Constant aeration at beginning of fermentation?

After reading the info on the Wyeast website about aeration (Wyeast Laboratories : Home Enthusiasts : Brewers : Technical Information : Oxygenation), I got to thinking about how to better use the aquarium pump I have to try to hit the equivalent of 10ppm dissolved O2 that is supposedly ideal.

My idea was to keep the aquarium pump (using sanitary filter and stone) running during the first few hours of fermentation, so that as O2 is consumed by the yeast it is replaced constantly. I know I can't be very precise with this method, but I hear it is pretty hard to overdo it with air as opposed to pure O2.

The motivation is to try to improve attenuation on higher gravity beers. I will be doing a few things differently next time, and this is the only one of which I'm unsure of the benefit, if any.

I'm not opposed to using pure O2, but it's just one more thing that I'd rather not plunk down cash for.

Any opinions or advice would be welcome.

Thanks

You could, but it would need to be shut off as soon as the respiration phase is complete...which might be hard to monitor.

In my opinion, I think it is unnecessary.

I've found that shaking it up REALLY REALLY well and pitching a good starter is all that's necessary. Seal the carboy and shake the heck out it. Put it on its side and roll it, shake it sideways, etc. I've had a lot more problems with too crazy a fermentation than too little. Blown my blowoff tube off several times, and overflowed a gallon bucket of san solution.

Seems like it would work.

If this olive oil thing works half as well as I've been told, I'm done shaking and aerating for life.

llazy_llama said:

If this olive oil thing works half as well as I've been told, I'm done shaking and aerating for life.

Click to expand...

Ahh, that's right. I'm going to give that a shot in my starter for the next brew as well.

I'm planning on doing it in the actual beer. When we're done, we should compare what we came up with and see if/how it works.