Easiest, most cost-effective airation method?

[ericd]

I've heard everything from that giving your fermenter a good shake for 30 seconds is good enough (what I currently do) to that you HAVE to use pure O2 thru an airation stone for at least 5 minutes.

So, what says HBT?

 

[bob1852]

I ferment in buckets, so I just pour back and forth between two bucket a couple times after chilling. It works great for me.

 

[rexbanner]

I've heard everything from that giving your fermenter a good shake for 30 seconds is good enough (what I currently do) to that you HAVE to use pure O2 thru an airation stone for at least 5 minutes.

So, what says HBT?

Here's what I do. I let all my hops float free during the boil. I don't whirlpool or anything like that. I sanitize an elastic nylon bag and wrap it around my bucket. I then pour my cooled wort into my bucket from as high as possible without making a mess. A fair amount of hop/trub gets caught in the bag. I then undo the bag and shake it a ****load until all the caught wort gets out. Believe me, with all the trub/hops, the bag catches about a gallon of wort with all the material clogging the holes. Then when you shake it, you get some mega aeration because I swear it is better than a sprinkler system for wort.

This is coming from someone who always has fermentation start within 18 hours, and has never had an infection after 35 batches. :rockin:

 

[Boleslaus]

Mash paddle and my arm

 

[arturo7]

Splash the wort when you pour it into your fermenter. If the wort has been cooled to pitching temps you are golden.

 

[kpr121]

Splash the wort when you pour it into your fermenter. If the wort has been cooled to pitching temps you are golden.

If you have a ball valve setup, is there enough oxygen getting into the wort if you let it trickle out of the valve from the top of the bucket? This is what I do, and then I usually give the bucket a good shake/swirl once things are all sealed up. I have recently been having some 1.020 problems (multiple yeasts), and I am wondering if I need more aeration.

 

[chezhed]

I think I have settled on using a mix-stir on my drill. Wife has one for her wine carboys and it works great. I used to just borrow her handheld electric beater and agitate continuously as the wort drained from a boil kettle to a fermenting bucket. Now I am going to use the mix-stir.....thinking of using it in reverse..... The beaters worked great, just a lot of foam but I definitely got better activity than by using my paddle and arm or bucket to bucket transfer. Check Bobby M video on YouTube for his time lapse video of different agitation techniques. I think I may go overkill and add O2 as well

 

[Ace_Club]

I recently switched to AG and found that just whipping the snot out of the wort, once in the fermenter, with a sanitized whisk until your arm get's tired works very well.

 

[Pilgarlic]

Reading Jamil's new book "Yeast" yields: optimal level is 8-10 ppm. Shaking with adequate headspace for 5 minutes will yield about 8 ppm. Pure oxygen with an airstone will yield 10 or more within 30 - 60 seconds depending upon the flow rate. For my brew yesterday I shook the bucket for 5 minutes. Sounds like alot of work, but here's how I do it: I sit the bucket on a football and sit in a chair with the bucket between my feet and just keep rocking and splashing it while listening to the radio. Boring, sure, and a bit fatiguing, but having read "Yeast" I'm comfortable that the yeast are getting the oxygen they need, and the five minutes is worth it.

 

[donshizzles]

Do you aerate before you pitch the yeast or after you pitch?

 

[Pilgarlic]

I aerate before I pitch.

 

[chezhed]

I just used the mix-stir....GREAT. A lot less foam than the hand mixer and boy does that thing agitate. Had 5.5 gallons in a 6 gal bucket and it was about to come over the top. Looked like an outboard motor in there

 

[devilishprune]

I set the bucket/carboy on a towel so it won't slip and just shake it for as long as I feel is necessary. I want to get an oxygen setup, but I don't see how any other way that puts in atmospheric air could work better for that price (free).

 

[payton34]

i think i will try stirring the sh$t out of it in the keggle before transfering to carboy. tried an air pump and stone but the wort foamed up too much

 

[passedpawn]

IF YOU USE A PUMP TO CHILL: Easiest way is to fix an aerator on the return. By the time it's chilled, it's aerated.

 

[Focus]

Does anyone have the BYO article from several months ago (last summer) that talked about this? You may have to correct my math, but I seem to remember that they gave the ppm numbers and O2 aeration yielded higher numbers than splashing by orders of magnitude. Oddly absent, if I recall, was the issue of overkill.

Personally, I use a fish tank pump with aeration stone for about 10 min. Never really noticed anything different - apart from the nice thank you letters from my yeast cells. If I can get my hands on some medical grade O2, I'll probably go with that.

 

[Golddiggie]

If you have a ball valve setup, is there enough oxygen getting into the wort if you let it trickle out of the valve from the top of the bucket? This is what I do, and then I usually give the bucket a good shake/swirl once things are all sealed up. I have recently been having some 1.020 problems (multiple yeasts), and I am wondering if I need more aeration.

Last two batches I brewed went through 1/2" ball valves (older batch was 10 gallons that I shared with a brew buddy, we're both fermenting ~5 gallons). The newer of the two batches I didn't do anything extra to aerate it, other than let it run through the ball valve, via the silicon tubing, into the primary. In both the IC was moved around in the wort to help cool it faster. In the newer of the two, there was krausen in just a few hours, with airlock going well within 18 hours and going nuts not long after.

Depending on what you're fermenting in, you have options for aerating the brew. If you want something easier, put something into a drill that will aerate the wort. I made something to aerate my mead batches (while they needed it) and it works really well through a carboy bung hole... You can also use the beater attachment on an immersion blender, if you have one... Just don't turn it up too high. That would work in either the kettle, or primary.

I've also just poured the cooled wort through a funnel into the carboy before. Had solid results there too...

I would just try a few different methods and find one that works for you as far as amount of effort, and how soon your fermentation kicks off. Personally, if I can find a way that takes the majority of physical work out of it, I'd be inclined to try that first. I've done the 'shake the hell out of it' method, as well as pour into the bucket method. Both work, but the shaking takes more effort... If going into a carboy, if you don't mind the trub (or hot/cold break) going into the primary, just pour it through a large funnel... Put the bung in (use a 000 stopper in the airlock hole) and give it a good shake too, and you should be good.

Personally, I'll be going the route of via the ball valve for at least the next several batches. One of the fun things about home brewing, you can always change how you do a process if you find a method you like better.

BTW, kpr121, are you extract, partial mash, or all grain brewing? Getting stuck at 1.020 can happen for a few reasons... It's been stated as pretty common with extract brewing... It can also be from mashing at higher temperatures.

 

[JalaPeno]

Do you already own an auto-siphon?

Rack the wort into the fermenter. Put the auto-siphon in the fermenter and route the hose to go back into the fermenter 3-4" above the wort. Pump the auto-siphon repeatedly, splashing wort until you have foam to the top of the fermenter. (Usually takes 1-2 minutes)

Works great in carboys and better bottles.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I have found that the easiest most cost effective method to aerate the wort is to use dry yeast and not bother aerating at all...I have been led to believe that cell counts w/ dry yeast are high enough that aeration is not all that critical for average gravity brews. OK, flame me if this is BS? Seems to work for me...

 

[Reelale]

I have found that the easiest most cost effective method to aerate the wort is to use dry yeast and not bother aerating at all...I have been led to believe that cell counts w/ dry yeast are high enough that aeration is not all that critical for average gravity brews. OK, flame me if this is BS? Seems to work for me...

All yeast need oxygen, dry or liquid. Boiling removes oxygen. Aeration or oxygenation replaces the oxygen in wort that was removed by boiling. I ain't making this up.

 

[Golddiggie]

With liquid yeast, make a decent sized starter, aerate that really well, to get the yeast hoppin, and you're usually much better off. Just scale the starter as per Mr. Malty... :rockin:

 

[Yooper]

IF YOU USE A PUMP TO CHILL: Easiest way is to fix an aerator on the return. By the time it's chilled, it's aerated.

I used to use an aquarium aerator, but it took about 30 minutes while I cleaned up and it was just "one more thing" to do on brewday. Instead, I now use a pump with a CFC and man you should see how aerated it is coming out of there at high speed with a splash into the fermenter! That's been all the aeration I've done in over a year. It works great.

 

[Yooper]

I have found that the easiest most cost effective method to aerate the wort is to use dry yeast and not bother aerating at all...I have been led to believe that cell counts w/ dry yeast are high enough that aeration is not all that critical for average gravity brews. OK, flame me if this is BS? Seems to work for me...

Sorry to say, but you're not "aerating the wort". You're pitching enough yeast probably, but I'd guess that you'd get better ferments, "cleaner" tasting beers, and a better attenuation if you aerate the wort. HOWEVER, if you're slightly overpitching a lower OG wort, then you don't need to aerate. My understanding is that o2 is only really needed during the yeast reproductive phase, and then fermentation becomes aneraobic anyway.

Even splashing going in the fermeter is better than not aerating at all.

 

[Pilgarlic]

Danstar's tech sheets for Notty and Windsor say that aeration of their dry yeasts is not at all necessary but will do no harm An I ain't makin' that up. Apparently their lipid and sterol levels are adequate when they're laid dormant.

 

[Pilgarlic]

On the comparison between pure oxygen and splashing, Jamil covers it well in the new book. Optimal ppm range is 8-10. Splashing for five minutes yields about 8. Pure oxygen through a stone will yield 10 in seconds. And there are deleterious effects from over oxygenating. I figure if I can shake for five minutes and KNOW that I can't over aerate, but can get into the optimal range, that's good for me.

 

[Pilgarlic]

Here's the Danstar quote from the Notty tech sheet: "The yeast contains an adequate supply of carbohydrates and unsaturated fatty acids to achieve growth. It is unnecessary to aerate wort." There are other places on the site that do suggest that you would want to aerate for higher gravity worts. If there's no harm in it, I'd do it anyway.

 

[vnakkar]

I pitch, then put on the airlock. I rock until air stops sucking into the fermentor as seen through the airlock. Seems like a reasonable visual measurement.

 

[Flywheel]

bucket rocking for 5 minutes