Aeration: Whisk, Sparge, or AutoSiphon?

[gravityspiral]

I'm not looking to buy an Oxygen tank or a pump/stone anytime soon, and so far I've tried three different methods of aerating the wort for my last three brews. They all seemed to work well enough but maybe someone with more experience can explain if any of them are more effective or are bad ideas. My three methods were:

- Whisking the ever-living #$!@# out of it in the brew kettle until there's a nice thick head on it before siphoning into the carboy
- Siphoning into the carboy through a sparge nozzle/siphon sprayer
- Using the auto-siphon to manually just pump a bunch of air directly through the hose into the bottom of the carboy and let it bubble up to the top

 

[Majawat]

I personally have a wine degasser that fits onto a cordless drill. Similar to, but not exactly this one: http://www.austinhomebrew.com/Beer/Stirring/Mix-Stir-Stainless-Steel.html

I've only done one batch with it so I can't comment too much on its effectiveness, but it sure was fun using it and watching it swirl the wort around!

 

[firerat]

I personally have a wine degasser that fits onto a cordless drill. Similar to, but not exactly this one: http://www.austinhomebrew.com/Beer/Stirring/Mix-Stir-Stainless-Steel.html

I've only done one batch with it so I can't comment too much on its effectiveness, but it sure was fun using it and watching it swirl the wort around!

I use one called the whip:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A7UK9A4/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Works well for me.

 

[WWJPD]

I was listening to Basic Brewing Radio podcast where they did a 7 method experiment with blind tastings and the ones that came out on top among the tasters were:
1-Double recommended aeration with pure oxygen with airstone(2min?)
2-Vigorous shaking of carboy
3-regular aeration with pure oxygen with airstone

There were a couple of other methods used like pouring back and forth between carboys, using a wine degasser(scored low), using an aquarium pump with airstone, and no aeration at all.

What I took away from listening to that is I'm just going to shake the hell out of my carboy.

 

[2drunk2]

Sounds like shaking wins the budget category. My buddy has been brewing for 12 years and swears by it.

 

[henchman24]

This is probably one of those topics where you will get a ton of different answers. IMO it is over thought on the vast majority of beers and if you are using dry yeast is probably not even necessary. I have done the stirring, shaking, bucket dance, degasser, siphon and let splash, and pure O2... I have yet to notice a difference on beers approaching 1.110 OG. I have read there is a difference on HG beers (why I bought the O2), but have yet to see that in my personal experiences.

 

[sumbrewindude]

I wisk the crap out of it with the IC in the pot during cooling, then pour the mess in with a funnel. Add yeast and give it a few shakes for good measure, then it's off to the basement with it...

 

[olotti]

So far I just shake it or what has worked real well is when I funnel in the last bit of wort I use a spoon mostly to seperate the hop and trub from the screen but it aerates the wort as it drops into the fermenter forming a nice foam on top. I've only used rehydrated dry yeast so far, 6 AG batches in, and every one has taken off in 12hrs or less. I am going to buy a wand with an O2 tank though just for ease of use and nothing more, after a 5-6hr brew time I figure less time I have to shake the crap out of a 60lb fermenter the better.

 

[Majawat]

I was listening to Basic Brewing Radio podcast where they did a 7 method experiment with blind tastings...

For those interested (as I certainly was), the podcast is hosted at BasicBrewing.com during the July 4, 2013 (NHC Aeration Experiment) (MP3 link) show. The Aeration experiment starts at around the 8 minute mark.

Thank you, WWJPD!

 

[cernst151]

Personally I've always just poured it back and forth between the kettle and bucket a few times. As far as I know it's never had a bad effect, aside from a little spilling if I've had too much to drink first. On my last imperial stout (1.12 OG) it got so frothy it looked like it had about 4 inches of meringue on top. I can't wait to drink it.

I'm very surprised this method came out noticeably lower than shaking the carboy. It seems like pouring would give you more O2 with less work.

 

[henchman24]

Personally I've always just poured it back and forth between the kettle and bucket a few times. As far as I know it's never had a bad effect, aside from a little spilling if I've had too much to drink first. On my last imperial stout (1.12 OG) it got so frothy it looked like it had about 4 inches of meringue on top. I can't wait to drink it.

I'm very surprised this method came out noticeably lower than shaking the carboy. It seems like pouring would give you more O2 with less work.

Could be how many times the bucket dance was done... once or twice may not be as much as shaking, but 3-4 times might give the same saturation as shaking for a couple minutes?

Edit: On the podcast the container to container was apparently double pitched, so it should be thrown out of the results IMO.

 

[danath34]

I did this method, and it worked absolutely great!
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/Venturi-Aeration-Experiment.html

I think I paid $3 for a pack of 10 hose clamps... Now it takes a lot longer to siphon all the wort, but it seemed to aerate it very well. It's cheaper than almost any aeration method outside of shaking/pouring, and is one helluva lot easier than the shaking/pouring. Best of both worlds, IMO

 

[hungry4hops]

You can put a racking cane upside down into a drill, works pretty well