Wort Aeration

[CrazyPelican]

Planning to startup a new 3 BBL brewery and plan to use the In-line Micro Oxygenation System from GW Kent to aerate the wort in-line between the heat exchanger and the fermenter. My question is how much oxygen is needed/used to aerate a 3 BBL batch of beer? I've seen that approximately 8 ppm dissolved oxygen is appropriate for lower gravity beers, but what does that amount to in volume or weight of oxygen? How big of a cylinder of O2 do we need to get? Also, is food-grade oxygen appropriate or is a higher grade required?

Thanks,
CrazyPelican

[TL Services]

"ppm" is mg/litre, so if you work out how many litres you have in your brew size, then multiply the answer by 8 you'll have the amount in mg, based on an intended 8mg/litre (ppm). Divide that by 1000 and you'll have grammes.

You will have to allow that any system is never 100% efficient in delivering all the gas into solution; this will depend to a great extent on the actual design. GW Kent may be able to give you some guidance on things.

Ideally you need either a way to measure (a) mass-flow of oxygen or (b) actual wort oxygenation level, to be certain the numbers are right.

[Matt Dog]

One note about the GW Kent setup. I used one for years and it does work well, but there are about 4-6 O-rings in that setup. To me that became a hassle to break down and clean and I switched back to a "traditional" TC STone to Tee for ease of inspection and cleaning.

[dick murton]

If you know the flow rate of the wort, and the and pressure of the gas, whether oxygen or compressed air should you go that route, you can work out the total volume and the flow rate of gas required. Not as accurate as a meter, but for a small setup, the most viable commercially

[BFBC]

I work at a 15BBL production facility. We have a 100# oxygen cylinder and brew about 2000-2300 barrels per year. We've had 1 100# oxygen tank last over 2 years without a problem. That may help give you an idea...

[CrazyPelican]

Thanks for all the responses - this helps out a lot!

What is a "traditional" TC STone to Tee setup and is this a "DIY" setup or can it be bought somewhere, and if so where?

Also, anyone know if it matters what type of O2 is used? We planned to get a cylinder of "food-grade" O2 from a supplier like AirGas, but I had a sales rep. from NuCO2 tell me that there is a difference between "food-grade" and "beverage-grade", and that less than "beverage-grade" may affect the fermentation (of course in this case he was talking about CO2).

[BDL]

The "traditional" setup matt dog was talking about, is having your wort flow in to a tri-clamp "T", do a 90 degree turn and exit to your fermentor. then from the other open connection on the T, hook a carb/oxygen stone, with a tri-clamp connection. That was the wort flows past small bubbles of air/oxygen on its way to the tank.


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hope my crude drawing makes sense

[CrazyPelican]

Nice "keyboard" art! That explains it well - thanks!