Do not aerate?

[LoadedFront]

I came across this recipe, and in it are instructions not to aerate the wort. I have never seen this before in a recipe. Comments?

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Sand Creek Brewing Company “Oscar’s Chocolate Oatmeal Stout”

5 US. Gallons (19 L), extract with grains
OG=1.056
FG=1.020
IBU’S = 30
SRM= 20
Alcohol 4.75% by volume

Ingredients
6.6 Lbs. (3.0 kg) Briess Light Unhopped malt extract syrup
1.0 Lbs. (453 g.) Briess 10L Munich Malt
1.0 Lbs. (453 g.) Briess Wheat Malt
4.0 oz. (113 g. ) Briess Roasted Barley Malt
4.0 oz. (113 g. ) Briess Chocolate Malt
10.0 oz. (283 g. ) Briess Flaked Oats
1 teaspoon (5ml.) Irish moss (boil 60 min.)
7.1 AAU Goldings hops (bittering hop, boil 60 min.)
(1.50 Oz. (42 g) of 4.75% Alpha acid)
4.75 AAU Goldings hops (Aroma hop, boil 5 min.)
(1.0 Oz. (28 g) of 4.75 Alpha acid)

Wyeast 1968 London ESB yeast or White Labs WLP002 English ale
O.75 cup (180 ml) of corn sugar for priming.

Step by step instructions

Steep the crushed malts in 3 gallons (13.5 L) of water at 150º (66 ° C.) for 30 minutes. Remove grains from wort, add the malt syrup and bring to a boil.
Add the Golding bittering hops and Irish moss and boil for 60 minutes. Add the Golding finishing hops for the last 5 minutes of the boil.
Now add the wort to 2 gallons (9 L) of cool water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool water to 5.5 gallons. (25 L) Cool the wort to 75º (24 ° C.), DO NOT aerate (you want a high ending gravity for this beer!) the beer and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68 ° (20 ° C.), and hold at this temperature until the beer has finished fermenting. Then bottle or keg your beer and enjoy!!

 

[s3n8]

That seems like a bad idea to me. It goes against everything I know by experience and have read. Extract batches never finish on the dry side for me, and those strains of yeast are (I think) not overly high attenuating. I would follow your normal procedure.

 

[rurounikitsune]

A high final gravity as a desirable result comes from long chain sugars, obtained through long boils or adjustments to the mash thickness and temperature.

A high final gravity as a result of stuck fermentation due to unhealthy yeast is asking for trouble, probably exploding bottles.

 

[Revvy]

I think this is one of those cases of "I did it this way and I THINK this is the result of what I did, so do it this way and your beer will turn out fine." Just knowing enough about brewing to be "dangerous."

I often have the saying "Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc" under my name in my profile, because I have found a lot of people new to brewing come up with a lot of "logical fallacies" about things they do, or they did, and make strange connections between things. And my guess is that the recipe creator fell into that trap when he brewed this recipe. He neglected to aerate then had this result, and said "hey, I got this result...." And for all you know he never brewed this again after posting the recipe someplace, or writing it in a book.

Just because he got a certain result doesn't mean he got that result because of what he did. If you want to know what Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc means, look here Post hoc ergo propter hoc - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The thing is you can't really control the outcome of a beer in a quantifiable way by not aerating it. There are plenty of folks, on here and/or new to brewing who never heard about the need for "proper" aeration and really don't do it, and yet their beers still attenuates fine.

Just like you can't really say in a recipe "if you aerate for 1 minute you will get an FG of 1.018, and if you want an fg of 1.012 aerate 1.5 minutes and for an fg of 1.009 aerate for 2 minutes and 23 seconds.

Even recipe software can't factor in whether or not you aerate or how long you aerate into figuring out final gravity.

SO I would take it with a grain of salt.

If you like the recipe brew it, if you think you need to aerate it (which I do for ANY recipe) do so....but whatever you do, make sure the beer is fermenting before you bottle....

 

[cladinshadows]

To Revvy's point (but on the other side), I don't aerate and I still regularly hit 80% attenuation on IIPA's, IPA's, and APA's...probably because I pitch a ton of yeast.

With an extract and steeping grain recipe your attenuation is pretty well set based on the attenuation of the extract, and the attenuation capabilities of the yeast. It seems to me that intentionally stunting the growth of the yeast by providing a bad environment is not such a good idea, and may cause problems down the road. I say aerate, or pitch a nice big starter and don't worry about aeration.

Just in case you're interested, here's a thread about this same recipe and question...

 

[Revvy]

Thanks Clad...I vaguely remember that discussion.

But this last post really sums it up;

I've spoken to Todd, the brewer of Oscar's Oatmeal Stout (Sand Creek Brewing, Black River Falls, WI) and there was never any mention of no or minimal aeration of the wort for this beer. So just stick to what the guys on the forum said and aerate that wort!

So whoever created the recipe for BYO's clonebrews issue did have one of those "This is how I brew and you should too because I got this result" moment.

 

[springer]

If he didn't boil the top off water he added O2 to the wort. Depending on his boil off he may have added 3 gallons.As per his instructions 'Now add the wort to 2 gallons (9 L) of cool water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool water to 5.5 gallons." Also depends on how he added the water did he just pour it in (aeration) or did he rack it (unlikely) . When I used buckets I would just pour the wort from the boil pot into my 6.5 gallon bucket and called it good.

 

[osagedr]

I've used a wine whip a few times to aerate. It's a drill-mounted three-pronged plastic device designed to degas wine. I can really beat the hell out of my wort with it. Does this sound like an effective way to aerate?

 

[springer]

I've used a wine whip a few times to aerate. It's a drill-mounted three-pronged plastic device designed to degas wine. I can really beat the hell out of my wort with it. Does this sound like an effective way to aerate?

yes ... seen spoons , wire whisks, paint mixers all kinds of stuff used to aerate

 

[Joker]

To Revvy's point (but on the other side), I don't aerate

I do you transfer to primary?

I use to pour mine in through a strainer and that was more than enough aeration that I didn't whisk or anything else but that still equates to aerating.