Oxygenating Wort

Professional breweries diffuse/inject oxygen into the wort as it travels from the heat exchanger (cooling device) to the fermentation tank.  The purpose of this is to effectively fuel the yeast so that it is more effective during fermentation.  It allows the yeast to ferment more quickly, at lower temperatures, and convert a significantly higher percent of the total sugars in the wort (high attenuation). 

I was able to get a very small tank and a high PSI regulator from a local gas and welding supply store.  This method uses the Oxygen very slowly, so a small tank is a good idea.  I attached a line to the regulator and reduced it down to the size where I could hose clamp a basketball inflator needle in the end.

For my first two beers which used oxygen I injected it directly through the inflating needle into the tube directly before the fermentor.    I used a slow bubble for both.  The first beer began fermentation at 68F and reached a gravity of 1.004 within 7 days!  This is too dry for most people and needs more body to be a balanced beer.  The next beer reached 1.005 within its first week.  My target Final Gravity for both brews was around 1.011 and without oxygen should have been relatively accurate.  It should also be noted that these two brews have approximately 1% extra alcohol...

For the next oxygen-massaged beer I intend to increase the unfermentable sugars and use a minute amount of oxygen for half of the beer as it flows to the fermentor so that it will ferment healthily and maintain some body (FG approx.=1.010).

This is definitely a useful tool and I'll let you know what the optimal situation for me turns out to be.