How do you aerate?

[MrBJones]

What do you to aerate your wort prior to pitching? Use oxygen? Shake the fermenter? Stir it fast/hard for a while? Something else?

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Rack cooled wort from kettle into bucket lined with a trub filter. Pour bucket into fermenter. Take hydro sample from fermenter. Give 3 minute shot of O2 to fermenter. Pitch yeast.

 

[Kent88]

I use an aerator that looks a lot like a small fish tank aerator. It has a filter on the air intake side and an aeration stone at the output.

I think it cost $50-$60, but I prefer it to trying to lift glass carboys with 3 gallons of wort in them.

 

[Chorgey]

I use a Whirlpool/Aeration paddle
https://www.northernbrewer.com/prod...eration-brewing-paddle?variant=31810098757737

 

[Mtrhdltd]

Bottled oxygen and a diffusion stone. I would reccomend a diffusion wand to make it easier to get to the bottom of your fermenter.

 

[Jim R]

I also use bottled oxygen ($8-10 per canister at the local hardware store), a small regulator and a diffusion stone for 30-60 seconds. I also though made a homemade whirlpool paddle like the one listed above that I spin with my portable drill. When I crank up the drill I get an amazing amount of bubbles (3-4" thick) in the wort. I would like to know my wort oxygen content with the paddle and then after the bottles oxygen. I suspect the bottled oxygen may even be overkill after I started using the paddle method.

 

[Deadalus]

Inline aeration with a diffusion stone attached to an oxygen tank.

 

[jerrylotto]

Or you can use an aquarium pump connected to your diffusion stone through a HEPA filter. Takes longer than an oxygen tank but it's cheaper

 

[A1sportsdad]

I gave up on the aerators with aquarium pumps. Pumps kept failing on me. Switched over to an oxygen wand. 30 seconds and I’m good. Love it.

 

[madscientist451]

Place funnel in carboy, dump wort from kettle into carboy, except for trub at bottom of kettle.
Works just fine for me.
Managing your yeast and using a large, heathy amount of yeast should have a higher priority than getting oxygen.

 

[DarrellQ]

Inline aeration with a diffusion stone attached to an oxygen tank.

Do you need to put a hepa filter in-line when using a tank?

 

[VikeMan]

I use pure O2, through a 0.5 micron stainless sintered stone, at 1 liter per minute. Length of time depends on (generally) the gravity of the wort.

 

[jerrylotto]

I gave up on the aerators with aquarium pumps. Pumps kept failing on me. Switched over to an oxygen wand. 30 seconds and I’m good. Love it.

Been using a 12v DC inline micropump for the last 5 years. If / when it fails, I'll probably switch to oxygen too

 

[GFBrewboy]

I go with simple (5 gal batches)... rapidly pour cooled wort from kettle to sanitized fermentation bucket, back and forth (3 or 5 times). Pitch yeast and done. You may need to manage the wort foam produced.

 

[OldDogBrewing]

I make 1 gallon badges, so I pour vigorously from certain hight to the fermentor and the I stir like crazy for a while with a whisk to put more air in there
Edit: If I think I need really good aeration, I will place a mesh strainer in the bucket and pour it through it, from a certain hight and with more care as it can splash everywhere, and the whisk it again, obviously everything that touches the wort is sanitized previously

 

[Jim R]

Do you need to put a hepa filter in-line when using a tank?

yes, they are cheap on amazon.

 

[VikeMan]

Do you need to put a hepa filter in-line when using a tank?

I've been using "pure" O2 for well over a decade and have never filtered it.

 

[Spivey24]

Just shake the hell out of the fermenter. I gave up on my oxygen wand as the oxygen tanks were always leaking and empty and it was just one more thing to clean. I see no difference between shaking and the pure O2 in fermentation.

 

[day_trippr]

4 minutes of O2 through a Williams Brewing .5u wand at .5 lpm per 5.5 gallons...

Cheers!

[edit] No filter used here, just straight O2 from tank through flow reg.

 

[grampamark]

If your lag time is measured in hours, not days, and your attenuation is at, or above, the published range for your yeast, you’re probably doing it right regardless of the chosen method.

FWIW, I use dry yeast with the “sprinkle and shake” method. I brewed a 1.060-something holiday ale yesterday and pitched a package of Nottingham about 4 PM. At 7 this morning I had a nice krausen and the Starsan in the blowoff container has a big head on it. If it works, it works.

 

[MrBJones]

Thanks all for the great replies! I too have been making five gallon batches in a carboy. Up to this point, I've put a sanitized piece of clear wrap over the mouth and held it in place, with the carboy sideways on my lap as I slosh it back and forth for a while. Seems to work OK. But I'm thinking about getting a BrewBucket, so that won't be possible. Now I have some other options.
Thans again

 

[Davedrinksbeer]

I use a wine degasser wand that attaches to a power drill. Cost like $20.

 

[deuc224]

Gonna get an oxygenation stone stone for inline oxygenation to the fermenter.

 

[pc_trott]

As a cheapskate and a newb, I pour the 2.5 gals. of cooled wort through a funnel and sieve into the carboy, then add the top-up water in 1/2 gal. increments from a gallon jug, shaking the heck out of the jug for a minute before adding it to the carboy. The yeast seems to find the oxygen level to its liking so far. (I've made 14 batches, all extracts, most with partial grain additions.)

 

[Deadalus]

Do you need to put a hepa filter in-line when using a tank?

I don't use one. I'd be interested in the discussion for using but don't see a particular need for it. I'm currently using the red O2 bottle from the hardware store but will be switching to a ginormous medical grade tank that will likely last me all my brewing days.

 

[A1sportsdad]

Do you need to put a hepa filter in-line when using a tank?

No need. The oxygen from the bottles is pure. Nothing to filter out.

 

[BongoYodeler]

I use O2 tank, wand, with a diffusion stone.

Another option I've seen a fellow homebrewer do is he heated up a needle and poked (burned) several small holes in the transfer hose coming off the kettle's spigot. Holds the hose above the fermenter while draining, and the combination of the splashing wort with the air mixing in through the holes provides ample O2 for fermentation. Total cost: pennies.

 

[BrewZer]

a) pour from the kettle to the fermenter through a sanitized sieve
b) hold back a gallon or so of purified water at room temp or colder to add to the fermenter just before pitching and OG check, with vigorous splashing on the way in and agitation to homogenize the wort before taking the OG sample...

That said, I have a bottle of O2 and a sintered stone, and will (one of these days) work up the courage to sanitize the stone and tubing and push some industrial-strength oxygen into a batch of high-gravity wort

 

[jbschuyler]

For the last few years, after I moved from carboy to SS Brewbucket, I have been using a wire kitchen whisk attached to my power drill. It seems to work for me, however I have started researching an upgrade to an oxygenation set up.

 

[Edward's Beer Cellar]

I found an old medical nebulizer compressor at a garage sale for $2. Cleaned it up, adjusted the air flow to it's lowest setting and added a filter and stone. It almost pushes too much air as I have to watch for foam coming out of the carboy.

 

[1OldJarhead]

Anyone tried this one? I have several small canisters of 'Boost' oxygen supplement. Two ten-litre spray cans cost $30 on Amazon. 'Boost' oxygen is cheap because it's not 'medical' oxygen. Ha! They can say that because it's about 98% oxygen instead of 100% oxygen. Anyway, how about this: a plastic hose from a Boost dispenser down into your carboy of cooled wort, then spray away while you rock it or swirl it? So, do both: rock your carboy or swirl it, but add the oxygen from one or more of those cans. Seems to me the tiny amount of oxygen we're getting from ambient air would be far exceeded by pure oxygen from a cheap little spray can. Thoughts?

 

[Drinking Sensibly]

Very cheap and noisy Chinese aquarium pump and a filter between pump and wort
https://www.home-brew-hopshop.co.uk/all-grain-brewing-equipment/500-air-filter-for-wort-aerator.html

 

[VikeMan]

Anyone tried this one? I have several small canisters of 'Boost' oxygen supplement. Two ten-litre spray cans cost $30 on Amazon. 'Boost' oxygen is cheap because it's not 'medical' oxygen. Ha! They can say that because it's about 98% oxygen instead of 100% oxygen. Anyway, how about this: a plastic hose from a Boost dispenser down into your carboy of cooled wort, then spray away while you rock it or swirl it? So, do both: rock your carboy or swirl it, but add the oxygen from one or more of those cans. Seems to me the tiny amount of oxygen we're getting from ambient air would be far exceeded by pure oxygen from a cheap little spray can. Thoughts?View attachment 852992

The O2 needs to be diffused (like through a sintered stone). Otherwise, most of it will end up escaping via the headspace before it has a chance to dissolve.

 

[mac_1103]

the tiny amount of oxygen we're getting from ambient air

IMHO, 21% is not a tiny amount. YMMV.

 

[MaxStout]

Pure O2 at about 1L/min, through a sintered stone. I run it about 60 seconds for most low-med gravity worts, 90-120 sec for high gravity.

 

[ncbrewer]

I use dry yeast and don't brew high gravity beers, so I no longer aerate, as per Fermentis and Lallemand's recommendations. (I apologize if this was obvious, but didn't know if the OP was aware, or if the question referred to liquid or dry yeast.)

 

[Wigglebutts Brewery]

O2 @ 1/4 liter/min…. 5-6 minutes

 

[balrog]

What @VikeMan says bears repeating.
It's ideal to use a scintered stone (teeny tiny bubbles) from the bottom of the wort, at a rate wherein the bubbles do not make it to the surface (dissolving in the wort on the way up).

 

[rodwha]

I just use a whisk.

 

[fluketamer]

i didint notice a difference with pure o2 vs shaky shaky so i just shake/ stir. for those who use o2 do you notice a difference. my yeast usually still takes off in a few hours at most.