Aeration and Oxygenation

[ArcLight]

I'm an extract brewer. What I do to aerate my wort is pour the 3 gallons of warm deoxygenated wort [I cool it down by setting the two 2 gallon pots in the sink in cold water, so lets call it 100 degrees?] through a strainer into a 6.5 gallon fermentation bucket. Close it, shake it for a few minutes, then pour in 2 gallons of refrigerated water (that I boiled and cooled, and aerated by storing in plastic gallon containers I can shake vigorously).


Do you think this is good enough (close to 8PPM disolved Oxygen), even if it's not the theoretical optiomal 10-15 PPM?


Will getting an Oxygenation system make a noticeable difference in taste over my method? If so, will the 2 micorn stone be sufficient, or do I need to use a 0.5 micron stone?


I am willing to spend money for a noticeable difference in taste, but I'd rather not introduce extra steps and cost for a minimal gain, unless its a process improvement that saves time.

[BDawg]

when you say you pour your warm wort through a strainer, how warm is it while you do this?

[Fremont Brewer]

Arclight, I think you are ok for lower gravity ales. If you are doing higher gravity ales or lagers, you may need more aeration. For my first lager, I tried to make a dopplebock. I was doing the strainer and shake thing too. My ferment took off pretty good but fizzled out after a few days. My FG ended up way too high. The beer did not finish fermenting and it way too sweet. I ended up dumping the whole batch. A whole lot of money and time down the drain. So if you think of it from that point of view, an aeration system is not that much. I ended up buying the aquarium pump thing at Morebeer. $40 bucks I think. It has been good enough for my needs so far. Many people use pure O2 from a tank. That can cost quite a bit more.

[alan_marks]

Having to brew on a fairly low budget, I bought my aquarium pump and a couple of air-stones from Wal-Mart last week, then ordered a couple of sterile filters from Rebel Brewer. Saved me a bit of change, even with shipping.

When I used them on my last batch, a Belgian blonde ale fermenting with a starter made WLP530, I aerated it for 15 minutes before pitching it on Friday afternoon. Overnight, it popped the lid off the bucket, then bubbled through the airlock while I was at work this evening. Top cropped the happy yeasties when I got home tonight for my next batch, and it's still bubbling happily away.

It's worth it.

Alan

[brewinhard]

when you say you pour your warm wort through a strainer, how warm is it while you do this?

Arclight-

If you are shaking your wort while it is at 100 deg or so then you are most definitely oxidizing your finished product more than it should be. Really anything 80 deg or above can lead to oxidation and staling reactions in your beer and shorten it's shelf life.

[Wort Slurpin]

If your going to spend any money on anything get a turkey burner and wort chiller way before you buy an oxygen system. The benefits from a wort chiller far exceed the benefits of oxygenating your wort (full vigorous boils, better hop utilization, fast cooling). Regarding aeration, stirring your wort by hand for 10 minutes should adequately oxygenate your wort for low to mid range starting gravities (1.040 - 1.060). Only if you are fermenting high gravity beer then don't worry about oxygen tanks. The other thing I would buy way before an aeration system would be fermentation temperature control.

[scotchpine]

+1 to the above replies. Also, when I started fermenting in a glass carboy instaed of a bucket, I got a degassing rod at LHBS. Around 12 bucks. I don't know how the O2 #'s compare but using it on a corldess drill to spin a vortex for a couple mins has done very well for me. I have had complete ferms on all my batches doing this. I would run it a bit longer for higher gravity batches though. Good luck

[CRBrewHound]

+1 to above comments.

You will yeild much more by getting something you can do a full boil in and being able to chill rapidly without adding water.