Is an O2 wand even necesaary?

[SouthPhillyBr3w3r]

I am considering getting an oxygen regulator for oxygenating wort, mainly for the reason of cultivating more yeast from my starters. I'm curious if that stainless steel wand is necessary or if I can just hook the oxygen Stone directly to the tubing and drop that into the wort. I really don't see an issue with skipping the wand, since the stone is made of stainless steel. Up until now I've just been using an aquarium air pump with a sanitary filter and a 2 Micron Stone. The stone is just hooked to the tubing with a barb and I drop it into the wort, where are sinks directly to the bottom. Is the stainless wand mainly just the sanitation issue to avoid any bacteria that might be present in the pores of plastic tubing? I found a regulator for 20 bucks and I already have a 2 Micron Stone, so I don't really see the point of spending $30 to $50 on a two foot long piece of stainless tubing. Alternately, could I not just use a regular piece of stainless tubing and a short length of vinyl tube to attach the stone? My sparge arm is essentially a 1 foot length of stainless tubing with a spray nozzle connected via a two and a half inch piece of vinyl tubing acting as a junction sleeve. Is there any problem with a setup like this for oxygenation if I break down the setup and soak everything and starts and prior to use?

 

[LarMoeCur]

Nope no problem at all. I don't have a wand. Stone, tubing, regulator, no issues. Even thou the stone is stainless it doesn't like to sink. So, I have to put a little more tubing into the wort to get it to the bottom.
If I ever run across a small piece of 1/4" SS tubing, I plan to do exactly what you are talking about using vinyl tubing to connect the stone to the wand.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I had mine just on tubing and it wanted to float. I finally added a couple SS nuts that I would slide down the tubing to the stone. That helped quite a bit. I was wishing I'd gotten the wand.

 

[day_trippr]

I have a pair of .5 micron stones, one for tubing the other on an SS wand.
The stone will sink until the tubing fills with O2. Then you have lift-off.
I use the wand...

Cheers!

 

[SouthPhillyBr3w3r]

Thanks for your replies. Here are a couple more questions... Are the disposable O2 bottles very cost effective? I heard that you have to hit 1L/min for a 3 min to hit 9ppm O2 in a 5 gal, 1.057 batch of beer. I feel like that would burn through those little guys. I have also read that 8 ppm is the max saturation possible without using pure O2. I currently have an aquarium pump and stone, but I read it is almost useless for aerating wort (1 hr to reach 8 ppm), so I have relegated my stone to force carbing homemade ginger-ale in 2L bottles.

I make 2L yeast starters on a stir plate with Imperial yeast packs, so I am probably pitching 300-400 Billion cells into a 5 gallon batch, plus I usually transfer a decent amount of kettle trub (excluding hop material) which also assists in yeast cell development. Currently, I allow gravity to transfer wort throught the ball valve in my kettle, splashing into the fermenter over about 3-5 minutes.

I recently saw a SS head Chugger Pump for sale for $90 so I am considering using that to transfer my wort to the fermenter, through a fighter-jet wort nozzle. If I am using large quantities of healthy yeast, moderate gravity, kettle trub, and pumping wort through a spray nozzle into the fermenter, is O2 really worthwhile? Money and space are definitely a concern for me, since I am not yet as well established as some other home-brewers. I would prefer to spend money where it will make the biggest difference, and the pump has multiple uses (sparge, vorlauf, whirlpool, transfer/aeration), but if O2 is really going to make a huge difference in my brewing, it may also be worthwhile.

(p.s. there is a really interesting study done by New-Belgium which talks about replacing O2/aeration entirely by using olive oil to supply the UFA's that the yeast need to build cell walls. I have used this method in my starters, but do not want to risk killing head retention or rancid oil in my fermenter)

 

[Shrimp]

Pure O2 was a key enabler for better beer in my case. The introduction of O2 correlated with Dupont strain finishing, 002/1968 getting below 1.020 and multiple other things. Honestly, I think it made a bigger difference than temp control did. Personally, I like the wand as it makes it easy to move around the stone. Also, the little red tanks work for quite a few batches. Even if it were only 5 batches, that makes it $2 per batch.

FWIW, I've been brewing for 9 years now and still don't own a pump. I haven't entered a lot of competitions, but have placed in the ones I have entered. Not bragging, just saying it hasn't caused ill effects. One of these days, I'll probably get one - eyeing The Blingman one at the moment.

I think the olive oil thing was beat to death a few years ago. I don't see many pros buying olive oil, but do buy bottles of O2; I'll leave it at that.

 

[eric19312]

I think your aquarium pump should be providing plenty of o2 for your starters since you could run it full time the starter wort will never be oxygen free.

I’m curious about the 3 minute story. I do 90 seconds at just bubbling in 15 gallons of wort and call it good.

 

[mongoose33]

If you don't mind a suggestion, consider buying the book "Yeast" from White/Zainasheff. In it you'll find the answers to a lot of your questions about O2 and other factors relating to yeast.

I have over 20 books on brewing; I consider this one the best of the bunch. Other books are good, too, but this is great at helping me learn the WHY not just the WHAT.

I have the wand; like others, I like the control it offers, but if you can get the aquarium stone to sink, no reason it wouldn't work. The reason I didn't go in that direction is that controlling an aeration stone at the end of tubing will be more problematic, and the ability to easily move the wand (and stone) around the wort is easier.

I sanitize my O2 wand every time by boiling distilled water and dunking the wand in that water. I star-san the rest of the wand really well and call it good.

 

[LarMoeCur]

3 minutes a complete waste of Oxygen! The charts I've seen show a 24 second burst in 5 gallons of 1.054 wort is around 13.2 ppm. Beers around 1.050, I do 30 seconds. Bigger beers above 1.060ish, I do 60 seconds. Super big beers 1.090 and above, I do 60 seconds right at pitch and 30 seconds 4-6 hours later.

Not all the absorption is happening at once. If you're oxygenating and immediately closing up the fermenter. You are leaving a layer of O2 on top of the wort. Some of that O2 will be absorbed as the wort rest. Once fermentation starts and CO2 is being off gassed that will drive the unused O2 out of the air lock.

I do 10 gallon batches and get around 10-15 uses out of the disposable O2 cylinders. If I'm doing a lot of session beers sometimes I get even more.

If you want better starters why not just make a stir plate? They are super cheap to make.

 

[SouthPhillyBr3w3r]

3 minutes a complete waste of Oxygen! The charts I've seen show a 24 second burst in 5 gallons of 1.054 wort is around 13.2 ppm. Beers around 1.050, I do 30 seconds. Bigger beers above 1.060ish, I do 60 seconds. Super big beers 1.090 and above, I do 60 seconds right at pitch and 30 seconds 4-6 hours later.

Not all the absorption is happening at once. If you're oxygenating and immediately closing up the fermenter. You are leaving a layer of O2 on top of the wort. Some of that O2 will be absorbed as the wort rest. Once fermentation starts and CO2 is being off gassed that will drive the unused O2 out of the air lock.

I do 10 gallon batches and get around 10-15 uses out of the disposable O2 cylinders. If I'm doing a lot of session beers sometimes I get even more.

If you want better starters why not just make a stir plate? They are super cheap to make.

I have a stir plate, and I use it with every starter. I'm not particularly concerned about my starter method. Usual method is 1 gram DME for every 10 grams distilled water, boiled in Erlenmeyer flask with a few drops of Fermcap S, then I will aerate with a sanitized air-stone for 15-20 minutes while it is chilling in an ice bath. After this, I give it a good shake and then add the yeast and place the flask on the stir plate. I will start at 500mL and increase to 1000mL after 24 hrs. After fermentation has ceased, usually 24-36 hours from second wort addition, I cold crash the starter in the fridge and decant the wort. I usually get about 350mL of very thick yeast slurry from a starter. I mostly want to make sure that the yeast has enough oxygen when it is in the fermenter to ensure that I am getting very healthy yeast in the fermenting beer. I harvest yeast and freeze in glycol to create a stock of liquid yeast strains (I have about 30 vials of 6 or 7 different strains), so I want to make sure the yeast have the healthiest possible start so that they survive freezing/thawing/reculturing.

I haven't had any problems with off flavors or stuck fermentation, and I usually notice airlock bubbles 8 hours after pitching the slurry. I am just curious if there is room for improvement to promote the healthiest possible yeast.

If you don't mind a suggestion, consider buying the book "Yeast" from White/Zainasheff. In it you'll find the answers to a lot of your questions about O2 and other factors relating to yeast.

I have over 20 books on brewing; I consider this one the best of the bunch. Other books are good, too, but this is great at helping me learn the WHY not just the WHAT.

I have the wand; like others, I like the control it offers, but if you can get the aquarium stone to sink, no reason it wouldn't work. The reason I didn't go in that direction is that controlling an aeration stone at the end of tubing will be more problematic, and the ability to easily move the wand (and stone) around the wort is easier.

I sanitize my O2 wand every time by boiling distilled water and dunking the wand in that water. I star-san the rest of the wand really well and call it good.

I have been looking at purchasing this book, as well as their book on water. I feel like i have a firm grasp of the basics, so right now I am mostly focusing on water chemistry, yeast propagation, and recipe formulation so I can really step into my own and feel confident brewing beers that are entirely my own. As it stands, when I want to brew a style I will usually look up 10-15 all-grain recipes, try to identify the common elements, then create a basic blueprint for the grain bill, water chem, hop bill, etc.