Aeration and need to cool wort and pitch fast

Newbie question. Much of the brewing discussion stresses the importance of cooling the wort quickly and getting the yeast pitched fast to prevent contamination. But as I get more and more involved, im reading about the importance of aeration and hear of people aerating their cooled wort for as long as 30-40 minutes. These too concepts seem inconsistent. Can you pitch, then aerate?

 

Their is several different methods and ideologies when it comes to this question. Personally, I pitch the yeast in my bucket place the lid on tight and shake it up while carrying it to the dark closet where it will sit for the next few weeks. I have never had an issue.

Honestly, I think until you do a little bit more research and see what works for you the best thing to concentrate on is making sure the wort is at proper pitching temps.

Oh also, if you think 30 mins is a long time you should research the no chilling method. People let the wort cool down naturally overnight before pitching the yeast.

 

I'll be the one to start the never ending cooling fast and aeration debate.
First cooling fast: This was the way when I first started 6 years ago."If you don't cool lightning fast you're practically guaranteed an infection".Now many including myself either do no chill or chill to around 100 deg to lock in hop bitterness at a specific temp.Then pitch the next day as the temp naturally drops to pitch temp.

Aeration: Ive aerated the crap out of the wort and completely forgot.I get the same result either way and I'm not convinced it makes a bit of difference if you pitch the correct amount of yeast.

 

I don't go out my way to aerate the wort. I bought a Hydra wort chiller and that thing is a beast.

 

You could, of course, but don't. Yeast will end up stuck to the sides along where your foam line reached.

Aerate, then pitch.

The main reason I try to cool my wort quickly is because I want my hop oils to stay put and not isomeritize or whatever. If you put in a 5 minute addition and then fail to cool your wort below a certain level for another 30 minutes you have effectively turned your 5 minute addition into a 35 minute addition. I found this out the bitter way one time when I tried to do a no chill. It was still a good wheat, but it was bitter as hell and had little aroma if any.

 

So, too small of a sample size to be sure but if there is a concensus its "Relax. Don't worry. Have a homebrew". And don't worry about a delay between my wort being cooled and pitching.

 

I started this hobby doing lots of reading and got myself into a panic about chilling quickly to avoid infection and the dreaded chill-haze.

20 batches on, I'm not convinced that fast chilling is that important in the grand scheme of things. The decision to chill quickly or not is made based on how much time I have, not so much on how it will affect the beer.

Small batches I just shake the glass growler for oxygenation because it's easy to do and no reason not to. Larger batches I bring out the electric drill, takes 5 mins including sanitising / cleanup, cost nothing. To be honest I haven't brewed enough to form an opinion on whether oxygenation is worthwhile or not, but since it's such an easy task I'm happy to continue doing it in order to remove one potential (real or percieved) trouble point from the process.

 

The major reason for chilling fast is to stop the isomerization of the hop oils which will give more bitterness and less flavor from late additions. If your recipe only calls for a 60 minute addition the fast cooling won't be necessary. It's a problem when your recipe calls for a 5 minute addition for flavor and aroma and the slow cooling turns that addition into a bittering addition instead of flavor and aroma. Once the wort cools below about 170F the isomerization of the hop oils pretty much stops but you would still drive off aromatic oils. To get those in the beer you would have to dry hop.