Best oxygenation kit with aeration wand for home brewing

Making beer is a curiously scientific process.

You have to have the right ingredients. Your boil needs to be at the right temperature and your hop additions done at the right time.

You also need your wort to be properly oxygenated.

The yeast loves oxygen during fermentation. So, if you want your yeast to have the best chances of doing a great job, efficiently and effectively, then using an oxygen kit with an aeration wand is a great way to get some air in your beer!

This is especially true if your beer is going to be a high-gravity beer - these brews will usually have a lower oxygen concentration in the wort when compared to standard beers. Adding extra oxygen will improve the effectiveness of the yeast.

This then begs the question:

What is the best kit to make wort oxygen rich?

Enter the Northern Brewer aeration kit:

Improve the flavor of your homebrew with less effort and impress your friends and family with better results with the Northern Brewer aeration kit. Its use will reduce the 'lag phase' of fermentation and off-flavor-producing fermentation by-products.

It will take less than a minute to infuse the wort with the wand. The kit comes with a valve to attach to an oxygen tank, tubing, aeration want, 0.5 micron air stone, herbie clamp to secure the tubing to the wand.

To be clear, this kit does not come with an oxygen tank, you'll need to source your own.

Here's some reviews and comments from actual user's of Nothern Brewer's kit:

"I sterilized the wand and tubing, put it in my carboy, turned it on and it bubbled up from bottom to the top. I pitched my yeast around 5pm. By 8pm I saw a couple bubbles, by the next morning, it was bubbling like crazy!! I am very glad that I used a blow off tube on my primary!"

"Great starting oxygenation kit! if you're like me and you don't like shaking your carboy for upwards of 20 minutes then you need something like this"

"Used it to oxygenated a chocolate cherry porter and following the instructions for creating more of a "simmer" than a "rolling boil" for 40 seconds I have a healthy fermentation going in under 12 hours.

How long do you oxygenate wort for?

Regardless if you are using a kit or a stone, the total amount of time needed to oxygenate wort can be pretty short - from 30 seconds to a minute for a 20 litre batch. Double the time if you are doing double the volume. 

If you making a higher ABV beer, then you may wish to give it a bit longer. In reality, a standard brew will benefit from a saturation level of 8 - 10pp and a higher ABV brew will benefit from a level closer to 12pp (though as usual with brewers, there's some debate that 15pp is the goal). 

Before you add the wand to the wort, make sure it is properly sanitized.

Can I make my own oxygenation kit?

You sure can, it's a pretty simple process to make your own. You only need a few parts:

• A diffusion stone (actually a stainless steel one at 0.5-micron)
• 1/4 quarter inch tubing
• An oxygen regulator
• Source of oxygen

All you then need to do is connect the diffusion stone to the tubing, the tubing to the regulator and the oxygen bottle.

Pretty easy set up eh?

Final worn on aeration:

While it is very important to ensure your wort is aerated before you pitch your yeast to start fermentation, you do not want to add oxygen post-fermentation completion. This means you should take particular care when moving your fermentation drum and especially when bottling or kegging your beer. 

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Best wort aeration pump systems

The best aeration pumps provide an efficient and inexpensive way to aerate the wort in your primary fermenter.

An aquarium pump forces room air through a properly sanitized tubing. The air is delivered then delivered the wort through a diffusion stone. This promotes rapid absorption into the wort.

So what pumps do this the best?

Smarter brewers than I have worked out that your wort should ideally have an oxygen level of 8 ppm (parts per million) before pitching the yeast.

The reality is that many brewers only achieve between 2.5 - 4.5 ppm if they do not aerate with a pump.

By using this wort aeration system you can probably easily double the oxygenation you might normally be getting.

A brewer who brought this unit on Amazon left this genuine review:

“Works great! Bubbles quite a bit, and foamed out of the top (mainly because I didn't leave enough room), but I didn't have any issues at all. My yeast took off like a bat out of hell when I pitched, which seemed to be better than when I didn't oxygenate in the past. I would highly recommend this to any homebrewer looking to improve fermentation.”

What are you waiting for?

Incomplete fermentation to occur?

Check out the price on Amazon:

Eagle Brewing FE380 Aeration System

The Eagle Aeration System does what you want it to do, quietly and effectively.

Attach the ⅜-inch transfer tubing to the unit and your stone and you will be aerating in no time. 

There’s not much more to say about this unit, it’s basically 'plug and play' once you’ve submerged the stone at the base of the fermenter.

Just bear in mind that the tubing (as with all pumps) will be wound up on arrival due to packaging constraints so you may want to stretch it out a bit so it settles on the bottom of the fermenter.

Check out the price on Amazon:

Using diffusion stones to oxygenate beer wort

Here’s a funny thing we learned.

Diffusion stones are not actually made of stone.

How about that eh?

They are actually made of stainless steel which is added to a porous mold.

They do work a treat in making bubbles get that oxygen into your beer. You’ll want your stone to have a micron level of between .5 to 2 microns. This is pretty standard for brewers.

When using a diffusion stone you’ll want to ensure that you’ve sanitized it in an appropriate sanitization solution (don’t forget the tubing as well!).

I’ve read some punters warn that your hand can leave natural oils on the unit which can then clog it up - I say if you’ve washed your hands prior to use, then you should be fine.

It can be hard to attach a diffusion stone to the tubing. Instead of trying to force it in, place the end of the tubing in some near boiling water for a short time. This should soften the tubing enough so you can insert the stone’s connector part.

When placing your stone in the wort, you want it to get to the bottom of the fermenter, not near the top. If your tubing is a bit curly, you may want to try and straighten it out.

If this continues to be a problem, you may wish to consider using an oxygenation wand which will sit quite nicely in the fermenter, ensuring the oxygen bubbles start at the bottom and filter into the whole wort.

Learn more about oxygen wand kits here!

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When aeration is good but oxygenation is bad

How to properly aerate wort for brewing

While in some ways beer brewing is simply following a recipe but it sure is not like making a cake. There are some many variables at play.

Is the yeast viable?

How much hops do I need to add?

Is my equipment germ-free?

Is the temperature correct?

And on and on.

There's also one more variable that sometimes gets overlooked in the brewing and bottling processes and that's the role that oxygen plays in fermentation.

Oxygen supports yeast growth and effectively then has an influence on the ABV of one's beer so understanding the best way to manage this element will help improve your beer drinking experience.

First up, let's discuss the:

The relationship between yeast and oxygen

The yeast in your beer requires the presence of oxygen so that is can develop new yeast cell walls. The oxygen is used to develop unsaturated fatty acids and sterols, of which the yeast membrane is built.

Good oxygen levels promote strong yeast which in turn means it can handle high alcohol concentrations which means it was last longer and do a better job on your beer.

An efficient yeast means one gets quicker fermentation times and a reduce chance of a stuck fermentation. This also will mean that you will get fewer off flavors in your beer.

The higher the desired ABV, the more oxygen required

We made reference to it above but if you intend to make a high alcohol beer, you need to create an environment where the yeast can handle that - and a strong yeast is key.

At the same time, you are probably intending to pitch your yeast at a higher rate than you would for a 'session beer' so, all things being equal, you'll want to increase the oxygen ready to be used by that yeast.

How to aerate your wort with oxygen 

Before you aerate your wort the first thing to consider is WHEN.

If you aerate when the wort is too hot (this includes being warm) there is a vastly increased change the oxygen will bind to wort particles. 

If this happens, the risk is that over time these compounds will begin to break down, adding the oxygen back into the beer. The harm occurs as the oxygen can tend to oxidize the hop and alcohols.

This can produce 'off flavors' which are often described as being like 'wet or damp cardboard' or sherry like.

How to prevent oxygen from getting into your beer

We discussed above that aeration at hot temperatures is undesirable - so cooling your wort quickly is the best thing you can do.

Using a wort chiller will quickly bring your beer down to the right temperature so you can pitch your yeast but before you pitch, it's the time to oxygenate.

Carboys

If your wort is in a glass carboy, cover the mouth of the carboy with a cap and gently rock the carboy back and forth to encourage oxygenation of the wort. You can do this with a plastic fermenter too. 

Just make sure you have a firm grip!

If you're making a beer with a kit, once you have the kit in (along with hops and brew enhancer) then I fill it up with water from the garden hose. This will easily add plenty of oxygen to the wort. 

Once your beer is in the fermenter and fermentation is to begin, it's pretty simple to keep the oxygen out - you need to ensure the drum or carboy is tightly sealed and that your bubble airlock / air vent has water in it.

Then try not to move it again!

When bottling your beer, a bottling wand and a steady hand will help to prevent aeration. Do not leave your filled bottles uncapped for too long either!



Other tricks for stirring in oxygen:

• Use whisk. Get in there and use some elbow grease
• Use a beer spoon. Not as efficient as a whisk but a strong arm will make some foam
• Add an agitation rod into a drill such as this mixer.
• Use a siphon tube to spray the wort into the fermenter

Whichever agitation method s used, make sure that your implement is clean and sanitized to prevent risk of infection. 

Another great method is to use a pump system for aeration. Check out this instructional video on how to configure the pump.

If using an aquarium fish style pump, you need to make sure the diffusion stone is clean and sanitized and is small enough to fit into the neck of the carboy. The stone also needs to have a small micron level of  between .5 to 2 to ensure lots of gas bubbles are produced.

For best results, aerate your chilled or cool wort for 20-30 minutes.

When racking beer, try not to disturb the beer too much

When you're racking to a secondary fermenter or to your fermenting bucket it's imperative to prevent the liquid from splashing or getting agitated. When using a siphon it's best to keep it smoothly flowing.

Do I have to oxygenate my beer?

No.

You do not need to proactively aerate your beer, fermentation will still occur.

The point of aeration is that you are trying to give the yeast a leg up.

That said, some brewers are known to starve the yeast of oxygen as this assists with the beer profile they desire. This process is called anaerobic fermentation.

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