Aeration question

I generally put about a gallon of cold water in the bottom of my primary. After cooling my wort to 80, I siphon on top of the cold water, no splashing.

After that I take the bucket to my kitchen sink, insert brew thermometer and top off with kitchen sprayer, this causes lots of foaming. Once up to just over 5 gallons, I stir with sterilized spoon and take my OG reading.

Does the kitchen sprayer method add enough oxygen?

Linc

Probably, but out of curiosity, if you know you are going to be doing a lot of splashing then why are you worried about splashing the wort when siphoning?

cubbies said:

Probably, but out of curiosity, if you know you are going to be doing a lot of splashing then why are you worried about splashing the wort when siphoning?

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I'm not worried about splashing during siphoning, I was just pointing out that more than likely no oxygen gets added during my siphon. I suppose I could hold the end of the siphon hose out of the wort and let it splash to help add more 02.

Linc

I did that a few times back when doing extract batches, and they fermented alright. Hard to say conclusively though. If you're using a bucket, it's not too hard to shake the batch once it's sealed up, without having to lift it - just tilt it onto one edge of the bottom and rock it back and forth. You really can't get a huge amount of oxygen into solution with just air anyway, so just do the best you can. Don't forget that all the water you're adding should already be pretty well oxygenated since it hasn't been boiled.

I use the kitchen sprayer method also. After topping off I put a stopper in the carboy and shake the hell out of it for a minute or two. I get activity in the carboy 6-10 hrs.

You do increase risk of infection with tap water that wasn't boiled.

But mostly I'd sanitize the sprayer head, that'd be far more likely to have bacteria on it than your water supply.