Olive Oil?

I read about using EVOO in the Wort rather than aerating before fermentation. I did a search here and it looks like it was discussed at one time but all the information is "dated."

Is the Olive Oil a good idea or bad? Anybody still do it?

There was a recent thread on this. On a large scale its worth doing but on a small scale its very impractical.

I read about this in another thread and was thinking of making a small extra bottle of wort next time I do a starter batch and trying not to aerate it at all and trying olive oil in it and seeing how it goes.

Do NOT put olive oil in your wort!

In short, this was a test done to test the effects on yeast cell production if put in olive oil prior to pitching. This was to be done in lieu of oxygenation. I don't remember the exact science behind it. The experiment was done in a large scale brewery. It is probably aplicable when dealing with large amounts of wort and large amounts of yeast. Not so much for us.

I think several people have tried it and said its not worth the effort.

Once again, the olive oil does NOT go into the wort. You will ruin your beer.

You will ruin your beer.

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False. I just put 20 microliters in 5 gallons, had an extremely vigorous fermentation, and my beer tastes fine. At that concentration, you won't harm the yeast, and I can wholeheartedly assure you that there's absolutely no way you would ever be able to taste 20 uL in 5 gallons...ever.

It did a good job I guess. Will I do it again? Probably not, because it's too much trouble for me to get my digital pipette out, put on a fresh tip, blah blah blah.

Edcculus said:

Do NOT put olive oil in your wort!

In short, this was a test done to test the effects on yeast cell production if put in olive oil prior to pitching. This was to be done in lieu of oxygenation. I don't remember the exact science behind it. The experiment was done in a large scale brewery. It is probably aplicable when dealing with large amounts of wort and large amounts of yeast. Not so much for us.

I think several people have tried it and said its not worth the effort.

Once again, the olive oil does NOT go into the wort. You will ruin your beer.

Click to expand...

+1

Several people have ruined there beer on here...Why? Because they didn't understand the principles of brewing to begin with...

one person on here even thought "Well if one drop works, a tablespoon must work better." AND this was their first batch.


My take on this is that if you don't have several batches under your belt, and understand brewing the "normal" way, understand the science of brewing and have your process nailed down solid...you really need to work on that stuff long before you start fraking around with experiments and theories like these, especially when the conclusion by the experts is that it pretty much not worth doing even on a commercial scale and is not really that transferable to small batches either...

If you are worried about not introducing enough O2 before you pitch your yeast. Get a welder's oxygen bottle for 10 bucks at the hardware store, and oreder an airstone oxygenation system from your lhbs...

2 minutes abd you are fine...

Sounds like the safe thing to do. That's what I'll do.

Thanks,
Ron

Edcculus said:

Do NOT put olive oil in your wort!

In short, this was a test done to test the effects on yeast cell production if put in olive oil prior to pitching. This was to be done in lieu of oxygenation. I don't remember the exact science behind it. The experiment was done in a large scale brewery. It is probably aplicable when dealing with large amounts of wort and large amounts of yeast. Not so much for us.

I think several people have tried it and said its not worth the effort.

Once again, the olive oil does NOT go into the wort. You will ruin your beer.

Click to expand...

ummm. mine turned out great.

I stripped one of those bread twisty ties down to the bare wire...about a 1/2 inch. Dipped it into some EVOO and swirled it into the wort. I repeated for the second 5-gallon bucket (This was a 10-gallon batch).

Fermentation was rapid, vigorous and thorough.

The problem for most people is they cannot conceive of how little is needed to do the job. A drop is too much. A teaspoon is just killing your beer.

Dip a very thin wire about 1/4-1/2 inch into the oil and then dip it into you wort.

You will not ruin your beer.

I can't remember off the top of my head but I think it was brewcrazy. Ok so it was Brewcrazy show 34 and i think they said that they would add a drop to a gallon of boiling water to break that drop up. They added a few drop from that gallon to their starter so that the yeast cells had strong cell walls and would be able to reproduce more efficiently IIRC. Check it out for yourself. Brew CrAzY Show List - Beer Podcast - Brewcast - Beercast - Webcast

there was an article on this in BYO earlier this summer iirc it was reccomending the wire film in your starter only not your wort. icbw tho : still to much trouble for me

The study I read: Olive Oil Addition to Yeast as anAlternative to Wort Aeration

Olive oil was never meant to be used in the actual beer. It was an alternative to aerating. The purpose was to find an alternative to aeration, not to increase yeast activity. The thought is that on a high scale level, oxygenating the wort could cause off flavors (even though it is tried and true). Olive oil was used in yeast storage, not directly in the wort.