I bought one to use with my conicals as it seems I’m not getting the wort oxygenated enough . Kinda hard to shake a 14 gl conny.
What setting do you use to get the O2 to proper amounts?
Also what grade of O2? industrial? medical?
Any other tips/tricks with this thing?
Thanks,
Sj
Use pure, food-grade oxygen w/ 5 micron filter
A few yrs ago when Low DO hit the scene, I recall that medical O2 included some sort of anti-bacterial in the mix that shouldn’t be used because it could inhibit yeast growth. I cannot confirm nor deny but I seem to recall that tidbit.
I also recall never to use industrial O2 but don’t recall why. Impurities I think.
How to Brew pg 96:
Regulate Flow: Turn on the oxygen and adjust the regulator to a very low flow rate, typically 1 Liter per minute.
Oxygenate: Submerge the stone completely and let the oxygen run for about 60 seconds for a standard gravity batch:
30 Sec ≈ 5.1 ppm
60 Sec ≈ 9.2 ppm
120 Sec ≈ 14.1 ppm
Since I deal with wastewater aeration basin design, I can tell you that the depth at which your air or oxygen is injected into the liquid does influence how much oxygen is transferred into the liquid. Be sure to insert your stone as deep as possible into the fermenter. Alternatively, insert your stone in the discharge hose after your chiller and have a long hose so that there’s more oxygen contact and transfer time before dumping into the fermenter. A slow, fine stream of bubbles is what you’re looking for. Blasting with big bubbles, just runs the oxygen through the wort and out of the fermenter.
I aerate my wort in a relatively unorthodox way. I fill my conical from the top rather than the bottom and use a piece of copper tubing with a bunch of holes drilled in it at the end of the filling tubing coming from my plate chiller. It sucks in atmospheric air through the holes when the wort runs through it, gets enough oxygen into the wort, and works well for me. I know some will say that I am risking the potential of introducing bacteria into the beer, but with a healthy starter, the yeast will win the battle and crowd out any potential bacterial contamination issues. I have been doing this for years with no adverse effects and it i cheaper than buying a stone and food grade O2. My lag time is around 5-6 hours.
I have also read from yeast suppliers that when using dry yeast, you should not need much, if any, aeration since the yeast cells have built up enough sterols in the cell walls for reproduction before they go through the drying process.
If you want to aerate rather than oxygenate, a Mix Stir wine degasser is highly effective and inexpensive. I’ve used one for years and highly recommend it.
Dwain, are your ppm calculations based on 1 L/min? The Blichmann is adjustable, and I’m looking for the equation for variable flow rates. I’m sure stone pore size will affect the final concentration as well.
Thank you all for the great tips/insight.
I do fill my Connie’s from the top and try to splash as much as possible.
I am using, what I consider a generous amount of dry yeast, the comment about dry yeast having enough 02 is interesting.
Yes I need to make a starter. No question.
I brew the cask ale for a small brew pub so I work closely with the head brewer and he has never used a starter because of course he uses a brick of yeast 
I’ll ask what he does for O2 but pretty sure I’ve seen a tank in the brewery so…
Yes, more contact so stone at the bottom of inline for sure, thanks for the reminder
.
Most ppl use the O2 tanks from the hardware store so Ill start there and go on fromthere.
Thanks all for the info,
I’m brewing monday so ill post back .
Sue
The reason you aerate/oxygenate is that the yeast uses the O2 to synthesize sterols, which keep cell walls flexible to encourage budding. In dry yeast production, growth is stopped during the sterol production phase. That means the yeast already has all the sterols it needs or can use.
A starter for dry yeast is pretty much unnecessary and can actually weaken the yeast. Since you have so much yeast and so little wort, the yeast is unable to rebuild its FAN reserves.
Medical grade Oxygen requires a prescription and is much more expensive. Go to any industrial gas supply and they will sell you a tank. As with CO2 you “buy” the tank and replace it your next fill, so the first purchase will be expensive but worth it. I used the small O2 tanks that you can purchase at box stores like Lowe’s and this is much cheaper and I believe proovides better oxygneation with the O2 wand. I talked with tech support ( prior to their sale to MoreBeer ) and they advised me 1.5 liter for 60-70 seconds on my 7 gal conical and 2 min on my 12 gal conical. When doing the larger conical I stir virogoursly to help the wort stabilize across the tank in temperature as I always have trouble with the temperature gradient in the larger concical staying consistent until fermentation starts mixing the beer. Of course make sure to sanitze prior to use–I flow a bit of O2 through the wand while submerged in StarScan. Once I had a slow fermentation on a “big beer” ( probably under pitched ) and on day 2 gave it a 30 sec shot and it went down to FG with no issues.
Agree with Greg. Oxygen can’t really have other stuff mixed with it since its a strong oxidizer. The industrial stuff is what I use.
Normally I use liquid yeast, but oxygenating and starters with dry yeast hasn’t hurt me yet and I’m happy with the results
I know that theoretically making a starter with dry yeast doesn’t make sense for the reasons you stated, but it does decrease the lag time. That’s really the only reason I do it. I also oxygenate with dry yeast, but I’m generally using it in high gravity beers or lagers.
I like to know my yeast is getting to work fast and the LODO stuff I generally practice on the hotside has minimal time for potential staling. I can’t say for sure if it does anything, but it’s built into my process and easy enough for me to do
Oxygenation with dry yeast won’t hurt, but it won’t help either. Making a starter may decrease lag (which doesn’t matter unless it’s excessive), but you’re stressing the yeast. That’s science, which of course doesn’t mean you can’t do whatever you like.
We used to use pure medical oxygen fo more than twenty years. While the gas wasn’t that expensive, the rent for the tank was.(They don’t fill just any untested tank around here and charge nearly 200 bucks per year)
For the last 5 or so years, we used a air pump i reused from a large inkjet printer… it just generates more pressure, than the aquarium pumps i have tested. Between the pump and the stainless stone, i installed a 5 micron filter. We submerge the stone to the bottom of the fermenter, as soon as it’s 50-75% full. This means about 10-15 minutes.
The resulting fermentations and yeast multiplications are comparable with the oxygen method.(5 minutes with the same stone)
I guess I disagree with this and I believe Fermentis has addressed this in the past, meaning they see no reason why it wouldn’t work in the right conditions. It can stress the yeast, but only in so far as the starter is not done properly. A properly made starter will build biomass, if needed, and will typically reduce the lag time. The key is not to let the yeast deplete all the sugars in the starter prior to pitching or cold crashing, this is also true for liquid yeast starters. It may also be necessary to aerate the beer at pitch when making a starter from dry yeast and treat it like a liquid yeast at that point, low oxygen at this point could be a stressor to the yeast.
I also want to point out re-pitching is commonly done with dry yeast after the initial fermentation and aeration is recommended by yeast manufacturers for any re-pitching of yeast. Old ideas about dry yeast have changed over the years and I believe this is one of them. I make starters from dry yeast regularly with great results and it saves me a lot of money.