I’m running out of improvements to do. SWMBO just bought a new freezer for the house, so I inherited a small chest that I’m using for conditioning, carbing, and lagering.
My next, and probably last for awhile, upgrade is O2.
I have the O2 bottles (little red ones) and have ordered the valve/regulator from B3. Won’t be using a stone, just 1/4" ID tube. I’ll probably oxygenate with the lid on my bucket FV to kind of hold the O2 in the headspace a bit.
How long do those little bottles last?
How much flow do you use and for how long? I was thinking two minutes with bubbles barely reaching surface, not a full open wild bubbling.
I think without the stone the bubbles won’t be fine enough and you’ll burn through a lot of o2.
I want to say I get about 10 batches out of an o2 bottle but I’ve never counted. They last me awhile. But that’s with a stone. I think the ones I have claim to be 20% larger so maybe that helps.
Yeah you’ll want the stone for sure. Without it you’re not going to get much oxygen dissolved into solution. Even if you could get enough dissolved you will not get many batches out of one of those little tanks without one.
The stones are easy enough to care for. All you have to do is boil them. Don’t make a mistake I have made twice now and forget about the pot on the stove.
I only bother using my O2 setup for big beers, and only as an insurance policy as I haven’t noticed any difference compared to my usual splash & shake method of aeration.
I run it full open until I start seeing bubbles, then I back down until the bubbles are just rippling the surface. I go for one second per gravity point (so a 1.090 beer gets 90 seconds, for example).
You’ll definitely need the stone. Check out Williams brewing. They have an 18" length stainless stone. Easier to sanitize (just stick in boil last 20 minutes) and you can move around during oxidation which kinda makes you feel like you are getting more saturation. If you do it right and just trickle it in you can make the red o2 bottle last several batches. Well worth it IMO. With shaking alone you are only getting 4-6 ppms o2 dissolved. With 02 pump you might get 6-8. But to get required 12-15 you need pure 02 (those #2 pulled from my a-- but it’s close.
Haha. Meant to say #s - as in “Numbers”. I still recommend the stainless want from William’s. I’ve had mine for over 10 years now. The fact that its a wand makes it so much better than the little stones.
I’d recommend that you consider the version with the stone already mounted on a stainless wand. It can be problematic to keep the stone down near the bottom of the fermenter when it’s on any sort of plastic hose; they tend to curl around rather than stay near the bottom. Failing the wand-mounted version, you can fabricate your own wand using the inside piece of an auto-siphon; just cut the hose a few inches above the stone and slide it onto the plastic “wand”. You might need to warm the hose to get it to fit.
To get above 8 ppm you need O2. For most beers 8 is fine. The beers I use O2 on are lagers and really big ales.
Recently I stopped using O2 on many of my ales, as they were too clean, lacked esters. Something like a Ordinary Bitter benefits from the complexity that the esters add. Now I just pump into the fermenter, and the pumping adds enough O2 through splashing.
I’m speaking past my pay-grade here, but for your lagers wouldn’t a sufficiently large pitch accomplish the same thing? I’ve only been doing lagers for about a year now and they are improving. Lots to learn.
I don’t know if it necessarily accomplishes the same thing, but I don’t think the extra O2 is necessary for normal gravity lagers, either. Still, it certainly doesn’t hurt as insurance.
What would accomplish the same thing (or at least something similar) is re-aerating about 12-18 hours or so after pitching, which is something I’ve had success with in the past with my high-gravity beers prior to getting an O2 setup.
I use a mix-stir until the foam rises to the top of the bucket - that has to be the max for aeration from standard air. I get solid, consistent fermentations, even on fairly high OG beers. But I do use a couple minutes of O2 through a wand for RIS, Wee Heavy, or Quad. I just don’t think it’s necessary for most beers.
Pretty much so. The purpose of O2 is to allow the yeast to synthesize sterols. They use the sterols to keep cell walls flexible to encourage budding. If you pitch enough yeast that’s not necessary. However, there are consequences to beer flavor from yeast reproduction, so although you might get a fine fermentation from pitching more yeast, you might not end up with the same flavor to the beer.