Aerate with a paint stirrer?

[feffer]

I have been doing this on a few batches; not sure how effective it is. Basically it is a paint stirred that is chucked into a drill. It creates a lot of foam and mixes everything really well. I run it towards the top and it seems to whip a lot of air into the wort. Of course, it is sanitized first. Is this a good idea...or not? The only downside I see is that it's easy to splash the wort out if I'm not careful.

 

[lazzlo]

I have an aerator that works in much the same way but is all stainless with folding "wings" so it can fit into a regular carboy mouth.
You should be fine as long as it is clean, sanitized, and not made of reactive material.

 

[NeoBrew]

You might want to check out the Zymurgy article a few months back. They ran some side by side experiments with aeration.

From what I recall, shaking for 2 minutes produced as much dissolved oxygen as is possible at atmospheric conditions. So, your paint stirrer is probably overkill. But if it is more convenient than shaking for you, go for it.

 

[menerdari]

I have what lazzlo has except mine is plastic, it is sold as a wine degasser but works great at mixing and aerating as well.
I imagine the paint stirrer would have a similar effect.

 

[Skep18]

I cut a plastic coat hangar to make a wide "V" sort of shape. I just clamp that in the chuck of my drill and aerate in my carboy for the very low price of FREE. lol.

 

[KangerBrew6]

I used to do stuff like that but now just steadily pour from a bit of hight and make sure my yeast is at it and ready to rumble.

 

[waterskj]

I use a three pronged wine degasser. When i turn on the water for chilling i run it SLOWLY and this helps cut down the cooling time a lot. Then when down to pitching temps i "Give 'er" at full speed for 35-45 seconds.

 

[kh54s10]

I used to do stuff like that but now just steadily pour from a bit of hight and make sure my yeast is at it and ready to rumble.

I did this with my last batch, and had my first stalled fermentation in 80 batches.......

 

[kombat]

I use a wine degasser. I used a paint stirrer initially, but after just a few batches, it became visibly corroded. So I trashed it and have been using the wine-degasser ("Fizz-X") ever since. Lagers and high-gravity ales get pure O2 with a stone and tank.

 

[rudylyon57]

Used a two-wing wine de-gasser for years and it works fine.

 

[KangerBrew6]

I did this with my last batch, and had my first stalled fermentation in 80 batches.......

Never had a stall. What yeast was it? There's always so many possibilities and I suppose that's what keeps us interested isn't it?

 

[kh54s10]

Never had a stall. What yeast was it? There's always so many possibilities and I suppose that's what keeps us interested isn't it?

US05, rehydrated. I used to shake and then bought an aeration pump. I just got lazy and hoped the pour aerated enough, I guess not.