Inline Oxygenation Assembly (No Barbs)

Overall I like the idea of the in-line O2 and thermometer. I was actually going to make my own but when I saw this I decided to buy it and give it a try.

I have mine installed after my plate chiller. When using it the diffusion stone must have positive pressure on it or wort will back flow into it and the O2 line. So while recommend only applying O2 part of the time it is really needed all of the time otherwise one will be cleaning the O2 line and perhaps replacing the filter. For mine I actually use an aquarium pump. One note when using the in-line diffusion the wort does not end up foamy which is what happens with "external" systems.

My only complaint with the assembly is that the 304 stainless steel tee fittings are cast fittings and are rather rough. This is true of most, if all off the 304 fittings sold by More Beer. One of the fitting in my system had several spurs that I could not easily remove. More Beer sent a replacement which was great. But in the end I decided to replace them with high quality 316 fittings which are smoother and are easier to clean. However, such fittings (Parker or Swaglok) are expensive so there is a cost trade off.

Works as advertised - installed in a two tier herms, downstream of counterflow 2. I clean in place, keeping in mind that the gas connection will drip during the process. I sanitize with near boiling water circulated through entire system and have never had any issues with contamination.

The thing works as advertised, but I give it a couple of dings.

On the reviews of the units with barbs, one person complained about the difficulty to sanitize the unit, but I disagree. And a pump isn't necessary to clean this (although I have a pump hooked up inline with it). The bottom piece with the diffusion stone is easily unscrewed and boiled, just as one would do with the FE376. Flushing out the rest of the unit is easy and only takes a moment. Then, when you're ready to use it, put the unit (sans the diffusion stone) in some sanitizer. After that, screw in the diffusion stone and hook up your tubing. (While the unit comes with teflon tape on the threads, I don't bother with that and haven't had any leakage problems. After all, you're dealing with minimal pressure.)

The reason I knock it down a couple of points is that wort will enter your oxygen line when you use it. It won't be a lot, but it still requires an extra cleaning step, and it also requires that you set things up so that the wort won't get to your inline air filter. This -- combined with the fact that you're using this while a couple of other things are going on -- makes me question whether it's better than something like the simpler FE376, which you simply use after you have the wort in the fermenter. In addition, even if you have one of these, you might still want to have an FE376 unit to add more oxygen to a high-gravity beer some 12-18 hours after you've first pitched your yeast. This unit can't do that.

Again, the thing works and it's kind of neat to use it, but I think that something like the simpler FE376 unit will probably better serve the needs of most homebrewers just as well.

Love the addition to my system and the ability to add O2 in line. Only issue I have is that the aeration stone will allow wort to backflow into the gas line when oxygen is not flowing. need to take care to assure you clean this out after each brew. Would love to know if there is some way to prevent this from occuring.

This product was a great addition to my home brewery! I was looking for a way to easily inject oxygen into my post chilled wort and this solved that problem along with adding an easy to read thermometer! Easy to install and use.

I installed this Oxygenation Assembly in my All Grain Electric Brewing System so that I could both control the temperature of the wort exiting my plate chiller and at the same time properly oxygenate the cooled wort precisely. The Assembly has been in operation for 2 1/2 years in my CIP (clean in place) System and continues to meet all my expectations without exception.