Olive Oil for Yeast

There is a facinating thread going on over at probrewer with regards to using olive oil to oxygenate the yeast prior to pitching and in the wort itself:

http://www.probrewer.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=17419&highlight=olive+oil

Has anyone on the homebrew front tried this? I did a search and did not find anything; seems like a real interesting method for yeast propagation, faster fermentation, and improvements to the taste and mouthfeel.

Thoughts?

I know its been talked about a lot in the past, sure you could find the threads somewhere. I haven't tried it, I'm happy with the results of pure oxygen.

i tried it once and didn't notice anything off about the finished beer. i'll probably try it a few more times in the future, and take better notes. give it a shot and see what happens.

The only objective test I've seen at the homebrew level showed that most people preferred the beer made without the olive oil. IIRC, New Belgium, who firsat worote about the techniques, stopped doing it because they felt it shortened shelf life.

i have done this for 3 batches of my beer, all have had healthy fermentations and reached their target FG. I have read the entire paper writen on this (it was a Master Thesis for a brewing student and conducted at NB) and it is quite interesting, you can find it if you google it. I would recomend this to other homebrewers.

I tried it out after reading the paper a while back...maybe a year ago. Beer tasted find and fermented out normally.

The only problem is that they say it is virtually impossible to measue out and dispense an amount small enough for a typical five gallon homebrewers batch of beer. Something like dipping in a toothpick or something.......it does sound interesting though.

The problem I have with this approach is that it just seems like too much effort.

I have had healthy fermentations and reached target FG for all of my beers, and I've never bothered trying the olive oil thing.

I heard that the olive oil thing was debunked more than a year ago. I don't have links to the details, but someone relayed this to me from last year's AHA convention where it was covered in one of the talks. The bottom line is that olive oil was not a good substitute for aeration with pure O2. I've tried it and it did not harm, but I can't say definitively that there was a benefit either.

I've always used olive oil in my batches and I have consistently healthy fermentation. Been brewing for over 6 years both at home and professionally. From my experience you do not taste the difference between 02 and olive oil. I would actually venture that my lag time is less when using olive oil among the menagerie of other benefits.

I complement aeration with olive oil for high gravity beers. I dip a needle in oil and then in the starter wort, then aerate the wort before pitching. Remember that olive oil adds fatty acids, but not sterols. So, if you add olive oil to the starter you saturate the yeast with fatty acids, so all the oxigen can be used for sterol production. Also, the olive oil is like a backup in case aeration is insufficient. For low gravity beers, aeration alone will definately do the trick.

Catt22 said:

I've tried it and it did not harm, but I can't say definitively that there was a benefit either.

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Very much this...

AZ_IPA said:

The problem I have with this approach is that it just seems like too much effort.

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Right! I mean, try finding a tooth pick and some olive oil.

I get oxy tanks and fish stones free down at the food pantry, and they even supply a gnome that carries it for you, and another gnome to wipe your ass and do your hair for you.