Big screw up?

I brewed a batch of extract ( my first) last week and aerated before the wort had cooled. In fact, I tried to use it as a way to cool it. I read later that this creates oxidation. Anyone ever do this and have anything drinkable come out? Everything else has gone ok and it is settling out now. Thanks!

Relax and have a homebrew. Oxidation depends on the timing. Aerating your wort is actually a good thing in the beginning as it gives the yeast a plentiful supply of oxygen to consume all of those malt sugars. It really only becomes an issue after the fermentation is complete. When the yeasts have done their job and you're ready to bottle or keg your beer, you want to disturb it as little as possible to avoid introducing oxygen to your finished beer. Avoid sloshing or mixing air into your beer while bottling/kegging and you can avoid oxidation problems. If the beer does wind up oxidized, it'll taste like wet leather or cardboard.

Awesome, thanks! I'll let you know how it turns out in a few weeks!

Yeah, I've seen youtube videos of guys dunking their wort chillers in and out of the pot as a methods of cooling faster and I wondered about oxidation too. They seem to know what they're doing.

I believe the OP is concerned about HSA, which in and of itself won't cause any off flavors, but it might reduce shelf life quality.

I think what he's talking about is hot side oxidation and I thought that was supposed to be real bad juju. Here's a good read on oxidation: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Oxidation where they specifically talk about hot side oxidation as well as the rest of it.

Ok do quick update. Racked to secondary today. Everything smelled and looked ok. Quick taste was ok, a dry pale ale, which it was supposed to be. Maybe I avoided trouble. Do you think it would be a apparent at this point? Thanks for all of the info. The hot side aeration was my original concern.

I would not be too concerned with HSA. I think it was one of those things that scientifically on a commercial basis is proven possible, but in reality rarely happens. The more we learn the more we are changing, everyone used secondaries 15 years ago. BIAB, a home brewing invention. It certainly isn't going to ruin your beer.

Agreed. I've never had an oxidation issue when transferring hot wort from my stove to the secondary. I'd be more concerned about sanitation procedures if someone is using an airstone (or other means of aerating your wort) that wasn't sanitized properly than introducing air to the beer prior to fermentation.