Cheap and easy aeration gadget

[DeafSmith]

I have experimented with this today, using water. I stuck a short (1 and 1/2 inch) piece of 5/16 I.D. tubing into the 3/8 I.D. tubing from my auto-siphon and attached another piece of 3/8 tubing about 2 and 1/2 feet long to the end of the 5/16 tube. I shoved each end of the 5/16 tubing about 3/8 inch up into the 3/8 tubing to leave about 3/4 inch of the 5/16 tubing exposed. It fits tightly enough that I didn't even need to use any hose clamps. I then drilled a single hole in the 5/16 I.D. tubing using a 3/32 inch drill bit (the actual hole diameter came out about 1/16 inch after the vinyl closed back up a little around the hole. This seems to work pretty well. With the exit from the tubing at the bottom of the carboy, the top surface of the water was bubbling - this seems like it would be better than just letting the stream fall down into the carboy from the top, though it might not really make much difference. I couldn't detect any significant difference in the amount of air being pulled into the tubing with the exit at the top or under water at the bottom of the carboy.

 

[-TH-]

One quick question. I usually do the bucket back and forth and then use a funnel with a screen. Do you get a lot of trub into the fermenter using this technique or does the autosiphon restrict that?

I suppose I could always try the whirlpool method.

The autosiphon won't restrict much except what's on the very bottom. Prior to using this device I used a paint strainer bag. Now I whirlpool before siphoning. It works pretty good. Frankly, I'm less and less worried about trub in the primary because it all settles out quite well anyway.

 

[njnear76]

Forget my question. Figured it out.

 

[bnscherm]

Extra points to the first person that uses a small engine carburetor to aerate there wort. The venturi is all ready built-in...

 

[PhlyanPan]

Extra points to the first person that uses a small engine carburetor to aerate there wort. The venturi is all ready built-in...

How about a fuel rail and injectors? You want oxygenation? Try atomization! :fro:

 

[bendavanza]

Extra points to the first person that uses a small engine carburetor to aerate there wort. The venturi is all ready built-in...

Yes but a carb relies on the air pumping action of an engine to pull the air through the venturi, and you'd have atomized beer.
My first attempt at this was to take my 1/2" ID hose coming off the ball valve on my kettle, and pushed (under heat) a 5/16" ID thick wall tube in, and I had a shut off clip inline to adjust venturi. I ended up with so much foam volcano that I lost a bit of wort. Next time I'll omit the clip and try that.

 

[conpewter]

Hey all I'm having issues with mine.

I have 1/2" ID hoses on my pump, going into a 1/4" ID CFC (3/8" copper refrigeration tubing) then into 3/8" ID silicone tubing and then through a copper 1/4" ID tube with a 1/16" venturi hole in it.

I get water coming out the little hole as well as the end of the tube. I've also tried this with more 3/8" ID tubing on the other end of the copper piece.

Is it a problem with the copper tubing?

 

[bendavanza]

conpewter
I had problems like that at first. Part of it was the orientation of the line, where the hole was drilled, and how much free fall the line had after the hole. You may have to try some different scenarios.
-Ben

 

[PhlyanPan]

Hey all I'm having issues with mine.

I have 1/2" ID hoses on my pump, going into a 1/4" ID CFC (3/8" copper refrigeration tubing) then into 3/8" ID silicone tubing and then through a copper 1/4" ID tube with a 1/16" venturi hole in it.

I get water coming out the little hole as well as the end of the tube. I've also tried this with more 3/8" ID tubing on the other end of the copper piece.

Is it a problem with the copper tubing?

Wait did you say a pump? Does anybody have this method working using a pump? I don't have a pump but I know with my autosiphon, when I pump it through manually it squirts out the venturi holes. I believe it has to do with pushing the water through instead of pulling it through. Also, you said it goes from 3/8 tubing to 1/4 tubing with a hole correct? Mine goes from 3/8 to 1/4 with a hole, and BACK TO 3/8 again. You may want to try putting another section of larger diameter tubing after your venturi.

 

[conpewter]

I had a short section on after the copper tube, but that didn't seem to help. Bernoulli's Principle should work no matter if it is a siphon or pump. All the schematics I see online though have a nice sloped transition from the larger tube to the smaller one to speed up the liquid.

One thing I did notice is that I didn't have my 3/8" ID silicone tube very well attached to the copper and it would actually suck in air through that faulty connection, but it would still normally dribble water out of the 1/16" hole. I wonder if it has to do with resistance after the hole, and the inside of the hole not being smooth.

I'll be trying other configurations tonight.

 

[BeerCanuck]

I decided to hook a standard 1/2 racking cane to the aeration gadget on this weeks brew. Worked like a charm;

To avoid leaks when starting the siphon I found by covering the venturi hole until the wort clears this point is a good idea

Cheers
Steve

 

[PhlyanPan]

Bernoulli's Principle should work no matter if it is a siphon or pump.

Bernoulli's principle is essentially the creation of a low pressure zone. So yes, it works but if your pump puts the fluid under positive pressure it may overcome the low pressure created by the Bernoulli effect. Under siphon, the fluid is already under low pressure so it amplifies the Bernoulli effect.

 

[hammacks]

A simple plastic T in line makes a great venturi.

 

[conpewter]

Bernoulli's principle is essentially the creation of a low pressure zone. So yes, it works but if your pump puts the fluid under positive pressure it may overcome the low pressure created by the Bernoulli effect. Under siphon, the fluid is already under low pressure so it amplifies the Bernoulli effect.

I agree, I want to make some way for this to work though. I suppose I can just go back to shaking. I can't siphon through my CFC and into a fermenter due to height differences.

I was wondering if the fact that the CFC was 1/4" ID slowed the wort down so much that I couldn't get it to flow fast enough through the tube. But seeing as I got a spray out of the "venturi" hole... I'm not sure I can make this work.

May end up doing as the big breweries do and put an in-line oxygen stone (more work...) or I'll just shake the carboy.

Edit:
I may have it working now. I used some lineman's plyers to squeeze down the tube around where the whole is, it seems to suck in air but I've been having issues priming my pump still (new brew-stand) so I can't test it fully yet.

 

[njnear76]

I agree, I want to make some way for this to work though. I suppose I can just go back to shaking. I can't siphon through my CFC and into a fermenter due to height differences.

I was wondering if the fact that the CFC was 1/4" ID slowed the wort down so much that I couldn't get it to flow fast enough through the tube. But seeing as I got a spray out of the "venturi" hole... I'm not sure I can make this work.

May end up doing as the big breweries do and put an in-line oxygen stone (more work...) or I'll just shake the carboy.

Edit:
I may have it working now. I used some lineman's plyers to squeeze down the tube around where the whole is, it seems to suck in air but I've been having issues priming my pump still (new brew-stand) so I can't test it fully yet.

I had the same problems when I made mine. I think perhaps that your hole is too big. I'm using 5/16ID 7/16OD hose and the venturi is 1/4ID 3/8OD piece of hose. I heated up a needle and made one hole in the venturi. This is a small enough hole that wort doesn't spray out of it, yet it is big enough to insert air into the hose. I don't even have to cover it when I start the siphon.

I've only tried with water, but it appears to be OK. It was creating bubbles.

 

[Yambor44]

A simple plastic T in line makes a great venturi.

Now that makes good sense!

 

[cowstick]

I thank you guys so much for this thread. I have a bad back and it sucks shaking a full carboy. Ill be trying this out in 3 weeks.(Gotta wait for an open carboy)

 

[Brew-boy]

I've been using this successfully for years but from copper.

Damn, Deburr that thing would hate to see you cut your hand on it.

 

[jds]

I finally moved my venturi from the end of the transfer hose to the front of it, about 4" from the valve on my kettle. Judging from the volume of foam produced, it works better than at the end of the line.

That's about 1/2 way through the transfer, after using defoamer during the boil. The WLP862 starter I pitched (which can be a slow starter, especially at lager temps), is starting to krausen this morning, about 10 hours after brewing.

 

[BeerCanuck]

I just gave the aeration gadget another test run
This time I reused the Nottingham yeast cake and fermenter from a previous batch of beer. I was expecting the blow off from hell but it didn't krausen over and it's already through it's primary after 2 days

Cheers
Steve

 

[TerdFerguson]

Great post guys...

I was thinking, what if you were to put the venturi near the kettle and before the chiller... would the 200 or so degree wort have a chance of sterilizing the tiny air bubbles before they and the wort are cooled by the chiller... Any stray yeast wouldn't survive the hot temperature, if there were several feet of hose before the chiller. I can't see that the oxygen would be harmed by the hot wort since there is no place for it to gas off to inside the hose before it would be cooled and in the carboy. This would also give the air much more contact time with the wort.

What do you think?

 

[hammacks]

Aerating should be done after the wort is cooled. Oxygen in hot wort is chemically bonded causing oxidation. It makes for bad beer.

How to Brew: Aeration is Good, Oxidation is Bad

Now a system of kettle to inline chiller (CFC or plate) to venturi to long tube would be sweet, as long as the wort came out at the proper temp in one pass through the chiller.

 

[conpewter]

I got this to work with the pump. I squished the copper pipe at the hole a little bit to make the flow faster there. I covered the hole with another piece of silicone tubing such that I can move it on and off to bubble or not (I stick the end of the tubing back into my boil kettle and don't want it to bubble while i recirculate to sanitize everything).

I do have to make sure I have a good flow going from the pump before I open up the small hole or it will spray out the hole. Also I didn't get any foam in my carboy, but probably because of the FermCap foam control. Bubbling away in the fermefreezer with Nottingham now.

 

[WortMonger]

Hmmm, I'm thinking I need to make another Venturi then, right after my Therminator. I just wish this would work into a sealed keg. I haven't tried it but it seems like the pressure of the wort inside the keg would start to back up enough to make the Venturi holes squirt. I had always oxygenated with a O2 wand in my grant before sending it through the pump to a sealed up keg, prior to making mine. Now it looks like I will be transferring into a open Sanke Keg .

 

[Beau815]

I am not good at buying the right tubing or drilling holes the right size, is it possible to just pop a hole in the tubing that i cover up when not needed? or maybe sometimes when the bend in the siphon isnt tight it creates air bubbles, maybe loosen that up even more to let more air in?

 

[jds]

I am not good at buying the right tubing or drilling holes the right size, is it possible to just pop a hole in the tubing that i cover up when not needed? or maybe sometimes when the bend in the siphon isnt tight it creates air bubbles, maybe loosen that up even more to let more air in?

That should work just fine. Several posters in this thread have had good luck with just putting a small hole in some tubing, although it works better if you have a restriction of some kind to accelerate flow past the hole.

Nothing fancy. Heat up a paperclip in a flame and melt a hole, or grab a small drill bit or whatever. It's a very forgiving gadget.

 

[DeafSmith]

You need a constriction in the line at the point where the hole is located. This can be done by using a short section of smaller diameter tubing or by clamping the tube partially closed at this point. See this page for an explanation of why this works:
Venturi effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I use a short (about 1.5 inch) piece of 5/16 I.D. tubing with a hole in it jammed into my 3/8" siphon hose, with an 18 inch length of 3/8 tubing on the exit end of the 5/16 tubing. When I want to siphon without aerating, I just remove the 5/16 and short 3/8 pieces.

 

[njnear76]

You need a constriction in the line at the point where the hole is located. This can be done by using a short section of smaller diameter tubing or by clamping the tube partially closed at this point. See this page for an explanation of why this works:
Venturi effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I use a short (about 1.5 inch) piece of 5/16 I.D. tubing with a hole in it jammed into my 3/8" siphon hose, with an 18 inch length of 3/8 tubing on the exit end of the 5/16 tubing. When I want to siphon without aerating, I just remove the 5/16 and short 3/8 pieces.

I do the same except my siphon is 5/16". So 5/16" hose, short piece 1/4" with hole, 5/16".

I used a needle to make my hole. It appears to make bubbles so I'm assume it works. The smaller hole prevents wort from spraying all over the place. I had that problem when the hole was bigger.

Mike

 

[cowstick]

I finally got to use mine. It was terrible. Wort everywhere. Huge dissapointment. Why? I drilled too big of a hole. I made a new one with a wickedly smaller hole. Tested it out with water. This one work well.

 

[CouchFarmer]

I've tried this twice, once by poking holes in the clear tubing with a sanitized push pin and another time by melting holes in a plastic racking tube with a lighter & paper clip. The first one worked, the second one didn't. I liked the first one but was concerned about using it too many times, it seems like tiny holes would be hard to clean.

Yesterday I tried using my auto-siphon ($10 at my homebrew store) to aerate, after it was done moving liquid I "pumped" air into the bottom of the carboy by lifting the intake out of the liquid and pumping for about a minute. It seemed to work well and it started fermenting in less than a day.