Olive Oil Aeration?

Has anyone ever tried the tooth pick in the olive oil jedi trick?

Source here:

Why you should add Olive Oil to your Homebrew « speak, it ain’t illegal yet

There has been some discussion on this in the past:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/using-olive-oil-instead-oxygen-47872/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/thesis-olive-oil-aeration-method-57627/

I have only done this with starters and noticed substantial yeast growth. The olive oil provides sterols necessary for cellular growth.

I know others have done this in the fermenters and reported vigorous fermentations.

Not worth it, IMO. I'll stick with good ole oxygen.

Well, I'm Italian so I thought wow, two of my favorite things! It must work!

not sure I'd use a wood toothpick, it is hard to ensure wood is sanitized. The BYO article awhile back suggested a tiny loop in a length of fine gauge wire IIRC.

Not this again....

Warning to the new brewer

Before it progresses any further, once again I am going to add a Caveat to any n00b lurkers that any discussion which is to follow is just a theory. The process is just a theory as well, one that has little practical use to the homebrewer...there are plenty of better ways for us to get enough air into our beer, including an O2 bottle, aquarium pump, stirring with a slotted spoon, shaking, etc....

Please don't do like one of your predecesors on this forum who on their very first batch decided that he would try it based on one of these threads, and SINCE in his mind, that if 1 drop worked, a half bottle must work better....

Then of course posted an is my beer ruined thread....and forgot to mention for like an entire day's troubleshooting between several of us that he had dumped several TBS of oil in his beer.

The people who have attempted this successfully are experienced brewers, who understand the fermentation process...

Please if you are new to brewing, and don't understand the process of fermentation, what oxygen does to your wort and yeast, if you're just starting brewing, if you have only a couple beers under your belt...Please pass this thread by, or take it with a grain of salt....You have been warned!


You may proceed with you discussion now...

Ok Revvy, what about this?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-aeration-gadget-68218/

Or how bout just shaking the bejeezus out of the wort chiller once you're down to pitching temps?

RedOctober said:

Ok Revvy, what about this?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-aeration-gadget-68218/

Click to expand...

It's just what it says, a cheap and easy aeration gadget. It's another great and simple way of aerating your wort, without chemicals.

I either use an O2 bottle with an airstone, or a 5 minutes whipping with s slotted spoon.

Some people use a folding paint stirrer hooked up to a drill...



Like I said there's plenty of proven methods to oxygenate your wort.

For those unwilling to read the thread - take a 4" piece of racking cane, put small hole in side. Put this piece in end of racking tube. Rack to primary as normal. Awe at such easy aeration. Pitch yeast. Drink homebrew.

Works on venturi principle. Google it.

RedOctober said:

Ok Revvy, what about this?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-aeration-gadget-68218/

Click to expand...

curtis97322 said:

For those unwilling to read the thread - take a 4" piece of racking cane, put small hole in side. Put this piece in end of racking tube. Rack to primary as normal. Awe at such easy aeration. Pitch yeast. Drink homebrew.

Works on venturi principle. Google it.

Click to expand...

Once I get my autosiphon I'm so doing that with my old racking cane.

This sounds like a real easy thing to do - but now it made me think about how I've been doing things. My primary is a bucket, so I pour the cooled wort from the kettle to the bucket. Then I use sanitized whisk prior to pitching yeast. This part seems to be working for me, but my question is - when I siphon from my primary to secondary, should I be trying to oxygenate again? This would be easy to do with the venturi gadget.

After fermentation you do not want oxygen in your beer, so do not aerate between primary and secondary, try to keep to as little splashing as possible (which is why you siphon instead of pour)

NO... DONT oxygenate after primary. The only time you want oxygen in your wort is when it's... um.. wort and hasn't started fermentation yet. The yeasty beasties need oxygen to multiply at the very beginning of the fermentation process...

Just... dont

Brewing tomorrow and decided to try an olive oil aeration yeast starter yesterday in my 1.2 liter starter. Dipped one tine of sanitized fork in some EVOO and all I can say is wow! I use a stir plate and since my starters are always in motion, I never get a krausen on top of the starter wort. When I got home this afternoon, i found a 2 inch of foam on top of the stater wort!

No olive oil



But I had a small blowoff