Oxygenation system

[Ozwald]

I would have reservations using stuff from HF. They're well known for poor/dirty manufacturing & complete lack of QC. I would wonder about what else is in that bottle. You might be fine, but you could get a bottle that makes your beer smell like machine oil. I wouldn't risk it.

[Bobbie Dooley]

I believe somewhere on the session they talked about shaking vs pumping oxygen into the wort, and how shaking will not get you close to the direct oxygen aeration. If I were you, Id spend the few extra bucks and get the regulator and a aeration stone.

If you believe everything you've heard from Doc and Tasty, you should revise your knowledge base. They're great home brewers but their theoretical knowledge about brewing isn't up to the same level. Shaking the carboy vigorously saturates it with O2 from atmospheric air (~20% O2) in a minute or less. If you fill the head space with 100% O2 and shake it into the carboy, you'll get more than enough O2 into solution and faster than with a stone.

Yo Dawg, do you need any kind of regulator for those tanks or can you just jam a pen into the pin? I'm thinking about putting it in the head space and shaking it up per wyeast. I'm very cheap and don't buy extra stuff unless I have to.

I would say no to this...we don't need to be awarding your the "Fallen Soldier" award next year.

Has no one rigged up some kind of trigger mechanism for those little tanks? The whole setup is unnecessary, I just need something to safely get the oxygen out of the tank in a semi-directional manner.

[buckeyebrewer]

Got my regulator and diffusion stone from more beer. I buy the O2 tanks from Home Depot for about $10, they are disposable and should go for about 12 batches at 90 sec each. Using without a regulator seems like a Darwin article waiting to be written... When putting on the regulator crack the gas valve open or it is very difficult to thread with the pressure. O2 does wonders promoting fast and very vigorous fermentation -- expect to use a blow off tube.

[AbacusBrewingCo]

Got my regulator and diffusion stone from more beer. I buy the O2 tanks from Home Depot for about $10, they are disposable and should go for about 12 batches at 90 sec each. Using without a regulator seems like a Darwin article waiting to be written... When putting on the regulator crack the gas valve open or it is very difficult to thread with the pressure. O2 does wonders promoting fast and very vigorous fermentation -- expect to use a blow off tube.

thanks! i wound up doing the same myself. i started with the morebeer item; i was listening to an old archive of The Session talking about oxygenating, and morebeer's regulator was a deal of the day at the same time. from there i googled o2 tanks trying to find them with no luck and came here, eventually found them at lowe's. i've been doing 60 second blasts, but with the regulator all the way open and it's gotten me a ton of bubbling.

the first two batches i brewed with it each reached terminal gravity after only about a week! just used it again on a russian imperial stout... the OG on this one was 1.097 so i'm going to need a ton of fermentation to get it down to my target FG.

[Ozwald]

Got my regulator and diffusion stone from more beer. I buy the O2 tanks from Home Depot for about $10, they are disposable and should go for about 12 batches at 90 sec each. Using without a regulator seems like a Darwin article waiting to be written... When putting on the regulator crack the gas valve open or it is very difficult to thread with the pressure. O2 does wonders promoting fast and very vigorous fermentation -- expect to use a blow off tube.

thanks! i wound up doing the same myself. i started with the morebeer item; i was listening to an old archive of The Session talking about oxygenating, and morebeer's regulator was a deal of the day at the same time. from there i googled o2 tanks trying to find them with no luck and came here, eventually found them at lowe's. i've been doing 60 second blasts, but with the regulator all the way open and it's gotten me a ton of bubbling.

the first two batches i brewed with it each reached terminal gravity after only about a week! just used it again on a russian imperial stout... the OG on this one was 1.097 so i'm going to need a ton of fermentation to get it down to my target FG.

Remember the goal is to get the O2 into the wort. If you're blasting it that hard, most of it isn't getting absorbed, but bubbling out the top. Try leaving it on instead of in bursts, but at the lowest flow rate possible. You'll get more O2 into the wort & make your tank last a lot longer at the same time.

[AbacusBrewingCo]

great suggestion, thanks! do i remember hearing something about a second dose of o2 for high gravity beers? the russian imperial i just did last night was an OG of 1.097

[adamK]

great suggestion, thanks! do i remember hearing something about a second dose of o2 for high gravity beers? the russian imperial i just did last night was an OG of 1.097

You can give it a second dose on lagers and bigger beers if they are slow to start. Once any sign of fermentation begins, though, do not add more O2. When I brew lagers or big beers, I will often pitch and oxygenate at night. If they haven't started by morning, I may hit them with a second bit of O2. I haven't had the need for a second hit of O2 on the bigger beers, though. The big ales seem to start within 6-12 hrs provided I pitched enough yeast. Lagers are a different story, though.

Good Luck!

[buckeyebrewer]

Got my regulator and diffusion stone from more beer. I buy the O2 tanks from Home Depot for about $10, they are disposable and should go for about 12 batches at 90 sec each. Using without a regulator seems like a Darwin article waiting to be written... When putting on the regulator crack the gas valve open or it is very difficult to thread with the pressure. O2 does wonders promoting fast and very vigorous fermentation -- expect to use a blow off tube.

thanks! i wound up doing the same myself. i started with the morebeer item; i was listening to an old archive of The Session talking about oxygenating, and morebeer's regulator was a deal of the day at the same time. from there i googled o2 tanks trying to find them with no luck and came here, eventually found them at lowe's. i've been doing 60 second blasts, but with the regulator all the way open and it's gotten me a ton of bubbling.

the first two batches i brewed with it each reached terminal gravity after only about a week! just used it again on a russian imperial stout... the OG on this one was 1.097 so i'm going to need a ton of fermentation to get it down to my target FG.

Remember the goal is to get the O2 into the wort. If you're blasting it that hard, most of it isn't getting absorbed, but bubbling out the top. Try leaving it on instead of in bursts, but at the lowest flow rate possible. You'll get more O2 into the wort & make your tank last a lot longer at the same time.

I will try throttling back a little more as well on the next batch to conserve the tank. I have also seen my fermentation activity go quick, never lagging more than a few hours and large vigorous krausen since I started using this a couple of years back.