Homemade aeration system

this is a little something i put together today:





what do you all think?

the picture didn't work?

ok,

well here is the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21645009@N00/397973673/

roggae said:

ok,

well here is the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21645009@N00/397973673/

Click to expand...

As long as you're not too worried about contamination. You have to run this thing for a long time to make a difference (30 minutes or so) and for that length of time you can be pumping contiminates/wild yeast into the wort. Some use a little inline hepa filter.

Yeah I made a filter using sterile cotton, activated charcoal and some pvc tubes. The trouble I ran into (I had all the stuff lying around pretty much) was that the pump was having trouble pushing through the filter and then the pressure of the liquid. TBH in retrospect you absolutely should put a filter on it. Airborne contaminants are very easy to come by as Bobby_M suggests!

Is that just a regular aquarium airstone, I was under the impression that the airstone had to be stainless steel

Bobby_M said:

As long as you're not too worried about contamination. You have to run this thing for a long time to make a difference (30 minutes or so) and for that length of time you can be pumping contiminates/wild yeast into the wort. Some use a little inline hepa filter.

Click to expand...

i'm sorry i did not include the HEPA filter since it is in a sterile package. thanks for the feedback.

I've used something exactly like that a few times. I agree that the filter would be a good idea, but I've been lucky enough to get away without it. It seems to work well, although I just made venturi thing that I hook up to the end of my transfer tubing and swirl around while I'm running out of the brewpot so I use that instead now. I used to just let it run for 20-30 min while I was cleaning up and then pitched. I always had 3-4 hour starts and active fermentations using the pump, though. I used the acquarium airstones too. I'd just take one out, throw it in the Starsan bucket until I needed it, then throw it away after each use. I think they were 2/$1 at Walmart, so no worries there.

Flickr is a little weird with picture hosting, you have to delete the "?v=0" at the end of the link...



BTW...thats what my setup looks like, works good too! I just used tubing, no racking cane. good call on the cane!

My brother works for a medical supply company. He is looking into oxygen tanks for me, but he said it might be cheaper to rent. will post more when i find out

Keep an eye on craigslist. You'll find used ones that are still half full and if you don't ask for shipping, you can use that tank for years.

Cool I've been hesitant to use the aquarium stones I have.

Anyone had trouble with these?


Thanks for the post