aeration stone

[wortchillergoal]

Everyday you learn something new. Once again I hear of an item I have not encountered in my years of homebrewing. Does anyone notice a big difference when using an aeration stone? I have found that just dumping my wort into the fermenter aerated the wort just fine. Am I missing a better,easier way of doing it?

BEER can be FOOD but FOOD can NEVER be BEER.

[brewmonkey]

You generally find the pub/micro brewers using oxygenation stones as they do not generally have the ability to "splash" the wort on the way to the fermenter. Basically what it boils down to is a cintered stainless stone (length/circum.) depends on the batch size at knockout and it goes inline from the heat exchanger out. The brewer will put O2 through it to achieve Xppm in XLiters. Allowing for the proper amounts of O2 to be in the wort allowing for a healthy fermentation and later a harvest, It will also help decrease lag time.

At the home level you can find the smaller ones, but it is an item that has to be carefully cleaned and sani'd before/after use. The oxygen needs to be either food grade or put through a sanitary filter (Available for a few bucks each). As well as caring for the loxygen lines you will be using.

It is something you can do and is cool to play around with, but if your method is achieving the results you desire why go through the extra expenditure and then the need to maintain that much more equipment.

I would also say that in all the batches I have heard having an infection problem the brewer was able to trace it to one of two places. The heat exchanger (counterflow chiller) or the oxygen stone. Both require great care to be in a brewhous.

Would be interested in hearing if you decide to try one what you think though.

[wortchillergoal]

I don't think that I will be trying one. I like the Kiss It Simple Stupid,KISS, method I am using now. I probably am not the prime example of sanitary procedures. So after reading other sites about aeration stones that agree with your comment about introducing foreign matter to the beer I will continue with what has worked fine for me for quite some time.

[ray m]

I, too, have been tempted to get a new toy in the form of a wort aeration system (stone). I would have to agree w/ Brewmonkey & Wort'goal about why should one bother with buying another piece of equipment you gotta deal with, sanitize, etc. when the current "no equipment necessary" (except, good, healthy pipes!) method works fine? All I have done is just shake the living hell out of my carboy for 5 minutes or so and I have had no problems--I will continue to do this until I am, oh, 80 or so....:D

[BucksBrew]

I had one batch that stalled. Probably because the slap pack wasn't entirely inflated and I failed to aerate the wort.

Now I take a large wisk and hold it between my hands and act like I'm trying to start a fire with a stick. I just roll it back and forth in my hands for about 5 minutes until I foamed the heck out of the wort. Then I add the yeast and siphon to a carboy.

I have less lag time and better attenuation doing this.

Now if I can get this kegging thing down I;ll be set!

[Aleman]

I have used an oxygen system from Williams Brewing for the last year or so. I have had no problems with my fermentations. The beers have been winning awards, so I think the taste is fine too.

I sanitize the stone and stainless steel wand in Five Star SaniClean. After brewing I wash it in dishwashing soap. I rinse by soaking in clean water, including a short burst of oxygen. I let it air dry with a short burst of oxygen five minutes or so after washing.

I do full volume boils so oxygenation is very important. The oxygen system has really improved my fermentations.:D

[wortchillergoal]

I saw on another site that suggested two small pinholes in the racking tube near the cane would help aerate the wort. It said that the siphon would draw air through the holes as the wort passed through it. I still like the dump method, gives me reason to stay fit til 80 or so.

[michaewa]

Does it make a difference if you aerate in the brewpot or the carboy? I always assumed you did it in the carboy, but it sounds like some people do it in the brewpot then siphon.

Same with the yeast - is there a difference between pitching in the brewpot before racking to the primary and waiting until it is in the carboy?

Probably makes very little difference, I'm just curious.

[Beerconnoisseur]

I've gotten by without ever using an aeration system. They are nice to have, if you are going for a really high gravity beer, but most of us can do without them. Another potential problem is, if you flush your wort with too much oxygen, you can kill the yeast off that way. It's why hydrogen peroxide makes such a great disinfectant; free oxygen molecules will kill anaerobic bacteria.

Also, you don't want to aerate the beer while it is in the brewpot; aerating in the carboy is much better. Less hot side aeration that way. And you may as well pitch the yeast in the carboy instead of the brewpot. Why would you want yeast cells in your brewpot? They have to do all of their work in the fermenter anyway... :confused:

[Aleman]

I do the oxygen and yeast pitch in the carboy.

[paul84043]

I read an article just before I was getting into home brewing (when I was in "research" mode) about a micro brewery in canada, I can't remember the name, but to make a long story short, a "guy" had completely uprooted his family and moved to Canada to start this brewery just before they passed some fairly draconian new beer laws and taxes.
The pressure was driving some of the other breweries out of business and here he was just trying to get started!!!
He fought with the process, fermenting, filtering, the works, had even hired a "hotshot" brewmeister/microbiologist for help, but was still spending way too much time fermenting and way too much time and money filtering and changing filters.
his new Hotshot heard some rumors about oxygenating and made a recomendation that they try it...
His story goes like this...it typically took 5 to 7 days to ferment, 3 to 5 filter changes just to filter one batch, which also took almost an entire day. 9 to 11 days to get a batch out of the primaries....
They oxygenated on a Friday, he came in on Saturday to check the batches, they had literally blown the bolts off the stainless fermenters and made an unbelievable mess. Fermentation was done in under 3 days and the batch filtered clean on the first run.
Faster, cleaner, more complete fermentation, and "better" beer with less off flavors was his ultimate conclusion.

True or not? Hell, I don't know. I assumed that it was.

I bought an aeration stone from annapolishomebrew.com I have done over 30 batches and still use the same oxygen bottle from Home Depot with no signs of it running out. I let it run for 1 minute after pouring the wort into the fermenter and taking my O.G. reading.
Before using it, I drop it into the sanitizing solution, and after it goes right back in.. Never had a problem with sanitiation yet....

[brewmonkey]

In the pub I use a Zahm & Nagel cintered SS stone. It is inline and I dose fairly healthy. Lag time for me was usually less then 3 hours and fermentation with WLP002 was usually 3 days for 13P beers.

While I agree aeration is better, for homebrewers who are not looking to save time the splashing, whipping etc is fine. An aquarium pump works also.

In the breweries, we are pressed for time and space. The faster I move a beer to secondary the faster I can get another batch going. Saving 2 days per batch time the 100 batches I do a year means I literally have 200 extra days of fermentation space. I took a system designed to produce 350 bbl's and did 520 bbl's without sacrificing quality for the sake of time.

Like I said, it is fun to mess around with, but if you are not careful it will catch you in the end.

[MagTheGrate]

By building a 1/2 gallon starter, using an aeration stone, and bubbling pure oxygen through a filter into my wortfor about 3 minutes, my lag times are down to about 1.5 hours.

necessary? not really... but damn cool.

-Mag

[BucksBrew]

If providing O2 speeds up the ferment process, what about the aging of the beer? Most extract kits recommend aging the beer 4-8 weeks in the bottle to smooth out the flavor.

What about this whole process? No aging required because of the cleaner, faster process?

Thanks

[brewmonkey]

Introducing oxygen to the wort will speed up fermentation and allow for a shorter lag, but once it gets going the rest of the cycle is the same. Having a quicker start and shorter fermentation allows you to brew more batches if you have limited space and carboy's.

The decrease in the lag is the key here. The quicker your yeast start working the less chance there will be of another organism taking over the fermentation and screwing up your beer. But now the trick is how to you get the oxygen back in without adding 10 steps and more equipment to worry about?

When you boil your wort and it begins to concentrate it is driving off all the oxygen that was in solution, so it is important that some be put back in. Wort devoid of oxygen will have problem fermenting. They range anywhere from no fermentation on to off flavors.

For optimum fermentation you will need about 5mg/L minimum and no more then 9-10mg/L.

The use of pure oxygen through a stone(diffuser) is a good choice if you are willing to go through all the steps to make sure you have left nothing to chance, ie: sanitation of all equipment and the use of sterile oxygen (medical grade is what I use). Since it is pure O2 and the air around us is only about 20% O2 it would make sense that a stone with pure O2 will get us there quicker, but like I said you need to be mindful of the extra sani procedures.

Stones are notorious for harboring bacteria and keeping them clean can be a problem. They can become clogged with small chunks of whatever may have been in the line, if you drop them or mishandle them they can sieze on you.

If you have a stone that has become clogged a simple soak in some Acid #5 from 5 Star Chemicals (or the like Nitric/Phospohoric Blend) which you might be able to get through your HB store is advised. Even if it is not, an occassional soaking wont hurt it.

Back to the question though, your conditioning time is going to be about the same. You will get into conditioning quicker then normal (about 1-2 days) and you may see a decrease in the time in conditioning by about 1-2 days but Iwould not say you can go straight from ferment to drinking due to a clean ferment. Clean fermentation just helps speed the process up by the days above.

Boy, talk about going off on tangents now!!!

I need to stop reading these forums before the 2nd pot of coffee is done!

[paul84043]

It would stand to reason that if your beer fermented more completely, and hopefully with less off flavors, then you would not have to wait as long for these flavors to age out..??

I use Star San which is primarily Phosphoric acid and another than I can't pronounce. I just throw my stone and hose into it when I make my sanitizing solution, usually in a bucket, or the sink. It may sit in there for a few hours before I use it.
Before I submerge the stone in the wort, I turn on the oxygen and let it drive the sanitizing solution out and through the stone. Pure oxygen is also a pretty good antibiotic..
If I have a bit of spare time and I remember, I will dunk the stone for a few minutes when I'm either pre boiling my water, or getting ready to steep the grains. I typically heat the water to boiling, or pretty close to it, then cool it back down to 170 or so before throwing the grains in to steep.

So far..no problems. One benefit to pushing the solution out through the stone before dunking it is that you can see the bubbles coming off the stone and I know that it is not clogged.