Do you aerate?

[Cheesefood]

I bought an Oxygen Aeration kit from Williams Brewing the other day. I'm waiting for it to arrive, but I'm curious as to how many people aerate and how much it really helps? Is it worth the $42 I spent for the kit?

 

[cweston]

I bought an Oxygen Aeration kit from Williams Brewing the other day. I'm waiting for it to arrive, but I'm curious as to how many people aerate and how much it really helps? Is it worth the $42 I spent for the kit?

No one can really answer whether it's worth it. I use an aquarium pump because I came into it for a good price. I hook it up as soon as the wort is in the fermenter, let it run about 20 minutes while I start cleaning up, and then pitch. It seems to work well--I've always gotten good starts and no stuck ferments or anything.

I think some sort of aeration is essential if you do full boils.

 

[torpshootr]

I aerate using an oxygen aeration kit purchased from MoreBeer. I never had any problems with fermenation prior to this, but when I shifted to full wort boils I just wanted to make sure that lack of O2 wouldn't be a problem.

Does it make a difference? The only one that I can tell is that there seems to be less lag time from when I pitch my yeast to when I see initial signs of fermentation. No hard data to back this up, just my feel. Plus, fermentation initially seems to be a little more "vigorous."

Cheers,
Ken

 

[Seveneer]

I struggled with high FG and diacytal for several months until I realised that the only change to my system was that I'd changed the position of my fermenter wrt my boiler. This meant that I wasn't aerating the wort while draining the boiler as I had been for 20 years.

I suffered diacytal issues for a couple of months until I realise the problem. Now I use an aeration system in the form of an aquarium pump and an air stone and I haven't had a problem since.

/Phil.

 

[Bobby_M]

There has really been a lot of discussion about it recently. I'm an advocate of real O2 systems but I'm such a brewing novice that I wouldn't take my word for it either. I've vowed to do an experimental split batch pretty soon. I suppose I'll go for 4 gallons total, split to 4 1gal fermenters. One will receive no treatment at all, racked from kettle with no splashing. #2 will be racked normally but be 1/2 tap makeup water. #3 from kettle to fermenter with splashing and shaking the hell out of it. #4 kettle to fermenter with 2 minutes on pure o2.

I'll be careful to keep all temps consistent and to pitch equal amounts of rehydrated yeast. I'm still thinking about what to use for fermenters, etc, and how I can do a stop motion video. Does anyone know of any free software that will take a short snapshot or a timed video using a webcam?

The 3 nuggets of data I want to capture is lag time, time to FG, and total attenuation.

 

[Comos]

i have yet to brew a batch of beer. Im just getting all the info i can while i get the equipment piece by piece. Is it necessary to aerate with half boils?

 

[LarMoeCur]

Shake..shake...shake...shake your booty....shake your booty...(horns come in)

 

[Brewpastor]

Aeration (IMHO) is one of those major steps you can take in improving your beer. Don't second guess a very wise decision to buy your unit.

 

[Bobby_M]

i have yet to brew a batch of beer. Im just getting all the info i can while i get the equipment piece by piece. Is it necessary to aerate with half boils?

It's not as important because your makeup water will add some dissolved O2 back in. Can it be improved on? Yes, but you might not be able to tell the difference.

 

[rdwj]

That William's kit is awesome. I noticed a HUGE difference as soon as I started using it. I think it's the best deal around, because it's both less expensive than all the major suppliers and it has a wand.

 

[aekdbbop]

can you post a link to that kit? thanks!

 

[olllllo]

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/WILLIAM_S_OXYGEN_AERATION_SYST_P699.cfm

 

[rdwj]

can you post a link to that kit? thanks!

Sure thing...

 

[Brewpastor]

One place you will notice the difference is in lag time reduction and speed of fermentation, which both translate into a cleaner end product.

 

[user 4295]

It is difficult for me to quantify how much of a difference oxygenating with the Williams' kit has made, as I simultaneously upgraded to full boils, immersion chiller, yeast starters, oxygenation and fermentation temp control in one fell swoop. I can tell you that the quality of my beers have improved exponentially since I made these upgrades to my procedures. I should have made one major change at a time just to see the difference each change in procedure had made, but alas, I changed everything at once. Much like some of the knuckleheads in my trade (HVAC), who change every part in a unit in order to fix it. They are so proud of themselves, but they can't tell you which of the parts that they changed did the trick.

Having the stone on the end of a wand, like the Williams' kit has, sure makes it easy to put the stone right where you want it. You won't regret your decision!

John

 

[cweston]

It is difficult for me to quantify how much of a difference oxygenating with the Williams' kit has made, as I simultaneously upgraded to full boils, immersion chiller, yeast starters, oxygenation and fermentation temp control in one fell swoop.

This is probably fairly typical. When I went all-grain, that meant I had to do full boils which meant I needed aeration. So I made all of those changes at the same time.

 

[Hardball]

Dump and splash!!! Shake and shake!!

 

[aekdbbop]

kinda sucks that kit doesnt include the o2 tank..

 

[rdwj]

kinda sucks that kit doesnt include the o2 tank..

I don't think you can send that via mail. They're disposable and available at just about any hardware store for about 7 bucks

 

[Cheesefood]

OK, glad I got it. I'm going AG, chiller, and O2 all at the same time so there's no way I'll know what made stuff different.

I do like the wand, so I can place the stone in different zones. And this kit uses O2, so it should only take like a minute or two, right?

 

[the_bird]

Two minutes, with the regulator just barely opened. Bubbles just gently escaping the surface. O2 bottles are supposed to last ~20 batches.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Yes, I do, but only after a couple Weizens and then I blame it on the dog.

(Wife doesn't fall for that one ALL the time since we don't actually own a dog... )

 

[knipknup]

How about an option of "Yes but not with any special equipment."?

 

[Cheesefood]

My aeration kit showed up today!!!

Too bad I don't have any O2, or any batch about to need aeration any time soon.

All-Grain soon...so soon...

 

[user 574]

Another nice thing about the o2 aeration is it makes it easy to get the o2 in there. Set it and do something else for a couple minutes.

 

[the_bird]

Just bought the O2 aeration kit from Williams brewing. I like the wand (NO JOKES, you clowns!) better than just the stone, and the kit was a pretty good price - but DAMN, everything else on that site is expensive!

$3 for two pounds of uncrushed, domestic pale malt?
$1.85 for Safale-04?

Couple things I needed, so I wasn't going to do a separate order (or a two-hour trek to the HBS). Hell, at Northern Brewer, the 2-row would cost me $1.98 (a third less), and the yeast almost 15% less. Don't think I'll be buying much more from Williams in the near future...

 

[Cheesefood]

I like the wand

We've known that about you for a while.

 

[the_bird]

What did I say about the jokes?

Besides, we all know about your little "experimental" phase post-college - don't make me go dig up that thread!

 

[aekdbbop]

haha... yeah that was my aprehension with ordering from williams. are there anyother olhbs that have that kit?

 

[the_bird]

That kit in particular, I do believe, is proprietary to Williams. I haven't seen anything like it elsewhere. Most of the systems sold on other places at $50+.

If you just want the regulator for the bottle, it seems to be cheapest at Williams, as well.