Air Stone Micron Rating

I'm looking to get an oxygenation setup to use canned oxygen. I'll probably either buy from Austinhomebrew or Williamsbrewing but they use different setups. One is a 2micron stone while the other is 0.5micron. Is there really much of an advantage to a smaller micron stone when it comes to this application?

Edit: They seem to have changed the aeration system at Williams brewing. I can't seem to find the product that offers both the aeration wand and regulator for the O2 tank. The link below is now only for the aeration wand.

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=2437
http://www.williamsbrewing.com/22_AERATION_WAND_P490C106.cfm

smaller is better

0.5 ftw

Can't help ya there. Never used one and the beer is still awesome. Are you sure it's not a marketing gimmick ($$) that you don't really need to make great beer?
I heard an old, experienced brewer told me to not bother with them. It's just a thought, no offense intended --Brew your own brew either way.

Ziggy, there is more than one way to skin the oxygenation cat.

I've seen recommendations to use the .5 micron stone for CO2 and pure O2 and the 2 micron stone for aquarium pumps. Personally, I have a 2 micron in use with a HEPA filter and Danner air pump and it seems to work just fine.

These links pose the same question:

• https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/aeration-oxygen-equipment-question-49064/
• https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/5-2-micron-diffusion-stone-164866/
• http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=113957

Here are a few links with size references:

• http://***********/stories/techniques/article/indices/7-aeration/1949-aerating-wort-techniques
  
• http://morebeer.com/view_product/10732/103750/Diffusion_Stone_-_.5_Micron_w__Flare_Threads
  
• http://www.williamsbrewing.com/WILLIAM_S_AERATION_SYSTEM_P496.cfm

Wyeast Labs Aeration Info:

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

arturo7 said:

Ziggy, there is more than one way to skin the oxygenation cat.

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LOL. That's the cool part of home brew. It's your home and your brew. We each do something a little different and share our ideas. Diversity keeps it fun.

Thanks Zymurgy.

That last link you posted is interesting. Basically is showed that shaking my fermenter will get me to 8ppm relatively easily. I'm thinking I'll probably get the 2micron stone/wand setup from Williamsbrewing. Yeah it's a larger micron rating but the functionality of the wand is nice and I really don't feel like messing around with a clogged stone at the end of a brew day.

Just wanted to f/u on the airstone. I purchased from williamsbrewing with the 2micron wand attached stone. It has worked great so far and the wand is the perfect length to allow me to control the stone at the bottom of a 15.5gallon sanke keg fermentor. This was one thing I worried about as it is obviously going to be deeper and with a much smaller opening compared to other fermentors. It has done great with this so far.
My fermentations have seemed to start great. One fermentation (Brown Ale) seemed to crap out early but it think it was more from a very high starting gravity from great efficiency rather than poor O2 levels. The other fermentation (Kolsch) did excellent and attenuated beautifully.

I definitely recommend the williams brewing stone/wand. With O2 tanks $2 each it's much cheaper than shaking a 1/2 barrel and paying for a chiropractor later.

We have developed a simple, easy to clean system that includes a .2 micron HEPA in-line air filter


Reread description

samc said:

We have developed a simple, easy to clean system that includes a .2 micron HEPA in-line air filter


Reread description

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This is for the hepa filter but not for the aeration stone. The stone is rated for 2.0 microns not 0.2.

I need new glasses, anyway I use the Williams kit and it works well.