Pure O2 Equipment

[f00b4r]

After use I boil my stone/wand in water with citric acid in it. Then I wrap it in cling film ready for next use.

Ditto , that is also my procedure to boil it again before use to sanitise . Worth mentioning not to touch the stone part of the wand with bare hands .

Clean hands are not toxic. Else we would have all been extinct years ago.

It is not because of that, it is the oils in your hand clog up the very tiny holes by touching the stone itself.

[MashBag]

Phew. (sorry I'm a bit oot about beer making bleach queen's )

Finger oils, that is a good call. I clean my in vodka.

[Jocky]

Ditto , that is also my procedure to boil it again before use to sanitise . Worth mentioning not to touch the stone part of the wand with bare hands .

Clean hands are not toxic. Else we would have all been extinct years ago.

It is not because of that, it is the oils in your hand clog up the very tiny holes by touching the stone itself.

Indeed. Nearly six years on and my original 0.5 micron oxygenation wand is going strong with no loss of flow. All I do is boil it in a mild citric acid solution for a few minutes after use.

[Lederhosn]

There is a bug in the current forum software that loses all but the first attachment if you preview it. It looks like the second attachment has been lost this way (I am assuming it was the Venturi tube?). Could you re-attach please?

Out of interest how much did you pay for your meter and was it second hand?

This particular one was about £8 IIRC (it was a long time ago).

But you can use the ones that come with argon regulators just the same. I use one for the nitrogen to flush the pipework etc...

Venturi tube will be in next post

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It wasn't very expensive and does the job nicely.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313492652812 ... cvip-panel

[f00b4r]

Sorry I was not very clear, I mean the DO meter.

[Lederhosn]

One can get hold of Venturi Injectors rather easily on eBay. These are not expensive. Mine has G1/2 (1/2 BSPP) threads on the main tube and 3/8 BSPP on the air inlet. These are cheap and perfectly adequate.

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[Lederhosn]

Dissolved oxygen meter. Extech DO600

These are well worth the money.

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[f00b4r]

Out of interest how much did you pay for your meter and was it second hand?

I saw how much they were new but I wondered if they were going for more reasonable prices by searching or eg second hand.

I am guessing that you are a proponent of LODO brewing? If so I would be careful about saying that it applies to all styles, there seems to be a lot of interpretation around big brewery methods to limit hot side aeration (e.g. Weihenstephan use nitrogen flushed grain mills in the mash but with their volumes and machinery they create huge amounts of turbulence relative to homebrewers, plus they brew a very limited range of styles/grists). I have also not seen a glut of independent proper blind taste trials where LODO beers are preferred and e.g. LODO homebrewers do not seem to be pushing everyone else out of the medal tables of the big homebrew competitions around the world (something that I would expect if it was a big jump in quality).
I know that cold side post fermentation oxidation can ruin beers (from personal experience but even then live cask beer dispense involves a controlled oxidation) and reducing splashing on the hot side may be advisable (but also bear in mind as homebrewers we can control the storage of our beers, e.g. not in swinging or too warm temperatures and not on sunlit shelves, so aging effects may be much slower). I still eagerly await the empirical evidence, especially that not extrapolated from one beer style.
That said, breaking down your processes and tightening them up can only be beneficial (the best homebrewers I know seem to follow this mantra).

[Lederhosn]

I was referring to measuring oxygen saturation levels for pitching yeast

I got the meter about 7 years ago. It really helps fermentation esp when working with pure oxygen. Too much is not a good idea since it can affect yeast negatively in excessive amounts (about 30ppm onwards).

[Lederhosn]

Out of interest how much did you pay for your meter and was it second hand?

There are cheaper ones around, but I saw these a long time ago and don't have any links. Usually they are a few hounded quid.

I don't remember how expensive mine was. Should have been around 250.-

For fermentations starting at 5-6C and 9-10C max, i found them very helpful.

I never saw them sold second hand.

[f00b4r]

Cheers.
From the dregs of memory I suddenly also remembered that Blichmann do an Oxygen Flow Regulator: https://www.brewuk.co.uk/a02-flow-regulator.html

Of course you have no way of checking the result without a meter but their stuff is usually pretty well engineered and it is quite reasonably priced.

Personally I have a BAC Brewing Oxygenator, although that was driven mainly by not wanting pure oxygen in the house with young very mischievous inquisitive children (less of an issue now, especially since the brewing gear is all in a dedicated locked room and I have no intention of moving for a while).

[Lederhosn]

Pure oxygen has the drawback of over-oxygenating rather quickly.

It's much harder to do manually, if not impossible.

Once one goes down the pure O2 route, the investment in a DO meter makes sense unless one doesn't mind the risk producing a lot of higher alcohols (fusel).

It's not so much about aging the (not yet ready) beer, its an issue of conducting good and consistent fermentations.