Oxygenation lag time

[mhermetz]

So I have 3 brews under my belt with my new O2 system, Disposable tank and stone. The o2 seems to be having the opposite affect on my fermentation. It has a 2-3 day lag time, and it takes much longer to ferment. On average it takes about 7 days to reach my FG.

I aerate for a min, swirling the wand around the carboy. My last batches have all been the same beer because I'm trying to dial in the recipe. Other then having more unwanted Esters it seems fine (It may be temp control too). So is this a problem or RDWHAHB?

 

[BobOki]

What yeasts are you using? Are you doing starters? If dry are you rehydrating before hand?

 

[mhermetz]

What yeasts are you using? Are you doing starters? If dry are you rehydrating before hand?

No Starters. S-05 and rehydrating at 80F.
I just use tap water to hydrate too.

 

[BobOki]

My S-05 tends to start faster when I ferment at 65-70f. What temps are you doing your fermentation at?

 

[mhermetz]

64-66f

 

[BobOki]

Sounds like you got most things covered, my S-05 kicks in within 1-2 days, so yours does sound late. Let see what any of the actual brewers with smarts here say about this.

 

[BobOki]

Bump to get this guy some more feedback. I am now invested in what you skilled brewers think about this too now

 

[Pkrd]

No Starters. S-05 and rehydrating at 80F.
I just use tap water to hydrate too.

You don't need to aerate dry yeast.

 

[WrQth]

How were you aerating before the o2 setup? Every time I've used dry yeast, not even re-hydrated nottingham US05 S04, I've seen activity within 24hrs with just an aquarium pump .5 micron stone for 20 minutes with temps of 64-68f. As Pkrd said dry don't need aerated/oxygenated wort since they already have the energy stores for a fair amount of reproduction.

 

[kombat]

You don't need to aerate dry yeast.

It also doesn't hurt. And in my experience, the one time I *didn't* aerate with dry yeast, the yeast got horribly stressed and the resulting beer was a banana-bomb. I dumped it.

It never hurts to aerate. Make it a regular part of your routine.

 

[mhermetz]

Before my 02 setup I just overpitched my dry yeast. 1.5 packs. Before that I shook the carboy for 10min. I really hand no issues with either method, I'm doing the 02 more for convenience, and over pitching was only viable on clean beers. I couldn't do that with wheat beers and expect a good beer.

You may not "need" to aerate dry yeast to make beer, but it definitively creates a better beer in my opinion. Not based off my beer... based off those in my Homebrew club, one of which was Canadian Homebrewer of the year. So he must be doing something right. It just seems weird everyone else but me seems to have there beers take off in under 12 hours.

 

[WrQth]

Do you know what the flow rate of your o2 setup is? 60 Seconds may not be enough depending on your flow rate.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

When I first started aerating (O2 wand) I had a similar experience - increased lag time. At that time I got some feedback that the increased lag could be the yeast taking longer in their growth phase to use up the extra O2. I can't say for sure if that is true or not but my brews have more consistently hit their FG since I started aerating. With really big beers (>1.100) I even re-aerate 12 hours after pitching.