy more gear for more efficient aeration or oxygenation, but that is still a little further down the list.


TL

If you ferment in carboys get something like this
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=6040

If you ferment in a bucket try something like this
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100371844

I'll have foam to the top of the bucket within 30 seconds.

Just cool the wort in the kettle then drain/pour into the fermenter. By the time you fill it there should be a huge head of foam on top.

TexLaw said:

"pour and shake"

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Rolling, if practiced, benefits from a strip of carpeting on the floor....!

I ferment in a plastic bucket, so I just cool in the boil kettle and pour thru a strainer. This aerates it fine, and the hops need to be strained out anyway. It'll be all foamy by the time your done.

On the rare occasion when I ferment in my 6 gallon better bottle, I just use a funnel + strainer, and pour REAL CAREFULLY.

If you don't want to pick up the whole boil kettle, you can use a santized pitcher to move it a bit at a time.

You could also auto siphon the cooled wort, but splash it around a bunch(hold the 'out' side of the siphon high off of the bottom of the carboy/bucket).

Most basic methods:

• Sanitized wire whisk and a brisk stir in the kettle (or bucket) until it's frothy.
• Once cooled, simply use your immersion chiller and shake it up and down in the kettle until it's nice and frothy.
• Rack to a glass carboy and then rock the carboy back and forth (making sure to do this on a carpeted surface) until it is nice and frothy.

You guys are great. Thanks!

Sometimes I use my racking cane. with the pump out of the wort and the hose at the bottom. Pump away. You pump air to the bottom and froth the whole thing up real good

jaymack said:

You guys are great. Thanks!

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I know I am...and...you're welcome.

niquejim, your second link is broken. The first seems sort of like my stirring paddle thing (which I know isn't the greatest, but it came with my kit so I figure I may as well use it). The siphoning air in/using a whisk seem like great ideas; thanks for answering a question I hadn't gotten around to asking yet

I'm a "sanitized wire whisk" kind of guy. I boil, chill, whisk until my arm hurts, drain to carboy with lots of splashing, and pitch. The wit I just brewed with this aeration method had krausen in under 6 hours (that was the first time I really looked at it), and was merrily pumping foam out the blowoff tube the next morning.

How do the pourers among you deal with the trub? I stir briskly during chilling to draw the trub to the center then siphon with a "sterilized" steel wool tied to the end of my siphon then shake like hell for ~5 min. Haven't had any problems yet.

gigidogg said:

How do the pourers among you deal with the trub? I stir briskly during chilling to draw the trub to the center then siphon with a "sterilized" steel wool tied to the end of my siphon then shake like hell for ~5 min. Haven't had any problems yet.

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I'm a pourer as well. I use one of the large white filters and so a lot of the hop stuff is filtered out that way. I don't worry much about trub. It settles out and I rack off of it after a week or so. Never noticed any problems with this.