Adding oxygen to yeast starters?

[Vale71]

You seem to suffer from the delusion that you can somehow control when the yeast will stop working...

Seriously, at 60 hrs it will be long finished unless it was some old, half-dead yeast. Giving it more oxygen so late is not a good idea as it might stimulate metabolism and cause it to deplete its glycogen reserves, which will be much needed come pitching time.

 

[Nate R]

You seem to suffer from the delusion that you can somehow control when the yeast will stop working...

Seriously, at 60 hrs it will be long finished unless it was some old, half-dead yeast. Giving it more oxygen so late is not a good idea as it might stimulate metabolism and cause it to deplete its glycogen reserves, which will be much needed come pitching time.

Well, that and so many, many, many other delusions!
Ok, so no more Oxygen blasts. Done.
I will pull this thing at 48 hours then. That will give it another 32 hours or so of time to spin on the stir plate. No more oxygen blasts.
Thoughts?

 

[CodeSection]

Well, that and so many, many, many other delusions!
Ok, so no more Oxygen blasts. Done.
I will pull this thing at 48 hours then. That will give it another 32 hours or so of time to spin on the stir plate. No more oxygen blasts.
Thoughts?

If the whole point of adding the O2 was to stimulate growth, then why is there a need to stir for 48 hours? If you have concerns, can't you turn off the stir plate and let it settle to see how it is building up?

When I made a starter with Wyeast 1214, I thought it took a long time to build up so it remained on the stir plate for about 48 hours. The yeast wasn't old and I never experienced a starter taking that long. Later after reading different threads, WY 1214 is slow to start.

I thought maybe it was my stir plate as I thought it was struggling. I found out later MB reclassified the starter size it could handle. My Maelstrom I bought earlier in the year is a monster!

FWIW, 48 hours, especially after your three O2 additions seems long too....

 

[Nate R]

If the whole point of adding the O2 was to stimulate growth, then why is there a need to stir for 48 hours? If you have concerns, can't you turn off the stir plate and let it settle to see how it is building up?

When I made a starter with Wyeast 1214, I thought it took a long time to build up so it remained on the stir plate for about 48 hours. The yeast wasn't old and I never experienced a starter taking that long. Later after reading different threads, WY 1214 is slow to start.

I thought maybe it was my stir plate as I thought it was struggling. I found out later MB reclassified the starter size it could handle. My Maelstrom I bought earlier in the year is a monster!

FWIW, 48 hours, especially after your three O2 additions seems long too....

Ahh... I think I see your point- so, one should EITHER: Add Oxygen OR stir for 48 hours?

 

[CodeSection]

Ahh... I think I see your point- so, one should EITHER: Add Oxygen OR stir for 48 hours?

I read your new process and it seems to conflict with your previous process. My point in bringing up my experience with WY 1214 was that I learned it was a slow starter. I had not gone 48 hours on a stir plate before.

Typically, depending when I first start the starter and my work schedule, it is on the stir plate between 24-36 hours. Somewhere in between.... Again, as mentioned in the previous post, I stop the stir plate from spinning and let it settle to see how the starter has built up before deciding to pour off the overbuilt starter and putting both in the refrigerator. YMMV

 

[theQ]

Anybody ever add oxygen to their yeast starters? I know it makes a HUGE difference in turning wort into beer.
Does it make a difference on a yeast starter with a stir plate?

Assuming all best practices for cleaning, sanitizing, etc are followed, will it make a noticeable difference?

My plan is to use a diffusion stone with my food grade oxygen tank. I have more oxygen in there than i can use in a lifetime, so why not? Any potential pitfalls? All i can think of is perhaps more chances of an infection- i.e. more varibles introduced to the process.

I searched titles for this thread and could not find any, so forgive me if this covered somewhere else.

Thanks all!

There is nothing wrong with adding more oxygen but you already have quite a bit of air (nitrogen, oxigen, co2) into your started by using the stir plate.
You are totally overthinking it, tell me you are not a js programmer .


Based on experience even a starter is not needed in the homebrew setup as long as you have a healty and eager pitching yeast. yeah, yeah, I am going to hear the world of it by saying that. My take is focus on water profile, proper yeast and temps(mash in, out, fermentation. The rest really won't make much of a significant difference.

 

[Nate R]

There is nothing wrong with adding more oxygen but you already have quite a bit of air (nitrogen, oxigen, co2) into your started by using the stir plate.
You are totally overthinking it, tell me you are not a js programmer .


Based on experience even a starter is not needed in the homebrew setup as long as you have a healty and eager pitching yeast. yeah, yeah, I am going to hear the world of it by saying that. My take is focus on water profile, proper yeast and temps(mash in, out, fermentation. The rest really won't make much of a significant difference.

I have NO idea what 'js' is... so, no. Not that.

Thanks for the opinions.
And yeah, that's a can o' worms you opened up there!! Lol

 

[CodeSection]

I have NO idea what 'js' is... so, no. Not that.

Thanks for the opinions.
And yeah, that's a can o' worms you opened up there!! Lol

JS=Javascript. Javascript Programmer....

 

[theQ]

Nate! You will be just fine. Let's brew!

 

[Yesfan]

I had some three year old dry yeast (Bry-97) that I was able to revive. I didn't do the continuous oxygen like some of you all are mentioning here. I just hit the starter with o2 for about 60-90 seconds, pitched the yeast, and put on a stir plate for a few days. Had a nice krausen on it by day 3. Like Nate R mentioned, 'oxygen does make a huge difference in turning wort to beer' and that was the approached I had went with. The beer, IPA, turned out pretty good.

With the last two batches, I collected about 1.5-2L of wort from the tun and pitch my (dry) yeast while the wort was heating to a boil in the kettle. By the end of the day, and the wort had chilled down, I'd pitched the starter and seen activity in as little as 5-6hrs. I wonder if hitting the starter with oxygen would reduce that time even further.

 

[Nate R]

Well all, FWIW, I did two 5L starters this way last week. I would say I got a little bit more yeast because of it, but I cannot prove that. I have yet to pitch it, so I cannot provide insight on that, either.
I think I will hit it when I first pitch, then about 4 to 6 hours later with a quick hit going forward.