Whisking your wort

I have found a beautiful method to aerate my wort on the cheap. The other night when I was making my yeast starter for a 10 gallon batch of French Country Ale, I was trying to figure a new way to aerate wort, to get the yeast started since I'm presently challenged with maintaining adequate starter temp (70-75).

I had used my whisk to incorporate the DME and water, and had this great revelation of using it aerate my starter once it was cooled, and ready for the yeast to be pitched into the vessel.

Searching thru threads I have found several instances where brewers are using a sanititzed whisk to aerate their wort. This is an extremely inexpensive alternative to an aearation stone, and is likely more effective then, simpy stirring with a paddle, or shaking the wort.

The hot tip of the day, doing it on the cheap is: consider using a whisk as a cost effective solution for aeration. I realize, that whisking will make bubbles big, and small, but in the end, I think you'll enjoy great aeration.

I use a whisk with the handle jammed down the chuck of my corded 1/2" drill. OH the bubbles!

Just to head off the obvious questions, this tip works for folks that use buckets for a primary but whisks generally come in sizes that are too big to put in a carboy.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, that's good stuff. Never thought about that technique. Seems like you'd have a better control on sanitation that you would an aquarium pump. That's what I was going to try next, but it just didn't sit well with me. Those aerator "stones" used for aquariums are really cheap and they break easily. Just ask my 3 year old. I'd hate to leave some of that stuff in the fermenting batch for two weeks. I know the "shake the bucket" method of aeration just doesn't work.

"Whisking the wort..."

Hmm.. I feared this thread would be about treating your body like an amusement park.

Ol' Grog said:

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, that's good stuff. Never thought about that technique. Seems like you'd have a better control on sanitation that you would an aquarium pump. That's what I was going to try next, but it just didn't sit well with me. Those aerator "stones" used for aquariums are really cheap and they break easily. Just ask my 3 year old. I'd hate to leave some of that stuff in the fermenting batch for two weeks. I know the "shake the bucket" method of aeration just doesn't work.

Click to expand...

What do you mean, "leave some of that stuff in the fermenting batch for 2 weeks"?

The aeration kit I got from AHS has an air pump, hepa filter, and and aeration stone on the end of a long vinyl tube. The only part that goes into the wort is stone and tubing, and even then, it's only for an hour at most. Then, it's back into the star san. I just got an aeration kit, and it seems to work really well---especially since most of my primary vessels are glass carboys, and whisking isn't feasible.

I was talking about the "stone" that you'd get at Walmart over at the fish section. I'm too dang cheap to buy an actual aerator stone. From what I've read, some have had good results using the fish stone, they just throw it away after using it because if you go to cleaning it, it will fall apart.