Aeration Equipment

[ColinKeb]

a welding supplyer will be able to sell you an oxygen cylinder, although to be honest you pay a hefty deposit for the cylinder then get it refilled , so unless you intend on using it a lot it might not be worth it. also oxygen is highly explosive, i did a welding course once and standing between a huge cylinder of acetyline and another of oxygen with a huge flaming torch in my hand certainly relaxed my bowels i can tell you.
seriously though , you might find that your house insurance is affected by you having big cyclinder of highly flamable substance around. i'd think very seriously about it, especially if you have kids around. its dangerous stuff, ive seen the consequences of a patient in hospital trying to have a crafty fag while wearing an oxygen mask! the ward exploded and the whole wing of the hospital burnt down.
i'd buy an egg wisk mate
cheers
colin

[Frothy]

is there anything to stop us using a regular ceramic airstone with a pond pump? Preferably with a sanitary air filter of course to keep out airbourne bacteria/ spores.

Matt

[Vossy1]

I've seen them listed on US sites F, so I don't see why not

[Kev.]

I have a nice shinny stainless air stone that i bought a few years ago. But i cannot get any of my aquarium pump to push air through it even though hop & grape assured me it works with a standard pump (no chance).So i reverted back to the air stones from the pet shop.But i prefer to use shinny things when ever i can.Cheers Rabmaxwell(Brewing in Ayrshire)

Rab, I've had exactly the same problem as I'm using a pump that came boxed as a Brewferm aerator.

It managed to power the stone once and then never again!

I've reverted to a small plastic one that you can adust the output as I found the ceramic ones too fragile for me, think I've broke about four!

Anyone have any idea what outout from an air pump you would need to power these ss air stones?

[Kev.]

is there anything to stop us using a regular ceramic airstone with a pond pump? Preferably with a sanitary air filter of course to keep out airbourne bacteria/ spores.

Matt

Frothy, John at H&G sells an autoclavable air filter for this very purpose, it's what I've been using for ages with no problems.

[RabMaxwell]

Hello all i even went out and bought a more powerful piston pump to use the stainless air stone it still wouldn't work. Tried using those air filters but they kept blocking up. So i drilled a hole on both sides of a W Labs tube and araldited 2 john Guest fittings on. I fill with cotton wool and spray with vodka to sterilise. Cheers

[Andy]

How about using the Venturi effect to aerate the wort ?

http://www.kettlemoraine.com/mikesbeerpage/gadgets.php

[Kev.]

Hello all i even went out and bought a more powerful piston pump to use the stainless air stone it still wouldn't work. Tried using those air filters but they kept blocking up. So i drilled a hole on both sides of a W Labs tube and araldited 2 john Guest fittings on. I fill with cotton wool and spray with vodka to sterilise. Cheers

Good idea Rab, although I've never had a problem with my autoclavable one, well not so far!

Sorted my problem with the ss air stone this afternoon. Tried it again on my air pump and voila it bubbled a bit although a bit feeble, stuck the air filter inline and it slowed to a crawl. Quick visit to the local pet shop and bought a new Tetratec APS 150 on the condition that if it didn't do it would be coming back! It was over priced in the shop at £22.99 as you can get them much cheaper online however I needed to test it. May concider returning it and buying one another online!!

However the pump solved the problem and it's bubbling like a crazy thing even with the filter in place!

So if anyone wants my old aerator kit, with airline, air filter and a ceramic airstone, make me an offer!

[steve_flack]

I use a stainless steel diffuser that's been welded onto the end of a stainless steel pipe (as sold by MoreBeer http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=18253). It's expensive but doesn't float
I use it in conjunction with red Benzomatic disposable oxygen cylinders. You can also get the reg for them from MoreBeer.

Apparently, if you happen to know a quack/first aider/St Johns Ambulance style person then oxygen is fairly easy to obtain

EDIT: It seems WeldUK.com do disposable oxygen cylinders and a reg to fit them (it's a different reg to the Benzomatic)

[eskimobob]

I don't get the reasoning behind this? Is this just a thirst for shiny things - in which case no more explanation required...

Obviously if you don't aerate after cooling then there is likely to be too little oxygen to get the yeast going well but why bother with oxygen cylinders when you can simply drop the wort into the FV splashing to introduce oxygen from the atmosphere? Is 21% O2 not high enough??

Is this practice carried out by any small scale commercial brewers? - I doubt it as they have to keep their costs down. I can just about imagine the massive breweries might go for this as they have to get things done as quickly as possible and they can force oxygen in as they chill and then pitch more quickly.

What would convince me that I ought to be doing this?
I thought we British home brewers were known for keeping things simple

[steve_flack]

Mostly because every aeration pump I've tried has been rubbish.

Additionally small scale commercial breweries have their beer drunk in three weeks so they have more room for a bit of contamination without showing any ill effects. Some of my beer is around for months. I have enough hassles keeping Brett and Lactobacillus out of my beer without splashing the bugs directly into my wort.

[Andy]

Are you back drinking DaaB or was last night a small quality control sample ?

[steve_flack]

I thought we British home brewers were known for keeping things simple

I don't think we're known for that.

Sadly British homebrew is generally regarded as undrinkable rubbish made with cheap crap kits and too much sugar. When you talk to a non-brewer they generally say something like 'My dad made homebrew. It tasted rubbish but got you really pissed.' Quite often I've heard people describe a dodgy commercial beer as 'tasting like homebrew'.

We know better of course, but the hobby is still perceived badly by the general public.

[Vossy1]

Are you suggesting that its not possible to make good beer from kits or without purchasing lots of expensive equipment Steve

I think Steve was talking about the average non brewers perception of homebrew in general, as:-

We know better of course, but the hobby is still perceived badly by the general public.

Whenever I say I make beer the general perception is a negative micky taking one

I don't think that beer should be allowed to be made without lots of shinyness though

[steve_flack]

DaaB, Did I say that?

No, I replying to the point that British homebrewers are known for taking a simpler, more straightforward approach. They are not. Maybe they like to think of themselves that way but to the public at large homebrew pretty much means one thing - crap beer.

When I described crap kits I meant the cheap, nasty ones that expect you to add a ton of white sugar. I'm well aware of the range of quality kits available and don't doubt they make a good beer. Sadly you don't really see the good one's outside the specialist homebrew shops.

As it happens, I do believe that you can make really good beer with next to bugger all equipment. I have however spent more time than I'd like dealing with the crap equipment palmed off on us because the manufacturers believe we'll put up with it. For example...

1) Plastic kegs that cost as much as cornies but with lids that leak gas all the time there's beer in them but seal solid when you try to get the lid off.
2) Plastic taps on boilers that leak after a couple of brews.

I don't have a lot of swanky gear. I have things that make my life easier and that I've found help me make a better beer. If there was one bit of equipment I would recommend as the single one thing that helped me to improve my beers it would be a water filter.

Going back to the original point. I prefer to use an aeration stone and oxygen as it is more effective than splashing and less risk of airborne infection. You may think it's overkill but in truth the cost of the kit I use was very little and I have no problems with poor attenuation or slow starts. YMMV.