aerating my wort

[sputnam]

just skimmed thru a post about how important aerating is (to some). So, I started my investigating, per usual, and I can find as many that say it's critical as I can that say it's useless. Obviously, commercial brewers NEEEED oxygen. Do homebrewer's NEED it? I'm not convinced, yet. I would love to do an experiment (as I often do) but I don't want

1) another tank and/or regulator
2) another thing that costs over $50
3) another thing to sanitize/clean/store/replace
4) another thing that takes up much room

can someone point me in a direction on how to accomplish this?


I currently pour my wort from boil kettle into a carboy sitting on the floor thru a pasta strainer. There is always at least 3 - 4" of foam, and I usually get first signs of yeast activity in 12 hrs or so.

 

[ruger988]

Plastic mash paddle chucked in a drill. Usually use it for 10 minutes or so while cooling with an immersion chiller. There is no way you can convince me an expensive O2 setup is worth it versus that way at our scale.

 

[BierGut]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A734B5E1C3U[/ame]

It looks like it doesn't matter too much. It takes a little longer to start without aeration so you run a higher risk of infection but it ferments out completely.

 

[govner1]

Nada

 

[cease]

I only speak from my experience recently switching from the shake method to pure O2. Do you NEED it? No. Will the beer ferment fine either way? Yes. Will the flavor be better? Perhaps.

I make a house pale ale (Mirror Pond clone) which I have been making now for some time using the same equipment, bulk bag of grains, mill, water and minerals, bulk cascade pellets in vacuum sealed bags, fermentation chamber at same temps etc. after switching to oxygen I found that the beer tastes better. Not dramatically better but the ester profile (WLP-002) was more crisp and clean. In my IPAs just a bit more hop presence. I also noticed better head retention with lacing all the way down. I gave some to the GF and she immediately noticed a difference too.

For me, yeah it was worth it. Easier than shaking a full carboy and the regulator, wand and small O2 tanks are small. I bought two tanks, still on the same one after 6 brews at 1 minute.


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[Happywanderer]

I pour through a very fine mesh strainer. Then I shake for two minutes. Last two batches, fermentation activity within 7 hours. I'm happy with that. And that was on 1.080 and a 1.064 OG batches.

I always use liquid yeast with starter(s) on a stir plate.




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[eadavis80]

I do the aeration thing. I guess it's just part my traditional brewing practices. In all honesty, I don't know either if I "need" to, but the stone and aquarium pump were given to me from a retired home brewer, so I didn't buy them myself. Like you, I also pour my wort through a strainer before I even use the aeration thing stone for about 20 minutes. It gives me time to clean up, or it can aerate while I let my dried yeast (when I use it) time to properly rehydrate prior to pitching.

 

[NervousDad]

Fermentation and yeast health is the most important part of brewing, for me it's needed. I'm sure you can get by making a smaller beer, but anything over 1060 you'll really be stressing your yeast. Sitrring also pulls in air filled with dust, which carries wild yeast and bacteria. To me it's not worth the risk.

 

[skw]

I would find it foolish to spend 5+ hours brewing and tens of dollars of ingredients on a batch of beer, only let it go through sub-optimal fermentation because I couldn't be bothered to turn on a valve or pump and turn it off again a couple of minutes later.

 

[RM-MN]

Whether you need pure O2 or not depends on so many factors that it's hard to say for sure. A small amount of yeast can ferment quite a bit of beer but you might not like the flavors produced. As you increase the amount of yeast, you get better flavored beer....to a point, then it starts going downhill....but slowly. The amount of yeast you put in your beer depends too with liquid yeast being the smaller amount and dry yeast being the higher amount.

Yeast needs oxygen to build cell walls so it can make more yeast. You can get by with a smaller amount of yeast if you oxygenate well since that small amount can grow more. You can also use a small amount of yeast and make a starter to increase the number of cells going into the beer. The number of yeast cells also depends on the starting gravity of the wort with higher gravities requiring many more yeast cells. Some of the flavors produced are a result of the yeast propagation too so pitching a huge number of yeast cells may be detrimental.

Dry yeast is a different kind of creature because it is packed with more yeast cells than a liquid yeast pack and it contains the necessary components for the yeast to propagate and thus needs no aeration for a medium OG wort. With higher OG's you can aerate or use more dry yeast.