Two stage fermentation in Carboys

Brewing processes and methods. How to brew using extract, partial or all-grain. Tips and tricks.

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wouldy
Light Lager
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Two stage fermentation in Carboys

Post by wouldy »

I have recently purchased a 6.5 gallon carboy for my primary fermenter and was explaining to my wife why I needed it and came upon a question. How do I aerate the beer once it is in the carboy with out using fancy equiptment? She says that I should put the wort in a bucket for eight hours after pitching yeast and aerating with a spoon or wisk and then transfering to the carboy. This sounds like just one more step to allow contamination during an uneccessary transfer to me, but I can't figure out how to aerate the wort once in the carboy. Any advice would be appriciated.

Constantly suffering,
Wouldy
BillyBock
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There's This Method

Post by BillyBock »

What your wife suggests would work and it would give the wort a chance to drop out the cold break. But like you said, I'd be nervous about buggers eating my wort.

Aeration without fancy equipment....you could do the 'rock the carboy' method. Put the airlock on the carboy and place it on the floor. Place a towel under the carboy. Then while you sit on the floor with the carboy between your legs, rock it back and forth.

Another method would be when filling the carboy, place your transfer tube just inside the mouth of the carboy so the wort falls a great distance and splashes.

Homebrew stores also sell inexpensive gadgets that go on the end of transfer tubes to spray/aerate your wort.

This is all I can think of without knowing your brewing methods. Hope it helps.

v/r
Bill
jayhawk
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Some tricks

Post by jayhawk »

I transfer my wort from kettle to fermenter (bucket and/or carboy) via a gravity powered counterflow chiller, and use a couple different methods to (cheaply/crudely) aerate the wort.

1) I put a few pin holes in to the plastic tube that carries wort from the outlet of the chiller to the fermenter. As the cooled wort passes by the holes, it draws air bubbles in to the line and aerates the wort. This method is hit and miss though. For some reason the holes seem stop working after a batch or two, and I need to prick a couple fresh holes through the tube to get air flow. Also, make sure that you not create to large of a hole or too many holes as the siphon effect will be rendered useless because of the presence of the large hole in the tube.

2)As the fermenter fills, I stop flow in to the vessel temporarily and shake the hell out of the wort that is inside the partially filled fermenter. I find this method easier as I am shaking small amounts of wort frequently, as opposed to one large amount for an extended period of time, which would be the case if I let the fermenter fill and then started to aerate by shaking.

If you batch size permits, you could buy a large funnel and simply pour the wort from kettle to carboy, thereby allowing it to splash around as it enters the carboy. This was my first ever technique, but now my boil volume is too large to allow for lifting and pouring of the kettle (plus I use a counterflow chiller).

Good luck
Chris
wouldy
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How long?

Post by wouldy »

If I aerate the wort as i fill the primary, how long is too long to leave it sitting before pitching the yeast? Should it be soon to stop whatever may grow on the oxygen? I'm sure best case senario would be directly after, but am just curious if aerated wort is in danger until yeast is pitched?
BillyBock
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If It Were Me....

Post by BillyBock »

Wouldy: If it were me, I'd pitch the yeast as soon as possible. Lately, I've been adding the yeast to the fermenter first and then filling it.
jayhawk
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Me too

Post by jayhawk »

I pitch as soon as possible, usually after filling the fermenter. But pitching as you fill is a good idea too. Maybe I will do that for today's batch if I remember.
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