full boil oxygenation

I am a longtime brewer, probably over 100 batches by now. My brewday is pretty routine and I am long passed noobie mistakes and get consistently good results with my brews. But I have finally got my hands on a large pot so I can do a full wort boil instead of the partial boil I have always done.

My past practice has been to strain the chilled wort through a fine mesh screen strainer. Between that and topping off with tap water, my brews were always well oxygenated to start fermentation quickly.

So my question is strictly related to oxygenating a full boil. Is straining the full boil through a fine screen enough to do the job?? thanks.

It depends.

For dry yeasts, yes, that's more than enough aeration.

For liquid yeast and low-to-medium gravity beers (1.050 or lower), you're probably fine, but a little extra splashing couldn't hurt.

For liquid yeast and high gravity beers or lagers, I wouldn't feel comfortable just relying on the splashing from the screen. I'd recommend an aeration stone or a Fizz-X rod and working up a nice froth before pitching.

kombat said:

It depends.

For dry yeasts, yes, that's more than enough aeration.

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Why would dry yeast need less aeration?



My answer is no. That's not enough, shake it after wards.

Really, you need an oxygen wand...only way to get to the appropriate 8-12ppm DO.

If you're methods are working and you don't want to spend the money....I understand, but if you are looking to improve your fermentations....oxygen wand/stone is a good investment.

TTB said:

Why would dry yeast need less aeration?

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Because it does.

So says the people who make yeast:

I always aerate my wort when using liquid yeast. Do I need to aerate the wort before pitching dry yeast?

No, there is no need to aerate the wort but it does not harm the yeast either. During its aerobic production, dry yeast accumulates sufficient amounts of unsaturated fatty acids and sterols to produce enough biomass in the first stage of fermentation. The only reason to aerate the wort when using wet yeast is to provide the yeast with oxygen so that it can produce sterols and unsaturated fatty acids which are important parts of the cell membrane and therefore essential for biomass production.

If the slurry from dry yeast fermentation is re-pitched from one batch of beer to another, the wort has to be aerated as with any liquid yeast.

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TTB said:

Really, you need an oxygen wand...only way to get to the appropriate 8-12ppm DO.

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Well, of course you don't need an oxygen wand. It's certainly nice and it doesn't hurt, but you don't need it for regular-gravity ales.

One of my favorite craft breweries doesn't do any aeration at all. They just rely on the splashing while pumping from the boil kettle through the chiller into the fermenter. They pitch rehydrated dry yeast. They do 100-gallon batches and they don't use an oxygen wand, and they make great beer.

Besides, I seem to recall reading that oxygen wands can get you up to 40 ppm of dissolved oxygen, but that the yeast only need 8 ppm. The same study also concluded that it is possible to get to 8 ppm just with splashing and shaking. Finally, over-oxygenating is a problem unto itself, and can cause off-flavours in beer, so an oxygen wand is no panacea.

Kombat said: "One of my favorite craft breweries doesn't do any aeration at all."
Source?

I tend to side with Kombat based on my experience. But my feeling is that people brewed for years without technological cheats for things like aeration, and it will be fine for me too.

Splashing and shaking the wort work just fine, but it's a bit more labor intensive than using an air pump or oxygen cylinder.

If I'm doing a "big" beer, I would work harder at making sure to get maximum aeration in the wort especially. For my regular beers, I stir/splash/aerate in the bucket before pitching.

I get a nice big foamy head on the wort before I pitch the yeast. I used to use an aquarium pump and let it run for 30 minutes while I cleaned up, but I have a powerful pump now and it seems like the wort gets aerated very well just by holding the end of the tubing high and having it splash into the fermenter.

bhagen said:

Kombat said: "One of my favorite craft breweries doesn't do any aeration at all."
Source?

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Broadhead Brewing, on Auriga Drive in Ottawa, Ontario.

They add the milled grain and strike water to their mash tun simultaneously. They have a clever system where they spray the grain with the water as it comes down the chute into the tun. They use city water, no water treatment.

They mash, then pump it to the boil kettle and do the boil. They whirlpool then pump it through a plate chiller into a 100 gallon plastic conical fermenter, pouring from the top to facilitate splashing. Then they rehydrate and pitch a scoop of US-05.

Their beer turns out amazing. My favorites are the Wildcard Ale and Underdog Pale Ale, but their Dark Horse Stout and Grindstone Amber are great, too.

Check 'em out if you'd like. Josh Laroque is their "Head Brew Guy." Tell 'em Kevin sent ya.

kombat said:

Broadhead Brewing, on Auriga Drive in Ottawa, Ontario.

They whirlpool then pump it through a plate chiller into a 100 gallon plastic conical fermenter, pouring from the top to facilitate splashing. Then they rehydrate and pitch a scoop of US-05.

Check 'em out if you'd like. Josh Laroque is their "Head Brew Guy." Tell 'em Kevin sent ya.

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If they are "pouring from the top to facilitate splashing" then they are aerating. To say they don't aerate (as was said in an earlier comment) would be wrong, since splashing is done with the intent of adding oxygen to the wort--thus it is simply another form of aeration.

cluckk said:

If they are "pouring from the top to facilitate splashing" then they are aerating. To say they don't aerate (as was said in an earlier comment) would be wrong, since splashing is done with the intent of adding oxygen to the wort--thus it is simply another form of aeration.

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If you're going to quote me, use my full quote:

kombat said:

One of my favorite craft breweries doesn't do any aeration at all. They just rely on the splashing while pumping from the boil kettle through the chiller into the fermenter.

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The context was in the discussion of using an oxygenation wand/stone and a tank of pure O2.