110L Oxygen tank & 0.5 lpm regulator:

[Dr Jacoby]

Here's my set-up using the 1 Litre bottle from Wholesale Welding (which was delivered in 2 days). I bought the regulator from a crowd in England (delivered in 3 days using Parcel Motel). The aeration wand is from Williams Brewing (a friend brought that back from America for me). The tubing is 5mm internal diameter (from B&Q). The barb on the regulator is 4mm. I'll need a jubilee clip to fix the tubing onto the regulator; it's a pretty loose connection as is. The regulator is not actually attached to the bottle in this pic.

[Dr Jacoby]

Free shipping on this flow meter. Very good price.

To find the best deals, use ebay.com (not .ie), search for "oxygen flow meter" and select "price + shipping: lowest first".

[Hop Bomb]

Looks good!


1. Hop Bomb:    01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
2. McGrath        02 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
3. Ciderhead     01 x Oxy bottle, 01 x Regulator (You can never have enough ;-))
4. Shiny             01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
5. Rossa            01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
6. imark             01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
7. Damofto       01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator


Anyone else want in on the GB? Id like to get it wrapped up soon as Ive a lot of brewing to do when the new malt comes.

[Blackbrew]

me!

1. Hop Bomb:    01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
2. McGrath        02 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
3. Ciderhead     01 x Oxy bottle, 01 x Regulator (You can never have enough ;-))
4. Shiny             01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
5. Rossa            01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
6. imark             01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
7. Damofto       01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
8. Blackbrew     01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator

[Dr Jacoby]

Simple guide to building and using an oxygenation system

Before going through all the detail it's worth noting that a few of us have been working on this for a while now (special thanks to Hop Bomb, Ciderhead and Will_D for helping to move everything forward). We originally thought oxygen would be too expensive and difficult to source to make it worthwhile, but Ciderhead discovered that Wholesale Welding Ltd sell reasonably priced oxygen bottles and Will_D explained how these smaller bottles (which most of us had written off as not containing enough oxygen) actually had enough to oxygenate roughly 110 brews. It's been a great group effort to make all this possible, and extra kudos go to Hop Bomb for securing a fantastic group buy discount. Nice work lads!


Components

1. One Litre Oxy Turbo Bottle
    - sourced from Wholesale Welding Supplies
    - €19.50 group buy price
    - pressurised to 110 bar.

2. Oxy Turbo Regulator
    - sourced from Wholesale Welding Supplies
    - €23.00 group buy price
    - only fits oxy turbo bottles
    - the outlet barb is 4mm in diameter

3. Aeration Stone
    - widely available (e.g. Hop & Grape)
    - approximate cost will be €15 but if you look you should be able to get a better price
    - .5 micron works best but 2 micron will work fine too (thanks to Ciderhead for advice on this front)
    - easy to use if attached to an aeration wand that can extend to the bottom of the vessel (e.g. Williams Brewing system).
    - if you can't get a wand, you could use a keg dip tube as a frame for your tubing (idea courtesy of HopBomb).
    - I think the barb on these stones is generally 5mm or 6mm

4. Tubing
    - 5mm internal diameter tubing will do the trick
    - I got mine in B&Q. It doesn't need to be rated for high pressures
    - I can't remember how much I paid but it wasn't more than €3

5. Flow Meter
    - you need a flow meter that can be adjusted to 0.5 - 2 litres per minute
    - the flow meter goes inline between the regulator and the aeration stone
    - I paid just under €12 for mine (shipping was free from China)
    - for the cheapest option, use the following search:
      a) go to ebay.com (not ebay.ie)
      b) search for "oxygen flow meter"
      c) filter the results by selecting "price + shipping: lowest first"


Total Cost

The approximate cost for the entire set-up is likely to be something along the following lines (I'm rounding everything up for caution's sake):
- Oxy turbo bottle - €22.00
- Regulator           - €25.00
- Air Stone            - €15.00
- Tubing                - €3.00? (I can't remember how much I paid but it was pretty cheap PVC tubing)
- Flow Meter         - €15.00

Total approximate cost (not including P&P): €80.00
This will cover you for roughly 110 brews (and more depending on what technique you use - see below).


Oxygen Requirements for Brewing Beer

Most beers are ideally oxygenated in the 8ppm - 15ppm range. The most you'll get into wort by shaking is about 8ppm, which roughly corresponds to the level of oxygen in the atmosphere. In Chris White's book Yeast (he's the owner of White Labs), the ideal injection rate for pure oxygen in a 1.077 wort is 1 litre per minute. This is the most efficient way to achieve the required 8-15ppm. For a weaker wort, say 1.040, and using the same flow rate of 1 litre per minute, you would only need about 40 seconds to achieve the same oxygen levels. If you decide to inject the oxygen at 0.5 litres per minute, you would need to double the injection time (i.e. 2 minutes for a 1.077 wort and roughly 80 seconds for a 1.040 wort). You get the idea...

These calculations assume that you have a way of controlling the flow rate. For this you must use a flow meter. If you do not, you will have no easy way to tell exactly how much oxygen is flowing through the regulator, which operates via a valve that has no built in gauge. I don't know enough about how oxygen behaves in a pressurized container to say how you might accurately estimate the level of oxygen being injected into a beer without a flow meter, but maybe somebody else does?

Please note that if you exceed the recommended upper limit of 15ppm in a medium strength wort you risk harming the yeast. Oxygen becomes toxic to yeast at higher levels. For very strong worts (say above 1.077) you can probably get away with slightly higher levels, but don't push it!


How to Oxygenate Wort

Once you have cooled your wort to pitching temperature there are two main methods of oxygenation.

1. The simple injection method
    - boil your air stone for a few minutes and sanitise the attached wand (if using)
    - open the regulator to release the oxygen (do this before submerging the air stone to ensure it doesn't flood with wort).
    - force the air stone to the bottom of your fermentation vessel
    - keep a close eye on a timer to ensure you don't over-oxygenate the wort
    - if lots of bubbles break on the wort surface turn down the flow rate. These bubbles should burst inside the liquid.
    - lift the air stone out
    - close the regulator (only do this when the air stone is out of the wort to ensure that no wort seeps inside)
    - rinse and boil the air stone to keep it clean and sanitary

2. The combined shake and inject method
    - if your are stingy you might want to aerate the wort prior to topping up from you precious oxygen bottle
    - shake the fermentation vessel vigorously to achieve roughly 7 or 8ppm
    - complete the first 3 steps in the simple injection method
    - top up the wort with a quick burst of oxygen (i.e. reduce the injection time by at least 2 thirds)
    - follow the final three steps of the simple injection method


Safety Message

Please be very careful when using pure oxygen. It is highly flammable and if ignited will burn furiously. It should go without saying, but don't use it anywhere near a naked flame (or any other kind of flame for that matter  )


Ps. If anyone on the publishing team wants to throw this up on the wiki, go for it. Though if there are any suggestions for improvements, which I'm sure there will be, it might be better to wait a while and see what emerges.

[Jacob]

1. Hop Bomb:    01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
2. McGrath         02 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
3. Ciderhead     01 x Oxy bottle, 01 x Regulator (You can never have enough ;-))
4. Shiny             01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
5. Rossa            01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
6. imark             01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
7. Damofto        01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
8. Blackbrew     01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator
9. Jacob            01 x oxy bottle , 01 x regulator

[Rossa]

Nice one Peter.

[Ciderhead]

but Hop Bomb discovered that Wholesale Welding Ltd sell reasonably priced oxygen bottles and Will_D explained how these smaller bottles (which most of us had written off as not containing enough oxygen) actually had enough to oxygenate roughly 110 brews. It's been a great group effort to make all this possible,

cough, chopped liver 

[Dr Jacoby]

Ooops 

Tis a long thread and I was foggy on the details. Guided updated.

[Ciderhead]

Ooops 

Tis a long thread and I was foggy on the details. Guided updated.

Pulling your leg, nice post

[Ciderhead]

For now Im just gauging interest for a potential group buy on the oxygen & regulators. If you think you might want to buy a tank & regulator stick your name below.

Do we want to turn this into a GB?

[Hop Bomb]

Yeah. Looks like 9 buyers is the final number. Il make a thread in the members forum now.

[christhebrewer]

Can I get in on this? Make it an even 10?

[christhebrewer]

ok

[christhebrewer]

Done.