Aerateing wort

[WeimBrew]

Hi all,

I'm getting ready to brew my second batch tomorrow and am getting my self ready by mapping out my steps and making sure I have everything I need. During my first batch I shook the hell out of my bucket to ferment the wort. It appears to have worked fine but I was thinking there has to be an easier way. Going thru some supplies in the garage I came across some aluminum screening. If I clean and sanitize thoroughly and then attach said scree to my fermentation bucket, do think pour my wort thru the screen would aerate my wort enough?

 

[A4J]

do a search of the forums for different techniques or aerating wort.

I'm picturing a sheet of aluminum with a bunch of holes as opposed to a window screen type thing. That should work for aerating. I would boil the aluminum first just to build up and oxidation layer on the aluminum just to be safe.

 

[halister]

hhhmm my small air compressor placed on my racking cane?

 

[TopherM]

There is a YouTube video where a biologist from Wyeast discusses aeration. He did some experiments to determine the proper amount of aeration. I forget the parts per million (PPM) of oxygen he discussed that yeast need to properly attenuate, but I do remember that the CONCLUSION of his experiments was that 45 seconds of vigorously shaking a fermenter or 2 minutes of aerating with pure oxygen and a stainless steel aeration stone did the job.

Based on that, I do not think that just pouring your wort through a screen would do the job. You are going to get SOME aeration, but think about the physical effects of shaking a carboy/bucket as hard as you can for 45 seconds, including the resulting foam. That's what you are going for.

PS....I saw another experiment on YouTube where a guy split one batch into three segments, aerated one with an aeration stone and pure oxygen, one by shaking, and didn't aerate one at all. After EIGHT days (so not full attenuation, but close), the one with no aeration (the control) still has a 68% attenuation, the one that was shaken had a 73% attenuation, and the one with the aeration stone and pure oxygen had a 76% attenuation.

POINT BEING.....there is an advantage to fancy pure oxygen aeration, but it isn't THAT much of an advantage. Between the two studies, I think one can conclude that a vigorous 45 second shake does the job.

 

[wildwest450]

Wait, he said 45 seconds of shaking was equivalent to 2 minutes of pure oxygen? Link please.

 

[A4J]

Wait, he said 45 seconds of shaking was equivalent to 2 minutes of pure oxygen? Link please.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75gpehf_6Gk]Wyeast Laboratories on Aerating Your Wort - YouTube[/ame]

*EDIT*
I think what he actually says is that shaking for 45 seconds will get you 8PPM which is sufficient, but pure oxygen for 1 minute will get you 15PPM.

 

[RM-MN]

At what point do you go from sufficient oxygen for yeast health and get into oxidation of the beer?

 

[badhabit]

I use a paint mixer on a drill for about 5 minutes when I go to the fermenter and that does a great job. I have no idea what the oxygen ppm is but I will say that getting enough areation will make a world of difference in yeast performance.

 

[halister]

So after your wort is 5 gals in the bucket then stir then pitch east? Do you pitch right away or wait for the froth to settle a little?

 

[JD1301]

I listened to one of John Palmer's podcasts the other day, and according to him, with out pure o2 you will get 9 ppm at best (16 with pure o2). I don't know how long you have to shake to get 9 ppm though. I was thinking about using an aquarium pump, but I am iffy on how well one can actually disinfect the aeration stone. Thoughts?

 

[grouperdude]

I listened to one of John Palmer's podcasts the other day, and according to him, with out pure o2 you will get 9 ppm at best (16 with pure o2). I don't know how long you have to shake to get 9 ppm though. I was thinking about using an aquarium pump, but I am iffy on how well one can actually disinfect the aeration stone. Thoughts?

I boil mine for 15 min. Just be sure not to touch the stone part (grab the fitting) the oils on your skin can gunk it up. I was told to do between 20 min to an hour is ok.

Is it possible to over oxygenate the wort when your not using pure oxygen?

 

[Dan]

A 5 gallon paint stirrer is what I use to use as well.

Somebody on HBT posted a thread about creating a venturi in the line coming out of the kettle. The venturi created pulled air into the wort as it passed through. Very simple to make works extremely well. I'll look for the thread and try to post it here.

 

[Dan]

From BYO, author John Stika

"...A more sophisticated method of oxygenating wort is to inject air or pure oxygen into the wort as it passes from the kettle or chiller into the fermentation vessel. This is the approach commercial breweries commonly use to properly oxygenate their wort.

There are two basic techniques that can be used to inject air or oxygen into wort as it streams into the fermenter; by means of a simple venturi, or by injecting compressed air or oxygen into the flowing wort. The venturi approach can be accomplished by allowing the wort to flow through a section of tubing or pipe that has small (0.02 inches or 0.5mm) holes drilled through it to allow air to be drawn into the tube as the liquid passes through it. A commercial example of such a device is the Wort Wizard™ that uses a venturi in flowing water to draw wort from the kettle into a carboy and draw air into the wort at the same time Wortwizard.com - the WortWizard !
com/).. A homemade venturi tube can be constructed as described at: Whats Brewing Milwaukee!. One drawback of some venturi systems, however, is that they lack a filter for the air being drawn into the wort, which creates an opportunity for microbial contamination..."

 

[elvestinkle]

Venturi gadget for the win. I cut off a 4-inch piece of old racking cane and used a hot paperclip to punch a couple holes in it, and then jam that on the end of my hose. Add another 1- or 2-foot section of hose after that, and you're good! This has been effectively aerating all our all-grain batches, with none of the shaking

viz: Pursuing Calefaction » Wort aerator

 

[elvestinkle]

From BYO, author John Stika

" One drawback of some venturi systems, however, is that they lack a filter for the air being drawn into the wort, which creates an opportunity for microbial contamination..."

While this may sound good in theory, it sounds like hogwash in practice, bordering on FUD. I have yet to experience an infection in any of my beers in the last 15 months, i.e., since I've been brewing. I'm sure the guy knows what he's talking about, but you don't need to buy $50 of equipment to do the task of a 50-cent piece of plastic if you observe basic sanitation.

I'm not shooting the messenger! Thanks for the info, Dan.

 

[Dan]

^^ No problem. I completely agree with you. I left that last sentence in the quote because I thought it might irresponsible not to.

I don't agree with the statement either because unless pure O2 is being used, air is being used to 'oxygenate' the wort no matter which way introduced so why would a venturi be any different, same air. Obviously it makes sense to sanitize the thing first, we all know the wort passing through it might provide an area for bacteria to build if all we did was use it and set aside until the next time. But we clean and sanitize our equipment, why would the venturi be any different.

 

[Transamguy77]

I listened to one of John Palmer's podcasts the other day, and according to him, with out pure o2 you will get 9 ppm at best (16 with pure o2). I don't know how long you have to shake to get 9 ppm though. I was thinking about using an aquarium pump, but I am iffy on how well one can actually disinfect the aeration stone. Thoughts?

I use an aquarium pump, fish stone and HEPA filter. I soak my stone and hose in sanitizer the whole time I'm brewing and take it out and put it my cooled wort. I will say Iv used this setup before I knew about the filter with no ill effects but I don't recommend it.

 

[badhabit]

So after your wort is 5 gals in the bucket then stir then pitch east? Do you pitch right away or wait for the froth to settle a little?

I stir a couple minutes before I pitch the yeast after it is in the fermenter and then add the yeast stiring another few minutes. I am using an open plastic bucket.

 

[Swilldog]

use a mixer/stir bar used for degassing wine, hooked up to drill.

 

[Cape Brewing]

At what point do you go from sufficient oxygen for yeast health and get into oxidation of the beer?

You don't really... you're talking about two different "steps" within the fermentation process.

when you are aerating fresh wort prior to fermentation, you're trying to add oxygen to help the yeast grow and do their job. I've never heard of anyone adding "too much oxygen" to wort in this step. Perhaps someone can correct me but I'm not sure it is possible. My understanding is that the yeast, during the growth and reproduction process will consume all of the oxygen in the wort.

Once that is done however... and the wort becomes beer post-fermentation... THEN the introduction of air or oxygen can/will oxidize the beer. Once fermentation is complete, it doesn't take much air introduced into the beer to oxidize it or give it that wet-cardboard taste.

 

[Paul07293]

use a mixer/stir bar used for degassing wine, hooked up to drill.

Me too. A couple of minutes with the drill and my wort is a frothy mass. I just did a 1.088 doppelbock and I had krausen in 12 hours.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/mix-stir-agitator-rod.html

 

[BrotherFreeman]

Me too. A couple of minutes with the drill and my wort is a frothy mass. I just did a 1.088 doppelbock and I had krausen in 12 hours.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/mix-stir-agitator-rod.html

I bought one from HD for my last brew and was curious what direction you are using on your drill. One way seems too light and only creates a small whirlpool effect in the wort while the other one seems to provide significant "friction" and really gets thing going pretty crazy. I know this has to do with the direction the fins are spinning but not sure which is the "better" way. Im going to try it the opposite direction next beer because I didnt seem to get much of a trub cone in the BK with the other.

 

[koch711]

If a beer starts fermenting quickly (<3 hrs for sign in fermenter and blowoff bubbling <12 hrs) after pitching from just shaking to aerate, would aerating better by using O2 improve anything else?