• Welcome to the new forum! We upgraded our forum software with a host of new boards, capabilities and features. It is also more secure.
    Jump in and join the conversation! You can learn more about the upgrade and new features here.

Oxygen wand viability

TAHammerton

Grandmaster Brewer
Joined
Apr 4, 2014
Messages
178
Reaction score
0
Location
Wellsboro, PA
So in the latest installment of my comedy of errors I lost the metal aeration stone and wand whilst adding oxygen to my Baltic Porter. The thing just shot out of the pvc tube and into the carboy. Having no way to retrieve it I just left it there.

That was 3 weeks ago and now the Porter is in the keg and I have retrieved the wand. It looks remarkably clean, but was fully submersed for 3 weeks. I have wiped it down with oxyclean and it is currently sitting in a bucket of Star San.

So my question is can I use it for the Red rye I am brewing on Sat. night or am I just going to contaminate the wort. Should I throw it away or is there any chance of recovery?
 
So in the latest installment of my comedy of errors I lost the metal aeration stone and wand whilst adding oxygen to my Baltic Porter. The thing just shot out of the pvc tube and into the carboy. Having no way to retrieve it I just left it there.

That was 3 weeks ago and now the Porter is in the keg and I have retrieved the wand. It looks remarkably clean, but was fully submersed for 3 weeks. I have wiped it down with oxyclean and it is currently sitting in a bucket of Star San.

So my question is can I use it for the Red rye I am brewing on Sat. night or am I just going to contaminate the wort. Should I throw it away or is there any chance of recovery?
 
When you oxygenate do you leave the wand in the carboy till its done bubbling after you shut off the gas. I used to do the same, but now I pull it out running.  When you leave it in the ss tube backfills thru the stone and stays there and dries and clogs the pores on the stone. My experience was clogged by honey.  I had the same thing happen but mine wasn't in a carboy at the time.  I stuck the wand and stone in a tall pot of boiling water for like 15 minutes, blew it out with o2, turn off gas, and let it boil for another 15 minutes or so.  Now I stick it in hot water every time, blast some o2, stir it around in the hot water again, wrap the stone in foil and its never clogged again.    and clean the tube real good
 
Rinse it lightly and soak it in PBW or Oxyclean over night. Then *gently* push some water through it. There will be a lot of resistance, so go slow. You can occasionally wipe off the stone with a paper towel, which will help remove very small particles.

Then run O2 through it for 2 minutes. Not hard, just a nice easy, low flow. Concentrated O2 is a powerful sterilant. After that, soak in Star San for 15 minutes and it's ready to be used.

O2 and CO2 stones in larger breweries are subject to being submerged in fermented and finished beer, all the time. They get cleaned and carry on.
 
(I wish the two threads could be merged...)

I basically do what KC does, though I don't use boiling water... except for when I first got the stone to clean it out and also after it was clogged by StarSan. Yep, StarSan. In my case, just leaving the stone in SS for a little while without running air through it (I use an aquarium-style pump with an inline HEPA filter) caused it to clog. I still sani it with SS, but now I'm sure to keep the pump running the entire time the stone is in the sani. To clean it, I just keep the air running and run it under hot water for a minute, then keep the air running once I remove it from the hot water stream until there are no more bubbles forming on the stone. This has worked perfectly for 20+ brews ever since, and no infections.

The stones in our brite tanks never see water over 160dF (granted, they do get cleaned with brewery-grade caustic and acid), and a only a brief contact with sanitizer via CIP, but at least in my tenure, nothing has been infected in the brites. Earlier in the process... yeah, maybe :) Bottom line is that you can salvage and safely use your stone going forward.
 
Sorry for duplicate post. Internet issues.

Brewfun said on the other thread:

"Rinse it lightly and soak it in PBW or Oxyclean over night. Then *gently* push some water through it. There will be a lot of resistance, so go slow. You can occasionally wipe off the stone with a paper towel, which will help remove very small particles.

Then run O2 through it for 2 minutes. Not hard, just a nice easy, low flow. Concentrated O2 is a powerful sterilant. After that, soak in Star San for 15 minutes and it's ready to be used.

O2 and CO2 stones in larger breweries are subject to being submerged in fermented and finished beer, all the time. They get cleaned and carry on."
 
Ok, thanks for the posts - sorry I posted topic twice.

My issue is not that the stone sat in beer for 3 weeks - that is normal part of commercial process. The whole tube went in so the beer and yeast got inside the tube on the "wrong" side of the stone. There is no way to blow that stuff out - every time I use it it is pushing whatever went down the tube further into the stone. So I can imagine dead yeast hulls on the inside of my stone. Should I be worried about that or will sterilising the wand every time negate any potential problems?

By the way the reason I got in this pickle is by sanitising the wand by putting in boiling wort at the end of the boil. Next time it will be in water only.
 
Back
Top