Aeration

How do you aerate your wort?

Admittedly I'm a bit lazy - I usually let it splash into the fermenter and then shake the fermenter for a few minutes before I top it off and pitch the yeast.

I've never had problems with this method, but I was wondering if anyone had a better idea short of hooking up oxygen.

Cheers!
Brad

I was a Splash-n-Shake brewer up until my last batch. I finally broke down and bought an aeration system from HBA. It was a little over $20 with a 10% discount. The O2 bottle is about $5 or so from a hardware store.

My last batch was a porter fermented with steam yeast and an OG of 1.068; predicted FG was 1.020. I aerated with the setup for about 30 seconds, pitched the yeast, and let things progress as normal.

I didn't have a terribly active fermentation (so I thought), but it carried on for at least a week before the churning in the wort died down. After 10 days in primary, I racked to secondary, and took a gravity reading... 1.014   I wasn't expecting that at all. At first I thought there was some sort of infection, but the FG is stable. It was my healthiest fermentation yet, and I attribute it solely to the use of pure O2.

Splash-n-Shake works, but man, it takes a toll on your back. I'll never abandon pure O2... never

I use an aquarium pump, but only because I can't get a cheap oxygen system here. Hopefully I'll be able to afford one soon, and then I'll join the big boys!

I do it like cmbrougham with an oxygen kit from Northern Brewer and a hardware store O2 bottle.

Honestly, with all grain brewing and pitching copious quantities of yeast, I haven't noticed any differences from the aerated batches to the ones that I don't aerate.  I always use oxygen to aerate my starters though.

Cheers!