Aerate Wort?

Some say yes, some no. What are the pros and cons? Thanks!

There are no "cons". The wort should be aerated before pitching yeast, as the yeast uses oxygen to reproduce.

Of course, after fermentation begins the beer should never be aerated, but then it's "beer", not wort.

Yooper said:

There are no "cons". The wort should be aerated before pitching yeast, as the yeast uses oxygen to reproduce.

Of course, after fermentation begins the beer should never be aerated, but then it's "beer", not wort.

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Well there is one con. Shaking that full carboy for 2-3 minutes makes me arms tired

Just say yes.

As Yooper already mentioned, prior to pitching the yeast, you should aerate/oxygenate the wort so that the yeast can reproduce... How you give them the oxygen is up to you. Some use the pour into primary, splashing like a mother. Others shake the living snot out of the fermenter before pitching. Then there's others that use a pure O2 setup and get more oxygen into the wort in <60 seconds than you could with extensive shaking, use of a pump (still with ambient air), running from a ball valve, etc. The pure O2 setup has extra benefits of being very little physical effort on our part, plus takes such a small amount of time. There is a limit to how much oxygen you can infuse into the wort without using pure O2. For most moderate gravity (and lower) brews, that's not an issue. Try to brew something bigger and you'll want more than you can get that way.

I've been using the pure O2 method for some time now and have been really enjoying it. I picked up a regulator with a flow meter (made for oxygen) that I should be able to use with my next batch. I simply need the fitting to connect it up to the tubing that runs to the air stone wand. Once I have that in place, I'll actually see how many liters per minute I'm sending into the wort. THEN I'll be able to properly oxygenate my batches to a higher level of precision. No more guessing about how much I'm giving it. :rockin:

There are some people who say you should underaerate when using weizen and Belgian strains because it creates a more stressful environment which results in more esters. That's usually said at a much larger scale than what we brew as homebrewers where they are testing the aeration and know exactly how much is necessary for a proper fermentation and the appropriate level of esters. Personally I have not had problems using either weizen or Belgian strains and having sufficient esters but then again I'm not using pure O2 to aerate.

When using brett as a primary fermentation strain you do not want to aerate very much, if at all. Too much oxygen can cause brett cells to burst.

For all other yeasts you should be aerating. Probably much more than you think you should.