Lawrence Brewers Guild

Is shaking the carboy good enough? White Labs site says that only achieves 10-30% of desired aeration. I didn't do any aeration on my first Cooper's kit brew, but doing a partial mash tonight and worried I won't get enough O2 in the wort just by shaking. Alternatives?

There are a lot of opinions out there on the "right" way to aerate. You can go as simple as shaking the carboy or as complicated as an inline aeration stone with a tank of O2 and using a dissolved oxygen meter.

I use the aeration set up listed on the page below. All of the items on the page will work to raise your level of dissolved oxygen. To what degree can only be determined by testing with a meter. Something few homebrewers posses.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/aeration.html

I read some threads on aeration over at homebrewtalk.com. I'm going to shake it tonight. Also going to top up the 2.5 gal cold water with the kitchen sink sprayer. Many people said that was good enough - like you said - there are many opinions but not much fact. I may get that system you linked to for my next brew, though - that's the one I've been eyeing.

jboehle wrote:Also going to top up the 2.5 gal cold water with the kitchen sink sprayer.

I'd be a little worried about the sanitation with this. If you do decide to try this method, I would soak it in something first.

Agreed. You may also consider filtering your water in the future to remove chlorine.

Rob Martin wrote:I'd be a little worried about the sanitation with this. If you do decide to try this method, I would soak it in something first.

I did end up scrubbing it down and soaking it in sanitizer first. Hopefully nothing bad got in.

Greenblood wrote:Agreed. You may also consider filtering your water in the future to remove chlorine.

Yes, I think for my next brew I will use filtered water. Trying to keep costs spread out so my sweet wife doesn't pitch a fit.

Even better, filter, then boil it to get rid of chlorine/chloramine and any other nasties.

Oh the joys of going full boils!

http://morebeer.com/

Deal of the day is an aeration pump