Nitrogen to de-aerate mash liquor

[TLaffey]

Hi,

I tried using a small amount of dextrose and some brewers yeast in my HLT to de-aerate the water before heating to strike temperature. I think this helped my beer, but it adds too much time to my brew day. Pre-boiling also takes time and uses up propane. So I'm thinking that I might use an aeration stone and N2 to saturate the water with nitrogen while heating. I could use the nitrogen to "blanket" my mash too. Any thoughts about this? Anyone have experience with using nitrogen either to de-aerate or to avoid oxygen pickup?

Thanks,
Tom

 

[TLaffey]

I finally got around to testing this (sort of) this last weekend. Link to new thread.