To stir or not to stir

I'm new to brewing and even newer to all grain (2 batches deep), but am kind of confused about stirring and adding o2 to the wort. I initially confused fly sparing with batch sparing and never stirred after adding the sparge water so I figured that part out, but at what point is introducing oxygen to the wort a bad thing? When is it good?

Yeast need O2 to do their thing and the more you cand get into the cool wort (not hot) the better. I have an air pump that I use along with a Steel stone ... my problem is I get to much foam with the stone. That my cue to stop the air. Now the geeks out there can tell you ppm in disolved solid but I don't bother. I do a lot of thing that they read about but never report that they did. So, to end it more O2 you can get into your cool wort the better.

You want to oxygenate after the boil and before you pitch the yeast. When I batch sparge I drain the mash water (or wort I guess at this point) into my boil pot first and start to heat that, then add sparge water, stir the heck out of it, let it sit for another ten minutes and then drain that into the boil kettle.

dudebrews said:

I'm new to brewing and even newer to all grain (2 batches deep), but am kind of confused about stirring and adding o2 to the wort. I initially confused fly sparing with batch sparing and never stirred after adding the sparge water so I figured that part out, but at what point is introducing oxygen to the wort a bad thing? When is it good?

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Nothing done until AFTER the boil. Boiling removes the oxygen that you want to add back in afterward when pitching yeast. You can shake the fermenter, stir it, pump in air, or pump in O2. The more O2 you get into solution before adding yeast and your airlock, the quicker your fermentation take off and initial yeast propagation prior to beginning the alcohol conversion process.

Thanks for the quick responses!