Did I aerate the wort correctly?

So i did my first batch of beer last night. Think it turned out okay. I rehydrated the yeast about an hour before and cooled my wort as quickly as possible. I poured it into my primary fermenter, added the yeast, and closed. I then shook it up for maybe 10 seconds.

After reading a bit online though I am thinking this may not be enough. It is bubbling nicely through the airlock 12 hours in, but should I try and shake it up a bit more?

I wouldn't. You're well on your way, yeast chugging along, leave it alone, apparently what you did was enough.

With my first brew I didnt even shake it, just because I didnt know to, and it worked out just fine.

As much as you shouldn't use the airlock to judge your fermentation...if it's bubbling you're fine. Next brew you might want to take a sanitized spoon and try to aerate it a little bit more before you seal the lid.

However, sounds like it's going well and you'll have your first home brew to drink in just a few weeks!

Dry yeast does not require aeration. Liquid on the other hand requires a lot.

Like mac said, although lack of bubbling, or rate of bubbling or stopped bubbling is not a good gauge of fermentation, you do have bubbling, which means everything is fine and the beer is fermenting.

The only problem you have is first time brewer's nerves, which some of us call Noobitus. Your job is done, and now the yeast is in charge, and is doing what they're soul purpose in life is to do. They have been doing it for 45 million years, so they are pros at this.

So all you have to do now is relax and step away from your fermenter for at least 10 days...since many of us opt for a month long primary instead of a secondary, we just pitch our yeast and walk away for 3-4 weeks.

But right now, you don't have to do anything, because nothing whatsoever is wrong, with your beer anyway...you on the other hand.

So,

Revvy said:

Like mac said, although lack of bubbling, or rate of bubbling or stopped bubbling is not a good gauge of fermentation, you do have bubbling, which means everything is fine and the beer is fermenting.

The only problem you have is first time brewer's nerves, which some of us call Noobitus. Your job is done, and now the yeast is in charge, and is doing what they're soul purpose in life is to do. They have been doing it for 45 million years, so they are pros at this.

So all you have to do now is relax and step away from your fermenter for at least 10 days...since many of us opt for a month long primary instead of a secondary, we just pitch our yeast and walk away for 3-4 weeks.

But right now, you don't have to do anything, because nothing whatsoever is wrong, with your beer anyway...you on the other hand.

So,

Click to expand...

Hahahahaha....okay fair enough. I thought I was coming down with something as the weather has been all over the place.

But since you brought it up why would you leave it in the primary for 3-4 weeks rather than rack to secondary. As I have never done this before I would love to use my carboy to start second batch immediately if this is something you would recommend. I am doing a Bass Ale clone (Brass Ale from Midwest) if this helps with your recommendation.

Thanks!

wstcstwil said:

Hahahahaha....okay fair enough. I thought I was coming down with something as the weather has been all over the place.

But since you brought it up why would you leave it in the primary for 3-4 weeks rather than rack to secondary. As I have never done this before I would love to use my carboy to start second batch immediately if this is something you would recommend. I am doing a Bass Ale clone (Brass Ale from Midwest) if this helps with your recommendation.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Well actually you don;t have to look to far in this beginners section to find the 100's of threads discussing this...it's a daily topic, but i'll give you the pat answer I give 10 times a day...but if you want more just look through the beginners section and you'll find it...

You will find that many of us leave our beers in primary for 3-4 weeks and only secondary if we are adding fruit or oak, or to dry hop (though many of us dry hop in primary now as well)....and we have found our beer vastly improved by letting the beer stay in contact with the yeast.

Leaving it in primary for a month with allow the yeast to clean up after itself, and it will compress the yeast cake, which will make for extremely clear and crisp tasting beer.

I have had the term "Jewell-like appearance and clarity" applied to some of my beers from BJCP judges in contests.

There's been a big shift in brewing consciousness in the last few years where many of us believe that yeast is a good thing, and besides just fermenting the beer, that they are fastidious creatures who go back and clean up any by products created by themselves during fermentation, which may lead to off flavors.

Rather than the yeast being the cause of off flavors, it is now looked at by many of us, that they will if left alone actually remove those off flavors, and make for clearer and cleaner tasting beers.

Even John Palmer talks about this in How To Bew;

How To Brew said:

Leaving an ale beer in the primary fermentor for a total of 2-3 weeks (instead of just the one week most canned kits recommend), will provide time for the conditioning reactions and improve the beer. This extra time will also let more sediment settle out before bottling, resulting in a clearer beer and easier pouring. And, three weeks in the primary fermentor is usually not enough time for off-flavors to occur.

Click to expand...

John Palmer

As a final note on this subject, I should mention that by brewing with healthy yeast in a well-prepared wort, many experienced brewers, myself included, have been able to leave a beer in the primary fermenter for several months without any evidence of autolysis.

Click to expand...

This is where the most up to date brewing wisdom and ideas can be found...In fact a lot of stuff has been started on here, and made it into byo or zymurgy or podcasts...in fact BYO DID a piece on no secondary/long primary, along with the BASIC BREWING PODCAST and even they said that there were no issues/harm with doing it and in some beers it did actually improve the flavor and clarity. And I believe that really WAS influenced by the discussion we have had for the last couple years on here.

If you want more info just look for the "How long can I leave my beer in primary" or "Long Primary" or "No secondary" threads which are probably right on the same page as this thread is.

At the risk of starting a riot, I respectfully disagree with wildwest. I'm still a rookie but everything I read says aeration is important whether it's dry yeast or liquid. As for the amount, more is better - the brewmaster at Ballast Point gave a class recently suggested that if you were using the shaking method, when it feels like your arm is ready to fall off, you are about half way there. He was being a bit facetious but his point was that the more O2 in the wert, the less stress on the yeast & the less chance of off flavors.

However, to the OP, as Revvy usually says, RDWHAHB, you will still make beer

LarryC said:

At the risk of starting a riot, I respectfully disagree with wildwest. I'm still a rookie but everything I read says aeration is important whether it's dry yeast or liquid. As for the amount, more is better - the brewmaster at Ballast Point gave a class recently suggested that if you were using the shaking method, when it feels like your arm is ready to fall off, you are about half way there. He was being a bit facetious but his point was that the more O2 in the wert, the less stress on the yeast & the less chance of off flavors.

However, to the OP, as Revvy usually says, RDWHAHB, you will still make beer

Click to expand...

Actually Wildwest is partially right...Danstar on their website does state for their yeast that aeration is not necessary, however fermentis says for their yeast to aerate. THere are a few threads discussing this.

But my take is, Danstar yeast tend to suffer the 1.020 or 1.030 curses, even when you aerate, so I tend to take it with a grain of salt...and since I use Fermentis (safale) I still aerate...and even if I did use danstar's product I will still aerate....aerate won't hurt even if Danstar feels it's not necessary.

I aerate all my beers, I was just pointing out it's not as crucial for dry yeast, some mfg's say it's totally unnecessary. A little reassurance for the op.