Oxygen stone size

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Moonshae

Moonshae

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I have been thinking about using pure oxygen to aerate my cooled wort prior to pitching. I have a tank and regulator already, which is the only reason I'm considering it right now...all I need is a stone. Will an aquarium stone work, or do I need one of the real fine, 0.5 micron stones?
 
I use an aquarium stone. There are cleaning issues associated with it, but I soak in Iodophor before and after use and haven't noticed any problems after about ten batches. I bought a three pack for a few bucks so when one starts to look a little rough, I'll pitch it and put on another.
 
for pure oxygen, you are supposed to use the 0.5 micron stone. for an aquarium pump, you're supposed to use the 2 micron stone.

will it work, tho? i suppose it would work just fine.
 
I was thinking about storing the stone in some cheap vodka in a sealed container to keep contamination issues minimized. I'd imagine that the oxygen stone provides a more efficient use of the oxygen...smaller bubbles, greater surface area, more oxygen dissolving into solution...but as long as the aquarium stone will work, I'll upgrade later.
 
Moonshae said:
I'd imagine that the oxygen stone provides a more efficient use of the oxygen...smaller bubbles, greater surface area, more oxygen dissolving into solution...but as long as the aquarium stone will work, I'll upgrade later.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't that be true of plain air too? I would expect that the smaller micron holes would be more susceptible to getting plugged up in either case. I can't think of a reason to treat air and oxygen any differently. I suppose if oxygen were in short supply you might go to extremes to use as little as possible, but it's not THAT much money.
 
Fingers said:
Wouldn't that be true of plain air too? I would expect that the smaller micron holes would be more susceptible to getting plugged up in either case. I can't think of a reason to treat air and oxygen any differently. I suppose if oxygen were in short supply you might go to extremes to use as little as possible, but it's not THAT much money.
Click to expand...

Of course the same principle applies to air, but running the air longer to compensate doesn't cost anything extra. In the long run, getting the most efficiency will save money. I just wanted to make sure an aquarium stone would work initially, and I'll pick up an oxygen stone the next time I get to the LHBS.
 
Fingers said:
Wouldn't that be true of plain air too? I would expect that the smaller micron holes would be more susceptible to getting plugged up in either case. I can't think of a reason to treat air and oxygen any differently. I suppose if oxygen were in short supply you might go to extremes to use as little as possible, but it's not THAT much money.
Click to expand...
I believe that part of the reason that 2 micron stones are used for air is that the 0.5 micron stone is likely to require more pressure to push gas through it, and a weak little aquarium pump may not be up to the task. With oxygen, you are always starting with a high pressure source and a regulator, so getting high enough pressure is no problem. With my 0.5 micron stone on O2, I notice that after shutting the gas off at the regulator, the flow of bubbles from the stone takes quite a while to stop, because the residual pressure in the hose takes that long to bleed off through the restrictive stone.

And as far as the oxygen use goes... well yeah, if you're using a big medical O2 tank which is comparatively cheap to fill, then the per-batch cost of oxygen hardly matters. But those little disposable hardware-store tanks are like 8 bucks, and I was under the impression they only last a couple dozen batches. Still not terribly expensive, but enough that I feel it's worth being conservative with it.
 
Funkenjaeger said:
I believe that part of the reason that 2 micron stones are used for air is that the 0.5 micron stone is likely to require more pressure to push gas through it, and a weak little aquarium pump may not be up to the task.
Click to expand...
Yepperz :mug:
 
Funkenjaeger said:
I believe that part of the reason that 2 micron stones are used for air is that the 0.5 micron stone is likely to require more pressure to push gas through it, and a weak little aquarium pump may not be up to the task. With oxygen, you are always starting with a high pressure source and a regulator, so getting high enough pressure is no problem. With my 0.5 micron stone on O2, I notice that after shutting the gas off at the regulator, the flow of bubbles from the stone takes quite a while to stop, because the residual pressure in the hose takes that long to bleed off through the restrictive stone.

And as far as the oxygen use goes... well yeah, if you're using a big medical O2 tank which is comparatively cheap to fill, then the per-batch cost of oxygen hardly matters. But those little disposable hardware-store tanks are like 8 bucks, and I was under the impression they only last a couple dozen batches. Still not terribly expensive, but enough that I feel it's worth being conservative with it.
Click to expand...

Ah, now that makes sense. I hadn't thought about pressures and I have a 20lb oxy tank that I own so it's pretty cheap to use. I originally started borrowing it from my oxy-acetylene setup but now it looks more like the oxy-acetylene is borrowing it from the homebrew setup!
 
I used aquarium stones for a few batches before I bought the stainless one. Just wait until you need to order something and put the stainless on there. The aquarium ones fall apart after a while.
 
Anyone know the pressure that should be used on a .5 micron stone? I was able to get a medical oxygen tank and regulator and was wondering about pressure and time. May as well bump an old thread instead of starting new. I'll keep searching though.
 
I've been hearing that the appropriate way to sanitize these stones, regardless of pitch, is to heat sanitize them. apparently contaminants can get inside the pores of the stone that a liquid sanitizer may not reach, and then they might get blown into your beer when oxygenating. so boiling them for 10 minutes or so is the recommendation I've been hearing.

also, I don't know whether 2u or .5u is important, but .5 is definitely the common consensus when it comes to using O2. I've seen/heard some commentary about how most dissolution of oxygen happens at the surface, regardless of how and where you pump in your oxygen. this makes me wonder why we'd need a stone at all... why not just stick a hose in there and pump giant-ass bubbles of O2 or hepa-filtered air?

I dunno... makes me wonder.
 
I got the kit from William's Brewing, and I'm sure you can order just the stone since you already have the tank & regulator. The great thing about William's rig is that it's a SS stone on the end of a 2 foot SS wand. All I do is stick it in the boil with the chiller and it's automatically sanitized. When chilling's done, I put the stone in the bucket, pour in the wort, hook up the O2 and oxygenate it. I then pull out the wand / stone, and submerge it into a bucket of the chilling water to rinse it off; give it a spritz of oxygen, and that cleans anything out of the stone. Good to go until next time.
 
rico567 said:
I got the kit from William's Brewing, and I'm sure you can order just the stone since you already have the tank & regulator. The great thing about William's rig is that it's a SS stone on the end of a 2 foot SS wand. All I do is stick it in the boil with the chiller and it's automatically sanitized. When chilling's done, I put the stone in the bucket, pour in the wort, hook up the O2 and oxygenate it. I then pull out the wand / stone, and submerge it into a bucket of the chilling water to rinse it off; give it a spritz of oxygen, and that cleans anything out of the stone. Good to go until next time.
Click to expand...

Man I love that kit. In my top 5 of beer equipment purchases.
 
rico567 said:
I got the kit from William's Brewing, and I'm sure you can order just the stone since you already have the tank & regulator. The great thing about William's rig is that it's a SS stone on the end of a 2 foot SS wand. All I do is stick it in the boil with the chiller and it's automatically sanitized. When chilling's done, I put the stone in the bucket, pour in the wort, hook up the O2 and oxygenate it. I then pull out the wand / stone, and submerge it into a bucket of the chilling water to rinse it off; give it a spritz of oxygen, and that cleans anything out of the stone. Good to go until next time.
Click to expand...


The stone on a stick that Williams sells is a 2 micron stone, in case anyone wonders. Read the description here. The same description appears in the full o2 kit with the regulator, hose, and stone/stick.

I lot of people use that system from Williams without any issue, so I'm guessing it doesn't much matter whether you use a .5 or 2 micron stone.
 

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