Aeration and Oxygenation

We now have two nice carboys of heavenly nectar. Just a few more steps and we're done. For the yeast to multiply and consume the sugars that results in fermentation, we need to give the yeasties some food. They love oxygen. We use pure 02 which is available in any hardware store. This is exactaly the same oxygen as the containers homebrew suppliers sell with a different label. Don't spend the big bucks because some supplier says theirs is "Food Grade", gimmie a break, oxygen is oxygen. Same as CO2 is CO2.

Here's Steve, adding the pure O2 using the setup I bought from St. Pats in Texas. Cost about $30 if I remember correctly. It consists of a small vinyl hose and a nice stainless steel "air stone". This is a small piece of metal with hundreds of microscopic holes that cause the O2 to flow in very tiny bubbles, thoroughly saturating the wort very quickly. You just need to buy your own O2 canister. I like to give each carboy a 30 second blast on full throttle. I have experimented and determined this to be the ideal time for our process. Your time may vary. But don't use more than about 60 seconds in any case, you will just be wasting O2. You should get a very nice head of foam by doing this. There are anti-foaming products out there, but I have never seen the need for them either. To each his own though. This aeration of the wort can also be done with a stone of some sort and an inexpensive aquarium pump with some sort of filter on the air outlet.