What do you guys do for aeration of wort?

[rodwha]

It seems to me that a whisk is about the cheapest (maybe not easiest as you do have to whip it around for a minute or so) way to aerate. It doesn't take long either, though I have no clue as to how long is necessary or just how aerated it actually is. But it works well enough for me.

 

[thisisbeer]

Its my understanding that any splashing whisking or similiar method can only put a maximum of 8 or 10 ppm of oxygen in the wort. It also takes a while if I remember right to get that much. Don't quote me though! There are plenty of studies on the internet about it.

 

[Lemieuxp]

Its my understanding that any splashing whisking or similiar method can only put a maximum of 8 or 10 ppm of oxygen in the wort. It also takes a while if I remember right to get that much. Don't quote me though! There are plenty of studies on the internet about it.

newbie here.. Is that too low?

 

[Hello]

Good ole' lady muscle.

 

[thisisbeer]

No, 8-10 ppm is where you want to be. But it takes 10-15 minutes using something like an aquarium pump with a stainless stone on it to get 10ppm roughly. So I would imagine it would take some work to get that from splashing or straining method. That's more or less an educated guess though. Also if you don't have a filter on the air pump set up you can have problems with airborne yeast. Its cheaper but it takes more time and work.

With pure O2 and a .5 micron stone you don't have to worry about airborne yeast and you can achieve 8-10 ppm in about 45-60 seconds. Less hassle with the set up but cost a little more. I got my set up for about $60 bucks. But I did not shop around at all.

 

[butterpants]

No, 8-10 ppm is where you want to be. But it takes 10-15 minutes using something like an aquarium pump with a stainless stone on it to get 10ppm roughly. So I would imagine it would take some work to get that from splashing or straining method. That's more or less an educated guess though. Also if you don't have a filter on the air pump set up you can have problems with airborne yeast. Its cheaper but it takes more time and work.

With pure O2 and a .5 micron stone you don't have to worry about airborne yeast and you can achieve 8-10 ppm in about 45-60 seconds. Less hassle with the set up but cost a little more. I got my set up for about $60 bucks. But I did not shop around at all.

Doesn't YEAST talk about being in the 15-20ppm range as 'ideal' and 10ppm as a bare minimum (and the highest you can get without a pure O2 infusion)??

 

[thisisbeer]

10ppm is bare minimum recommended by white labs or wyeast. The ideal amount depends on gravity, lager or ale, and the requirements of the yeast strain. I don't know of a general ideal amount. The yeast will generally use what's available so I wouldn't worry about over oxygenation in the wort. So 15-20 ppm im sure would work great and is ideal in a lot of situations. But if you shoot for 10 everytime you will do ok until you learn more about it.

But I try not to worry to much on ppm as it's not easy to get an accurate answer on a homebrew scale. Oxygen is less soluble in higher gravity wort, temperature when adding oxygen, amount of o2 added, size of stone all make a difference in how much is dissolved.

Like I said earlier I worry about it a lot on beers over 1.060. But anything under I shoot for the typical 8-10 ppm. I used to worry more but I never noticed a difference on the smaller beers. Some I splashed and some a dissolved pure 02 in. I didn't notice a difference in any of them. I'm not saying its not important, just that you can achieve good results with these beers without going to 15+ ppm.

Edit: Also the highest you can get without pure o2 is 10% and with pure o2 you can achieve up to 26%.