Aeration

[daveooph131]

I read in Palmer's book to aerate you can put the wort in milk juggs and shake. What is the best way to sanatize your milk juggs, and secondly if there is no spikett on the wort pot how would you fill the juggs? Thanks.

 

[Nurmey]

I have no idea as that seems like a lot of work to shake up some wort. Put it in your primary, cover the top and shake it like it owes you money.

 

[RBChallenger]

I spent the $40 and bought an oxygen bottle aerator.. though I haven't had the chance to use it yet. Prior to that I put it in the fermenter and shook it... a lot but never enough. If you wanted to put it in milk jugs with no ball valve on the pot you'd basically have to use a funnel and pour it in. Personally, I'd either shake it or get an aerator or search on here for the cheap aerator with T method.

Honestly, my first few brews I didn't really know about aerating and I just dumped the beer in the bucket, rehydrated my dry yeast and then went for it... it usually went pretty well. The first time I aerated the wort I ended up having a mess in my linen closet from where the air lock was stopped up and the top of the ale pale blew off.. good times!

 

[gplutt]

Palmer may have been talking about putting it in a milk crate for ease of shaking. Put your carboy in a milk crate so that its off the ground and gives you two handles to grab onto whilst shaking. Shake wort to aerate; collect money.

 

[Joker]

shake it like it owes you money.

+eleventy :rockin:

 

[jbambuti]

I just use a big, sanitized whisk. I whisk the hell out of it and it's worked well for me every time.

 

[daveooph131]

Would it be possible to pitch the yeast in the 2nd bucket, then add the wort, then shake the heck out the bucket. After shaking then could you siphon or spikett the fermentation into a carboy for the primary?

I was just thinking that you could get a better aeration workign with a bucket rather than a carboy, but I do want to primary in the carboy.

Let me know if anything would be wrong with this procedure....

 

[Picobrew]

I have been pouring back and forth between my ferment bucket and bottling bucket 5 or 6 times. It works up a heck of a froth, so I think it is aerating well. I have had some very strong fermentations since doing this. I suppose nasties could get in during this regime, but I haven't had an issue yet.

 

[HughBrooks]

I would not pitch the yeast until it I was ready to put it in the primary fermenter. What you could do , and what Palmer probally meant was before you add water to the boiled wort to get to your 5 gallon mark you can shake the water while it is in the jug before you pour it into the wort. That will aerate the water therfore aerating the wort. I would suggest getting some sort of airation kit. Wether it be an Oxygen tank with a diffusion stone or an aqarium pump with a stainless diffusion stone. If you dont want to do that ther are mixing wands you can use with a drill to aerate. At least add the wort to the primary and as said before shake it like it owes you money and you will turn out ok.

 

[aaronbeer]

I read somewhere here that you can put a tennis ball under the bucket and then like Nurmey said "shake it like it owes you money"

 

[SumnerH]

Spend about $3 to make a venturi tube. Worth reading the whole thread through:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-aeration-gadget-68218/

 

[ACo]

I have no idea as that seems like a lot of work to shake up some wort. Put it in your primary, cover the top and shake it like it owes you money.

hilarious. and true.

 

[TheJadedDog]

As others have said, just shake the hack out of your primary and you'll be fine. The main concern with pouring your beer into different containers is sanitation. Each additional piece of equipment you use is another opportunity for infection to rear its ugly head.

 

[yeasty]

isnt it possible to aerate too much ????

 

[Munsoned]

Spend about $3 to make a venturi tube. Worth reading the whole thread through:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-aeration-gadget-68218/

I did this after reading that exact same thread, but haven't put it into actual practice yet. Making the tube was very easy (I used a sewing needle, heated it until it was red-hot, and poked it three times into a small section of a plastic raking tube that I had cut to about 3-4 inches). With my trial runs using regular water it seemed to work well so long as I kept the "venturi" piece very vertical and close to the end of the siphoning tube. Seemed to me like there was a lot of air/water contact going on though...

 

[Boondoggie]

I pour into my primary thru a strainer funnel, the screen seems to cause it to froth up quite a bit, and I always get vigorous start to fermenation... Am I right in deducing that I'm getting proper aeration?

 

[Nugu]

I just set the carboy on the floor, sit down and wrap my knees on each side 1 hand gripping the top and 1 on the bottom. Tip back so the carboy rests on my nads/stomach/chest and shake around.

Though reading carboy scare stories makes me question my method, it's the best I can come up with for a glass carboy.

 

[Homercidal]

I usually pour the wort through a strainer as it comes out of the chiller and that seems to make it froth quite a bit. It's hard to shake a bucket without getting stuff all over the darned thing, but I guess you could do that.

I did read a study that concluded that shaking the fermenter was even more efficient at aerating the wort as an O2 stone. The study was nothing more than using an O2 meter to check the level of O2 in the water, but it seems pretty straightforward.

I've never felt the need to do more than what I'm doing. I'd be scared to shake the heck out of a full carboy though. Too many horror stories about exploding glass.

 

[JuanKenobi]

isnt it possible to aerate too much ????

No. It's virtually impossible to dissolve more oxygen in a wort than the yeast will use, especially with high gravity brews. I've even read about people using techniques to super-saturate their wort with O2.

 

[Munsoned]

No. It's virtually impossible to dissolve more oxygen in a wort than the yeast will use, especially with high gravity brews. I've even read about people using techniques to super-saturate their wort with O2.

Maybe it's worth noting though that this is (I think) the only stage in the brewing process where introducing air into the wort/beer is a good thing (Someone can correct me if I'm mistaken). Doing it when the wort is still hot can be bad, as can introducing oxygen when transferring/bottling. Maybe that is where the confusion stems from?

 

[JuanKenobi]

Good point. The ONLY time you want to aerate is at pitching time when the wort is at the proper temperature (I know there is some argument for aerating more in some cases. Just trying to keep things simple.)

 

[Jewrican]

isnt it possible to aerate too much ????

no but you dont ever want to aerate after fermentation has begun.

 

[yeasty]

ill have to check my "palmers" bible. i thought i read you CAN do it too much

 

[SumnerH]

ill have to check my "palmers" bible. i thought i read you CAN do it too much

Yes, you can over-oxygenate if you're working with O2. You can't if you're working with air.

 

[giligson]

OK
-aerate when the wort is cold not hot
-wort holds more oxygen than water
-you cant over aerate with air but you can with oxygen - oxygen is a reactive chemical
-lots of different methods work, shaking, pouring between containers, racking via strainer - if you do it properly all of these will be sufficient.
-most of us who use oxygen actually have some welding equipment around so we already have an O2 tank. It is probably overkill for a 5 gallon brewer.

The next point is purely my vague opinion so take it as that:
It's probably OK to aerate the wort with yeast in it for the first 24 hours :horror:
There is nothing magical about the yeast being in the wort vs. the yeast being in the starter. Assuming that the yeast population is still growing its ok to add oxygen - once the yeast population has hit saturation then adding oxygen will lead to weird cogeners being produced. This opinion is a bias from my backround making wine, where must aeration during active fermentation is a standard technique.

 

[ChshreCat]

Another alternative to shaking the carboy or using O2 is the cheap aquarium bubbler. I've read quite a few folks using those on here.

 

[daveooph131]

I'm still a little confused on the "pitching yeast" process. I understand pretty much everything else.

But at this point do you pitch the yeast into carboy primary fermenter...then add wort...then aerate?

Or do you add wort to fermenter....aerate wort....pitch yeast? Thanks

 

[ericm]

I'm still a little confused on the "pitching yeast" process. I understand pretty much everything else.

But at this point do you pitch the yeast into carboy primary fermenter...then add wort...then aerate?

Or do you add wort to fermenter....aerate wort....pitch yeast? Thanks

I do it the last way you mentioned, but I don't think it matters too much as long as the yeast, the wort, and some oxygen end up in the carboy, uncontaminated.

 

[RBChallenger]

I'm still a little confused on the "pitching yeast" process. I understand pretty much everything else.

But at this point do you pitch the yeast into carboy primary fermenter...then add wort...then aerate?

Or do you add wort to fermenter....aerate wort....pitch yeast? Thanks

I cool the wort, aerate, and then pitch yeast (rehydrated for dry and equalized temp and jsut equalized temp with liquid).

 

[DeafSmith]

I read somewhere here that you can put a tennis ball under the bucket and then like Nurmey said "shake it like it owes you money"

If you're using a Better Bottle, you should use the tennis ball. According to the Better Bottle web site, rocking the B.B. without using a tennis ball will eventually cause stress cracks and possible failure of the B.B.

See the "How-to Tips" on this page:

BetterBottle (Better-Bottle) Fermentation Products – BetterBottle PET Carboys make ideal fermenters for home winemaking and home brewing