Do any other all grain brewers do it this way...

[J187]

I still pour my wort into my fermenting bucket through a stainless strainer and aerate by pouring back and forth several times between my bottling bucket and a ferment. I never seem to have trouble getting enough oxygen and I like to filter out all the break material and such. I have a stainless ball valve on my kettle, but I just find it easier to dump the wort in slowly.

 

[brewkinger]

I'm not sure how lifting and dumping a kettle full of wort is easier than just opening the valve and letting gravity do the work.
But, yes my process is similar.

Stir and whirlpool, then drain through the valve and 18" piece of silicone tubing. Through mesh strainer and then into the bucket.

Plenty of aeration and a healthy adequate starter and no problems for me.
No lifting either...


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[J187]

I'm not sure how lifting and dumping a kettle full of wort is easier than just opening the valve and letting gravity do the work.
But, yes my process is similar.

Stir and whirlpool, then drain through the valve and 18" piece of silicone tubing. Through mesh strainer and then into the bucket.

Plenty of aeration and a healthy adequate starter and no problems for me.
No lifting either...


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I guess I should just say, easy enough rather than easier... I even have a nice 3 piece stainless ball valve and barb on the kettle, but I still just grab the thing and dump it. It's strange I know, but it is quicker lol. I guess I figure I'd have to lift the kettle one way or the other, either to dump or to put it up somewhere higher than my bucket since I boil on the ground.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Dumping multiple times between buckets might do the trick for aeration. I prefer to go out the ball valve into the kettle, and then use an aquarium pump with diffusion stone. Much less effort, and less risk of spillage. Although both methods (yours and mine) suffer from the limitation of dissolved oxygen from air. I plan on making the jump to pure O2 here in the near future.

 

[ASantiago]

I always use a funnel with a filter when transferring wort from the kettle to the fermentor. It stops a lot of stuff from going in.

For aeration, I stir the heck out of the wort for 10 minutes. Oxygenation doesn't seem to be a problem.

 

[J187]

Qhumph... that's exactly what I'm saying. Do you think there is benefit to be gained from Oxygenating? I have never had a problem and I have never really felt like that part of my process could use improvement.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Qhumph... that's exactly what I'm saying. Do you think there is benefit to be gained from Oxygenating? I have never had a problem and I have never really felt like that part of my process could use improvement.

There's a lot of factors at play. Depending on what you brew and other aspects of your process it's more or less important. The higher the gravity and cleaner the profile the more it matters.

I thought a single dump from kettle to bucket was plenty until I started using the air pump and tasted the difference.

 

[Takuie]

I think it's whatever makes the brewer the happiest. When I drain from kettle, I "splash rack" it like I do when my wine occasionally gets that egg fart smell, then stir it like it owes me money, pitch then airlock. Works great for me.

 

[Peruvian802]

I've not had a problem with aeration vs oxygenation so far. I "splash rack" as well.

I generally make a starter or re pitch slurry to make sure I have a lot of yeast.

 

[Beernik]

I have been siphoning from my BK to the fermenter and using a stir rod attached to a drill for aeration. It's easier on my back than pouring. When I get my keggle going, I'll put a ball valve on it.

I'm sure I could get better results with O2, but I don't want to invest the money in it yet.

 

[J187]

There's a lot of factors at play. Depending on what you brew and other aspects of your process it's more or less important. The higher the gravity and cleaner the profile the more it matters.

I thought a single dump from kettle to bucket was plenty until I started using the air pump and tasted the difference.

If you really did just dump once from kettle to bucket, I can definitely imagine you'd see a difference once you started pumping.. I think it takes SEVERAL back and forth splashes to aerate the wort. I wonder how much research has really been done comparing the two. Interesting topic.

 

[NathPowe]

I guess I should just say, easy enough rather than easier... I even have a nice 3 piece stainless ball valve and barb on the kettle, but I still just grab the thing and dump it. It's strange I know, but it is quicker lol. I guess I figure I'd have to lift the kettle one way or the other, either to dump or to put it up somewhere higher than my bucket since I boil on the ground.

You could put your burner on some cinder blocks (~$4) which would likely raise your kettle up enough to use your valve for gravity draining. You could still filter through your strainer which gets you some aeration.

Just a thought. If lifting it works for you, then keep on rocking it.

Cheers.

 

[brewkinger]

You could put your burner on some cinder blocks (~$4) which would likely raise your kettle up enough to use your valve for gravity draining. You could still filter through your strainer which gets you some aeration.



Just a thought. If lifting it works for you, then keep on rocking it.



Cheers.

+1 to this.

A little ingenuity and gravity can get a lot accomplished.


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[Brew_Bro]

I've always "splash-racked" using my siphon, but I just picked up a ball valve and bazooka screen to ease the effort a bit. I'm also using some creative rigging this weekend to extend the legs on my burner so I don't have to lift the pot.

The more I read about aeration, the more I'm leaning toward an O2 system...

 

[Doctor_M]

Like someone else said the benefits to using pure o2 vs. Splashing/stirring/aquarium pump method seem to really shine when dealing with wort 1.070 or higher. There are multiple page threads on here (I'll look for later) where people have run tests using DO meters. The higher the gravity the harder it is to get o2 into solution.... at least that's my understanding.

 

[brewkinger]

Burner #1 and HLT sits on the deck on cinder blocks (to protect the deck)
Gravity feeds to cooler tun that sits perfectly on the steps to the ground.

Gravity feeds to burner #2 and BK sitting on the ground.

The next addition is a Venturi system in the tubing from my kettle for aeration purposes.

Easy peezy.


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[J187]

Burner #1 and HLT sits on the deck on cinder blocks (to protect the deck)
Gravity feeds to cooler tun that sits perfectly on the steps to the ground.

Gravity feeds to burner #2 and BK sitting on the ground.

The next addition is a Venturi system in the tubing from my kettle for aeration purposes.

Easy peezy.


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I have milk crates and several tables... I employ gravity transferring from MLT to Kettle... It's just that if I were to pick the kettle up from the burner to put it on something, I'm like, eh... just dump it into the bucket now.

 

[Hello]

I do not do that as it seems like a lot of work. I either pump or use gravity to feed my wort into my fermenter and use an oxygeniator.

 

[ASantiago]

I don't use this personally, but I've seen an experienced homebrewer rack via a tube inserted into a stopper and into the fermentor. He drilled many small holes into the tube (I think it was made out of metal). When he transferred, the wort would come out shooting from all the little holes, I imagine increasing the exposed surface area and getting a good gas mix in there. He seemed happy with that.

There is the question of less aeration as the volume in the fermentor goes up, increasingly covering the tube and holes.

 

[Foosier]

If you are looking for an easy and incredibly cheap means to aerate without risking hurting yourself, another option you can look at is getting a large restaurant whisk. I got a 30 inch long thick wire whisk from a local restaurant supply store for less than $5.00. I use it to stir my wort during cooling with my IC and get a nice froth going. Once I am done cooling, I remove the IC and go to town with the whisk for a minute and make sure it is very well aerated. Works like a champ and keeps me from having to do the lift and shake which always was hard on my back.

I used this method on my last few beers including a 1.090 OG Triple which finished in 8 days down to 1.005. clearly no oxygenation issues with that beer.

 

[hunter_le five]

I did the splashing technique for years, and generally it worked "good enough"... most of the time.

I recently bought a $50 oxygenation kit from MidWest Supplies and a $9 disposable O2 tank from Lowes, and HOLY CRAP what a difference. Those yeasties sure were excited. Never thought I'd need a blowoff tube for anything fermented in the 50's*F....

 

[chicken]

I just pour from the kettle into a bucket, and pour back and forth between buckets a few times. Seems pretty easy to me, and does the job.

 

[Qhrumphf]

If you really did just dump once from kettle to bucket, I can definitely imagine you'd see a difference once you started pumping.. I think it takes SEVERAL back and forth splashes to aerate the wort. I wonder how much research has really been done comparing the two. Interesting topic.

I was trying to get across that "just because it tastes good to you now doesn't mean that it's the right way". Hence, I thought I was doing the right stuff, it tasted good, I tried doing it the right way, it tasted better.

I've seen several experts (Palmer among others) advocate the multiple splashing technique in absence of direct aeration/oxidation equipment. I know a lot of folks do the drill and paddle whirlpool method that a lot of winemakers use.

My guess is that using any of these methods, multiple splashing, whirlpooling, pumping air, whatever, you can get pretty close to the maximum dissolved oxygen possible with air (I believe it's about 8ppm). But it's physically impossible to go higher than that with just air, hence the pure O2. For most beers, I don't need more than my aquarium pump, since most of my beers are fairly low gravity and I want some ester character. But for my really big beers, I'm sure they'd benefit from getting up to 10-12ppm dissovled oxygen. I would think brewing something like a Doppelbock without pure O2 isn't the best idea.