Beer Forum

I'm just wondering how people store their stainless oxygen stones. Currently after I use one I drop it in a bucket of PBW and let it soak for a day, then rinse and boil for 10 minutes to remove any trapped wort or PBW . After a day or two of drying I put it in a ziplock bag. I know they can be difficult to sanitize so my thought is once clean, store it in a small container ( baby food jar or something ) of star san that way it's sanitized and ready to use on brew day. Can anyone think of a reason this is a bad idea?

I rinse, then boil mine for about 15-20 min immediately after use being sure not to touch it with my fingers ( the oils can clog the holes, I use a sanitized piece of foil for this). I let it quickly air dry, then store it in a small dish until boiling for use again. I once stored my stone in a ziplock bag after I thought it was dry and when I went to use it again I found that it had some weird dark stains on it almost rust-like. Have not done that since.

I wish someone with a disolved O2 meter would run a side by side between stone and no stone. I suspect that in 5-10 gallon batches that 10-12ppm O2 happens pretty quick either way. Probably in a larger fermentor where the bubbles are traveling several feet to reach the surface, tiny bubbles might make a difference.

I know it's not really in line with the topic, but where do most folks get O2 from? I recently purchased an O2 stone and haven't had the opportunity to use it yet. Nor have I acquired O2.

I buy them from Home Depot. Red cylinders for about 6-8 bucks IIRC.

Any good hardware store will have the small red tanks, as mentioned, usually less than $10 a bottle

my hardware store told me benzomatic (the little red bottles) is no longer making them. They decided that it is not worth it anymore. I think i grabbed the last one at my local HD. I think Worthington still makes them for lowes.

bazookazilla wrote:I know it's not really in line with the topic, but where do most folks get O2 from? I recently purchased an O2 stone and haven't had the opportunity to use it yet. Nor have I acquired O2.

I get my from welding gas store, Airgas, same place i get my CO2. I used to use enriched air(only 50% O2) from a SCUBA shop.