Air in Fermenter

[invmgmt]

I have a honey wheat in the fermenter for the past 11 days. I wanted to check the gravity so opened the fermenter, checked, and closed it. Question is...should I pump a little CO2 into the fermenter to remove the oxygen that is now on top of my wort where the natural CO2 was?

I know that oxygen is not good for the flavor of the beer and I want to leave it in the primary for another week or so.

 

[khawk95]

What was the gravity reading? Anticipated FG? If it was still working, the yeast will produce natural CO2 and push the O2 out. I would say leave it be.

 

[rlmiller10]

CO2 is heavier than air so unless you were stirring it up there should have had a layer of CO2 remaining on the beer.

Adding some CO2 will not hurt if you have it but should not be necessary.

 

[dantheman13]

The gases have already mixed, and spraying CO2 in from the top of the fermenter probably will just introduce more O2. Just let it be, it'll be fine.

http://beerandwinejournal.com/can-co2-form-a-blanket/

 

[invmgmt]

khawk95, the gravity reading was 1.006. Estimated FG is 1.006

 

[invmgmt]

The gases have already mixed, and spraying CO2 in from the top of the fermenter probably will just introduce more O2. Just let it be, it'll be fine.

http://beerandwinejournal.com/can-co2-form-a-blanket/

Dantheman13, thanks for the article...very educational

 

[invmgmt]

The beer has a little sour smell when I opened the fermenter. I am hoping that if I leave it in the bucket for an extra week the smell will disapate. I put nearly five pounds of honey in at flameout (10 gal batch). So, I thought that might be contributing to the smell at this stage in the process.