Wort Aeration

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Oddity

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After my first attempt at brewing flopped, I tried to troubleshoot it. I think that the reason my first batch bombed was that I didn't aerate the wort enough before I pitched the yeast.

So my question is this; how do you know if your wort has enough air in it?

Side question: Places like Home Depot sell paint mixers that you stick in a drill to mix your paint. If one sterilized the mixing bit beforehand, could you use it to aerate your wort?

Any advice would be really appreciated.
 
It depends on what you mean by "flopped". If the beer came out really horrendous tasting, I would doubt it would be an aeration problem. Aerating will certainly help your yeast finish the beer out and get you closer to a desired FG, but not aerating "enough" shouldn't make horrible beer.

It sounds like you might have something else going on.

To answer your question more directly though...

I have an oxygen diffusion stone that I use and I simply hit my cooled wort with that for about 30-60 seconds. Before owning my stone, I would add my wort into my carboys through a large funnel and stainer... and would purposely be kind of rough with it... and then give it a few good shakes once in the carboys.


... but like I was saying... I wouldn't think lackluster aeration would cause a really bad beer.
 
I pour my wort through a strainer into my fermenter. Then, since I do partial boils, I shake up my top up water really well to get air into it. Then I finish up with a good stir. Never have any aeration problems.

+1 on it being something else unless "flopped" means your ferment stalled or had a long lag time.
 
Which could also be attributed to under-pitching, which is more likely anyway.

Which is basically the same thing. If you use a big enough starter, you don't even have to aerate. Aeration is to help your yeast increase it's cell count after pitching. Making a started is to increase cell count before pitching. Not enough aeration is the same as underpitching in the end.
 
Which could also be attributed to under-pitching, which is more likely anyway.

As well as temperature control, high temps will produce more esters. Under-pitching along with poor temperature control will definitely have an impact on flavor, I learned this during my first brew.

I used a vial of WL550 pitched it without a starter, and just let the fermenter sit in the corner of my home for 7 days @ ~75°. Beer turned out pretty nasty, it got a little better with age, but by far the only bad beer I have produced.
 
I've used liquid yeast on my last three brews and never used a starter. They've come out great so far.
 
Side question: Places like Home Depot sell paint mixers that you stick in a drill to mix your paint. If one sterilized the mixing bit beforehand, could you use it to aerate your wort?

These "squirrel mixers" work very well for aeration...just be sure its sanitized well and dont make a mess :mug:
 
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