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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
  Oxygen (Chuck Petersen)
  Re: Aearation with pure oxygen (Robert Tower)
  re: Aearation with pure oxygen ("Pat Babcock")
  Re: Aearation with pure oxygen (Stephen Jorgensen)


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Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:08:57 -0700
From: Chuck Petersen <chpete at opusnet.com>
Subject: Oxygen

This is for Scott's question on how long to apply oxygen. For a beer 
that will be in the 4 to 6 percent range one minute is adequate
aeration. Be careful not to turn on the oxygen too much or you just 
waste it. Adjust the flow to give a nice flow of small bubbles but
not too much. If you can hear the oxygen bottle start to whistle a bit 
you are giving it too much. If you adjust correctly you have five to 
seven brews in a bottle but too much and it empties very quickly.

Chuck Petersen

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Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:37:21 -0700
From: Robert Tower <roberttower at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: Aearation with pure oxygen

Scott Stihler asks about run times for a pure oxygen aeartion system for 
use with disposable Bernzomatic oxygen cannisters.

I'm not the most qualified (from a science standpoint) but since traffic 
is low I'll answer in case all of the chemistry experts are on vacation!

The easy answer is run it for about 30-45 seconds for a five gallon (19 
L) batch.

The more complicated answer is that it depends on wort temperature (gas 
is more readily absorbed in warmer liquids), porosity of the aeration 
stone (size of bubbles generated, smaller and more numerous bubbles 
create more surface area thus more absorption), and regulated pressure 
(higher pressure equals larger bubbles). Since these regulators don't 
utilize gauges there's some guesswork involved on regulation amount. 
I've used these type of regulators before and the best advice I can give 
is to slowly turn the regulator until you see bubbles then stop. 
Depending on the stone you're using there may be a certain amount of 
resistance to overcome (i.e. you'll have to turn the regulator up a bit 
to get it "over the hump" and then turn it back down to a lower rate). I 
recommend barely submerging the stone while you're adjusting the 
regulator so that you can directly see the response to your setting. 
Then once you get the pressure right go ahead and submerge it into the 
wort making sure to move it around to expose more of the wort.

I've heard that it's fairly easy and quick to reach the saturation level 
(or fairly near) so anything past that is just wasting oxygen. I 
generally run it for around 45 seconds once and call it good. I don't 
have any instrumentation to measure oxygen levels so I can't actually 
determine if I'm reaching saturation levels but it seems to be good 
enough in that I consistently get fast and complete fermentations. I've 
looked at these oxygen measuring devices and they're not cheap! 
Something I'll have to live without I'm afraid.

If you're doing lagers, then you may want to aerate before you chill the 
wort all the way down to fermentation temperatures as at these 
temperatures it's more difficult to saturate.

Bob Tower
Los Angeles, CA

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Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2011 07:54:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Pat Babcock" <pbabcock at hbd.org>
Subject: re: Aearation with pure oxygen

Greetings, Beerlings! Take me to your lager...

Scott Stihler who just happens to be an AVO Analyst in Fairbanks, AK asks:

'how long do I bubble oxygen into the wort of 5-gallon batch of "standard"
gravity beer?'

Common wisdom says about a minute's worth of fine bubbles streaming up
from the bottom of the fermenter will suffice, but I had another method I
liked to employ.

Back in the days of yore, when I still had the garage brewing factory
pumping steam into the local atmosphere every weekend, I would inject
oxygen into the chilled wort stream leaving the kettle. To do this, I
obtained a hypodermic needle, attached a piece of tubing between it and
the Bernz-O-Matic oxygen valve fitting, and then pushed the needle through
the wall of the tubing exiting my counterflow chiller at an acute angle. A
band of tape around the hose at the base of the needle both prevented the
needle from pulling out, and ensured the needle inside wouldn't puncture
the hose wall opposite when moved around. It is best that the exit tubing
be clear so you can see the effect of opening and closing the oxygen
valve.

When I would start my chiller, I'd allow the first few ounces to flow
through to ensure the system is full, then I'd crack the oxygen valve open
to a very fine stream, or, if the bubbles were large due to slower wort
flow in the summer, very few.

Oxygenating in the stream like this increases the ratio between the oxygen
bubble surface area and the wort volume to help ensure good oxygen levels.
I think the flow and turbulence helps get more oxygen into solution as
well, but I may be all wet on this. In any case, there was never any
apparent bubbling at the fermenter end during fill, which implies either
that I'm not very observant or all the oxygen in through the tube was
staying in the wort.

As always, your mileage may vary and/or my premise could be all wrong.


- -- 
See ya!

Pat Babcock in SE Michigan
Chief of HBD Janitorial Services
http://hbd.org
pbabcock at hbd.org



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Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:16:26 -0500
From: Stephen Jorgensen <stephen at ultraemail.net>
Subject: Re: Aearation with pure oxygen

I use those oxygen bottles whenever I brew with liquid yeast but only
actually tried the aeration stone once.  I left the room for a minute
and returned to see about a quart of wort on the floor, it seems bubbles
make foam. Of course there are anti-foam agents available which do not
carry into finished, well settled beer but I never tried them.

My method is to squirt a couple of seconds of O2 into the headspace,
seal up and shake.  I feel it's a more efficient use of the gas, less
mess potential and I get very good results vs. shaking with plain air.

I use glass carboys for every stage of fermentation so there is not a
lot of extra room for foam in my methods.  Perhaps things like unitanks
and 6 gal buckets are more forgiving.

Stephen Jorgensen
Chicago, Illinois

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