Aerating the Wort

So I just finished brewing my first batch the other day. I had read that it is important to aerate the wort, but I was unsure at which point in the process to do it. I ended up pitching my yeast and then shaking the fermenter for a minute or two. I think I was supposed to aerate the wort before pitching the yeast??

I'm not too worried about it because its fermenting really well but I was just wondering if there is a reason to aerate before pitching the yeast or if it really doesn't matter? It was dry yeast if that means anything as well.

In general it wouldn't matter much. Generally people aerate before pitching, but in it really doesn't matter much IMHO. Especially since you used dry yeast. At by doing it your way, the yeast granuals got mixed in and likely didn't clump up.

For most beers, aeration of the wort is as simple as pouring the wort into the primary fermenter.

OK, that's what I was thinking. The wort went through the funnel all the way down to the bottom of carboy so it was probably aerated enough. Again, it's fermenting fine so I'm not worried about it

This video explains some aeration stuff, but it mostly applies to liquid yeast as I understood it.

Yet again why I use US-05 for most everything.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/user/NorthernBrewerTV#p/u/45/75gpehf_6Gk[/ame]

edited to add video

no vid attached...

Aerating wort is probably the single most important thing you can do to ensure a fast and complete ferment. A properly aerated wort can easily go from brew kettle to beer mug in 7-8 days even with 1.080 or more original gravity. Yeast need and want LOTS of O2 during their aerobic phase and without it they limp along the whole time. I just finished as in finished drinking a 5 gallon 1.084 brew that was brewed on the 10th of this month! Get a stone and an oxygen bottle or fish tank pump and do it right.