Beer Forum

So far I've always done the shake method, and its worked great. But I"m wanting to brew a Pliny the younger clone, so i think I'm going to buy an oxygenation set up. Originally i was going to buy an inline set up, but now i'm leaning towards the air stone for three reasons.

1 It looks easier to clean.
2 I can oxygenate again after 8 hours.
3 I can use it on starters.

Does anyone see any reason i should not go with an air stone vs inline?

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/BIG-OXYG ... P3474.aspx

I'd say that inline gets more important when you get to big volumes and doing your transfers by pump.
You really can't aerate with a wand like this if you are filling a multi-barrel conical.
At the 5 or 10 gallon scale, the wand works and like you said is easy to clean.

As far as aerating starters, get (or build) a stir plate and there's no need to worry about aerating them.

FWIW, I have something along the lines of what you are considering buying and I love it.
Mine uses the little red O2 canisters you can buy at Home Depot, Lowe's or Ace Hardware.
Yours uses bigger welding O2 canisters so you'll get a ton of batches out of 1 refill.
It has a HEPA filter also so that anything from inside the canister (oil?) will get filtered out.
you can splice one into the o2 line on yours very cheaply if you want one, too.

see this;
http://www.williamsbrewing.com/IN-LINE- ... -P440.aspx
[edit: cheaper one from NB]
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brew ... ilter.html

This is close to mine (but this lacks the above HEPA filter that's simply added to the O2 line):
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brew ... n-kit.html

So, in a nutshell, the wand is easy to clean, but only effective for small (home brew sized < 20 gal) batch brewing. The inline is effective regardless of batch size but mandatory when going to pro sized batches. It is probably easier to over oxygenate with the inline one too. I'd add the HEPA filter for 5 bucks just to ensure nothing (rust, dirt, oil) passes in from the canister.

HTH-

BDawg wrote:I'd say that inline gets more important when you get to big volumes and doing your transfers by pump.
You really can't aerate with a wand like this if you are filling a multi-barrel conical.
At the 5 or 10 gallon scale, the wand works and like you said is easy to clean.

As far as aerating starters, get (or build) a stir plate and there's no need to worry about aerating them.

I'll be sure to add a hepa filter. I already use a stir plate, is adding 02 to a stir plate of little value?

As far as batch size, i don't see myself going above 18 anytime soon.

Yeah, a stir plate adds oxygen continuously. That's the whole point. It constantly stirs the starter so that new air is mixing in causing maximum yeast growth.

BDawg wrote:Yeah, a stir plate adds oxygen continuously. That's the whole point. It constantly stirs the starter so that new air is mixing in causing maximum yeast growth.

I Did not think about that part. I always assumed it was just to keep co2 out of suspension.

I used the disposable O2 canisters with the Williams wand and regulator, but have moved to the refillable large O2 bottle, with the new William's O2 regulator. Love it! I too chose to stay with this vs. an inline tee and male pipe based O2 stone. I have the plumbing to do it, but am worried about clean-ability.

BDawg wrote:Yeah, a stir plate adds oxygen continuously. That's the whole point. It constantly stirs the starter so that new air is mixing in causing maximum yeast growth.

Hopefully you aren't using an airlock on your starter......just use the little foamy stoppers, they work great, and allow in the good stuff, while keeping out the bad!! I use them, and love them.

My $.02

Braukaiser published an awesome experiment on his blog where he tested the cell growth resulting from different aeration methods used with stir plates linky here.

Basically he found noticeable differences in cell counts between placing a foil cover on the flask and actively pumping air to just above the surface of the spinning starter. (The latter producing higher cell count). Having no cover on the flask was somewhere in the middle. (He's also done tests on what difference the speed of rotation makes: faster = more cells)

If I can be bothered I'll oxygenate the starter before I put it on the stir plate, and have noticed a difference in the vigour of fermentation in the starter. I figure that after boiling the starter wort, there is zero dissolved O2 and it will take a while for the yeast to get any from spinning on the stir plate. A quick burst of O2 before going on the stir plate might give them a head start.