plugged air stone - should I....

I'm ready to pitch into my Velvet Merkin clone but my airstone is plugged so I have been shaking the better bottle to oxygenate the wert. I was wondering if just letting my air pump blow into the wert with no airstone would be a good idea or not. I know it's all about surface area of the bubbles but I figure the air line would bring in some new air and mI could still shake the cr@p out of it.

What do you think?

Put your stone into boiling water to clean it out. Then make damned sure you don't touch the thing where air goes through it (the sintered part).

I wouldn't use the naked hose in the batch.

Been there done that - even tried boiling it in PBW - still no go.

By the way, those are awesome looking mash paddles n your avatar!

Try pushing more air pressure through the stone. I use pure O2 from a tank, so I can crank it up before, and after, infusing the wort with O2 to clear the pores. I do that in the bucket of Star San solution. :rockin:

I have more pics of the paddles in my gallery. Finally in a place where I can properly display them, so I hung them up yesterday. Used a piece of black walnut I had hanging around (for almost 20 years). If you want a really sweet, completely custom, paddle, shoot me a PM and I'll send you the contact info for the woman that made mine.

If you can be super careful, you can also turn your stove all the way up and put it in there for an hour or so. Pick it up with tongs!!!!

Golddiggie, you continue to amaze me with your brewing equipment. Mine is utilitarian, yours is art - I bow to your awesomeness!

LarryC said:

Golddiggie, you continue to amaze me with your brewing equipment. Mine is utilitarian, yours is art - I bow to your awesomeness!

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Thanks... I can never seem to go half-way in anything I have an interest in. Didn't take me long to start upgrading my brewing hardware. Found out about the woman in Texas that makes ass-kicking mash paddles and had to get one. First was the 4' long model (on the left) then the smaller one (the larger one is a bit difficult to use in my keg mash tun).

Current brewing related 'project' is to build a venting hood so that I can brew in the basement. Already have the hood panned and the short run to the window. Also have planned how I'll adapt the window for this. Only questionable item is which fan I'll use in the assembly to move enough air/gases/moisture/steam/etc. to make it safe to do this. This way I won't care what the weather is like outside, since I'll be brewing inside.

LarryC said:

Been there done that - even tried boiling it in PBW - still no go.

By the way, those are awesome looking mash paddles n your avatar!

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LarryC did you ever unplug your air stone?

I tried soaking mine in Starsan for a day or two and it didn't improve it much (it worked a little bit but only around the middle).
I decided that there was not too much to lose so I took my air compressor and applied 40psi (before the filter) and that improved it immensely. I had it immersed in Starsan when I did that and all sorts of crud blew out of the stone.

I wont lie, after aerating, I usually throw the wand into by starsan bucket until Im done cleaning and then into my supply box it goes. Ive only boiled it once or twice. Before I aerate, I drop it into the starsan bucket for a few minutes. Im shocked I havent run into a clog yet. I thought for sure a good boil would clear out a stone.