My aeration dilemma... ugh

So, I don't have a good wort chiller nor do I have a pump to make a jockey box cooler (pump hot wort through copper tube immersed in a box of ice water) so I cool my wort by using my crappy 10' homemade copper tube chiller down to about 110 degrees, then I pour it into my carboy and stick it in an ice bath for about 4 hours. I then pitch and shake the crap out of the carboy.

This is not working.

I keep getting stuck fermentations when my OG is higher than 1.050. My latest ale started at 1.055 and ended at 1.020 using WLP005 (English Ale Yeast). I'm pretty sure its an oxygen problem, b/c I hit 1.010 when brewing session ales with an OG around 1.040 with the same yeast.

How should I fix this problem while spending the least amount of money? My ideal solution is a march pump, jockey box and a pure oxygen system. However that'd cost me about $300.

Ideas? The only solutions I see is either a) going with the pump/jockey box scheme and hoping that if I could cool the wort fast enough to pitch immediately, the splashing into the carboy would add enough oxygen or b) buying a pure oxygen setup.

What about a cheap aquarium pump and a disposable airstone or something? I dunno, all ideas appreciated!

you can get sufficent oxygen simply by using a power drill-mounted mixing/aeration stick - like is used in winemaking to drive CO2 out of the wine, using this for <5min in a carboy of cooled wort will get you 8% O2, which should be fine for a good ferment with well-condition yeast.
I tend to overkill a bit, i use 2 smak packs of Acticator, a capsule of Yeast Fuel with 15 min left in the boil and i aerate with one of the mix sticks on a drill... ferment take off within 5-10 hours and the bulk of fermentation has completed in about a week or so...

As to cooling, i can cool wort easier in the pot it's been boiled in, in the sink with a couple changes of cold water, followed by a couple changes of cold water with 5# of ice. less than 15 min to get down below 80*F. The trick to getting rapid cooling with a water bath is to be circulating both the wort against the inside of the pan and the ice water in the sink - so that you always have cold water contacting the metal of the pot, which is always contacting hot wort.... best possible heat transfer this way for this method. Just sitting a carboy in an ice bath will tend to cool slightly the wort near the glass and warm slightly the water near the glass - but the rest of the water remains cool and the rest of the wort remains warm. you gotta circulate it.

I got my counter flow chiller for about $60 and it works great. That might be the way to go for you. It chills the wort quickly, and I use a pump so I hold the hose up high and it splashes like crazy into the fermenter, for the aeration.

It sounds like you have a bigger issue than chilling and/or aeration though. I suspect that you're underpitching the yeast. Are you making large enough starters for the yeast for the batches over 1.050?

For aeration, I bought an aquarium air compressor for about 6$ and a HEPA filter and a diffusion stone on morebeer.com for about 20$. It works very well. If you choose that option, don't forget the HEPA filter

My wort chiller is a 25 feet copper tube immersion chiller that I paid about 25$. 10feet is not enough. I plug it on my washing machine's cold water entry It brings the wort to 70 F in about 30 min.

As rawlus said, I find it cools faster in the boil vessel. I have a home made chiller with 20 feet of copper tubing. I have a dual sink, so I've found a way that works good for me. I put enough water into one of the sinks as to not overfill when I place the brew kettle in it, and put the cooler output line INTO the water bath on the opposite side as the other sink. I turn on water to the chiller slowly until the water bath sink fills up and overflows to the other sink, so the cool water from the chiller pushes out the warm water from the ice bath. I also occasionally swirl the chiller in the wort to keep it moving for greater contact. Know what I mean?

Huh, these posts have given me some ideas. I looked on morebeer and found this:

http://morebeer.com/view_product/16607//Aeration_System

I'm thinking about buying this. It says however it needs 30-120 minutes to work, which is different than the 5 minutes DrAtomik mentioned.

However Yooper brought up a good point. Maybe I am underpitching too? The way I usually prepare yeast is to buy a vial of yeast, make a big 1.5 liter starter with it, and then divide the yeast I get out of the started into three beer bottles and place them in the fridge. On different occasions I have made and also not made a starter first on "bigger" beers and I still got the 1.020 FG. However, it may be being compounded with low oxygen levels.

badmajon said:

Huh, these posts have given me some ideas. I looked on morebeer and found this:

http://morebeer.com/view_product/16607//Aeration_System

I'm thinking about buying this. It says however it needs 30-120 minutes to work, which is different than the 5 minutes DrAtomik mentioned.

However Yooper brought up a good point. Maybe I am underpitching too? The way I usually prepare yeast is to buy a vial of yeast, make a big 1.5 liter starter with it, and then divide the yeast I get out of the started into three beer bottles and place them in the fridge. On different occasions I have made and also not made a starter first on "bigger" beers and I still got the 1.020 FG. However, it may be being compounded with low oxygen levels.

Click to expand...

I'd say the number one problem is underpitching, then. check out mrmalty.com and click on the "yeast pitching calculator" to see how much yeast you should pitch for a typical 1.060 batch. I think you'll be surprised to see that that 1.5 liter starter probably only produced enough yeast for ONE batch, not splitting into three!

badmajon said:

Huh, these posts have given me some ideas. I looked on morebeer and found this:

http://morebeer.com/view_product/16607//Aeration_System

I'm thinking about buying this. It says however it needs 30-120 minutes to work, which is different than the 5 minutes DrAtomik mentioned.

However Yooper brought up a good point. Maybe I am underpitching too? The way I usually prepare yeast is to buy a vial of yeast, make a big 1.5 liter starter with it, and then divide the yeast I get out of the started into three beer bottles and place them in the fridge. On different occasions I have made and also not made a starter first on "bigger" beers and I still got the 1.020 FG. However, it may be being compounded with low oxygen levels.

Click to expand...

It looks exactly like my setup and I think the price is honest. Id say go for it.

For the aeration time, I havent mentionned it. I usually aerate for about 20 minutes because its about the time it takes before the foam reach the top of the carboy. But after reading this Ill probably find a way to add another 20 min.

PS. I agree with Yooper that your main problem is probably under pitching. However it's still a good idea to get a setup for aeration

I never used to aerate but never had issues either. Since I've gotten a little more serious about my brewing, I bought a $12 aquarium pump & stone and had insane results. Fermentations start hours sooner and are more vigorous. They finish quicker too, like 3 days. All this with same yeasts, temps, etc.

I've never had aeration issues and never messed with oxygenation or fancy aeration methods. I used to shake my carboy/keg. I don't even do that anymore. Just rack and pitch.

My gravity usually finishes too low if anything.

You pretty much described my fermentation and cooling process to a T. 10' foot chiller shake to aerate ect. I have taken a 1.085 down 1.008.

I agree with looking at your pitch rate. What's your fermentation temp looking like. Maybe let it climb a degree a day toward the end of fermentation? Also, what about yeast nutrients? If you rerack add some nutrients at that point or add some when you pitch.