Getting the most oxygen before pitching yeast

[Boston85]

So I have been reading a number of posts about pitching yeast and still cant find a great answer. When I brew, I do a hard pour from brew kettle into fermenting bucket, and then pitch yeast on top. I still get activity pretty quickly, but I feel like I should be getting more oxygen in there.

In Radical Brewing, Mosher implies that my way is the least effective, and he has some pretty serious ways of getting oxygen in the wort. My question is are there other ways to accomplish this if I don't have any pumps to push oxygen in there? Would it help to pour half from the kettle to the bucket, add some yeast, then pour the other half and add the second half of yeast?

What about pitching yeast like I do, and then covering and shaking the fermenting bucket for a few seconds? I feel like this is way to risky to bring infections.

Other than using a yeast starter, what other methodologies do people have for pitching dry yeast? Is there an advantage to using a liquid yeast?

 

[BendBrewer]

What about pitching yeast like I do, and then covering and shaking the fermenting bucket for a few seconds? I feel like this is way to risky to bring infections.

Other than using a yeast starter, what other methodologies do people have for pitching dry yeast? Is there an advantage to using a liquid yeast?

Shake it like you would a bratty child for a couple of minutes. Just put a sanitized stopper in the hole and cover it with a sanitized hand and rock that sucker. You're done when you're tired. Open it back up and sprinkle the dry yeast right on top of all that foam and forget about it for 3-4 weeks.

 

[beeber]

I just picked up a paint stirring attachment at mega-low-mart for less than 3 dollars. It will attach to my power drill and should be a decent improvement over a hard pour. I am making a batch tomorrow, so time will tell.

 

[Boston85]

Shake it like you would a bratty child for a couple of minutes. Just put a sanitized stopper in the hole and cover it with a sanitized hand and rock that sucker. You're done when you're tired. Open it back up and sprinkle the dry yeast right on top of all that foam and forget about it for 3-4 weeks.

Thats great, thanks a lot. I seem to remember Mr Beer using this methodology but I was worried about infecting it. I will use the strategy you say next time. As I said, I still get a lot of activity, but wanted to just make sure that there was not a better way.

 

[Bombo80]

Well, I just started a bohemian pilsner and pitched the wort onto a yeast cake. But then I actually poured it back and forth between the two buckets, getting a very good aeration and frothey head on the wort.

When I am using a yeast starter, I have about an 18inch whisk and I stir the sort one way and then the other, for several minutes, to get a good aeration of the wort. It seems to work very well for me.

I have not stepped up to an O2 tank yet.

As far as liquid yeast and dry yeast, I use both, and I almost always get them going in some sort of starter. At least for a few hours. Overnight is even better IMO.

 

[BendBrewer]

Yeah and there are many ways to do the same thing with some working slightly better than others and some requiring more effort than others but if you don't want to have to buy anything, Shake that Beer Maker.

 

[Zamial]

Ok, I just posted this in another thread but I can sum it up quick. It doesn't matter if you shake it, use an air pump, a venturi attachment or a paint stirrer these all produce about 8 PPM. Yeast prefer 10 PPM. You get 12 PPM with 1 minute of O2 and an air stone. My advice is and has been, if you are going to spend any money on aeration get an O2 setup or just keep on shaking it...

http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_oxygenation.cfm is a great read.

 

[BendBrewer]

+1 And if you buy the stone, you can drink beer during this process!

 

[Koduolu]

I have a standard aquarium pump and stone that I zip tied to an old racking cane to push it to the bottom of the fermenter. About 10 bucks total. I let it go for about 30 minutes before pitching. When its done I rinse it while it is still pushing air and then put it back in my sanitizing solution and let it run a bit. There are stainless stones and inline filters online, but I just have the standard blue stone. At least 30 batches and no infections.

Also be careful with the paint stirrer, it can nick a plastic bucket and cause cleaning problems and plastic in your brew.

 

[ThePearsonFam]

You should be aerating prior to pitching yeast. There's tons of methods that work. The most common seem to be;

siphoning with a venturi type end (small piece of racking cane with tiny holes drilled into it. This method seems to be fairly ineffective according to tests (I'll have to do some reasearch to find the results).

roughly pouring into the ferm bucket. better than the venturi but doesn't provide agitation for a long enough period to really drive the O2 up to good levels.

shaking/rocking the ferm vessel. This one is VERY effective ~8-10ppm of O2 after shaking for 1 minute.

Paint stirring wand. Also effective as long as you sanitize and move up and down within the ferm vessel.

Stone with aquarium pump. Also effective ~8-10ppm but requires a slightly longer run than pure O2. One disadvantage of this one is that you can destroy the head forming proteins if you run too long.

Stone with O2. Probably the best method BUT is more expensive and you can get too much O2 into solution. Too much O2 results in a fusel/hot alcohol taste.

I've had great luck with rocking my glass carboy rigorously.

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As for dry or liquid yeast... The dry yeast get stressed during the process of being dried. Somepeople claim they can taste it. I can't... but, I do use liquid yeast every time. I just like the variety of the strains. I make starters with either the WL vials or the Wyeast propagators.

 

[beeber]

...Also be careful with the paint stirrer, it can nick a plastic bucket and cause cleaning problems and plastic in your brew.

Get a plastic paint stirrer as opposed to metal if you can. Less chance for damage.

 

[asterix404]

The thing that I use and love the results is just getting a large strainer for really short money and pour the wort from the kettle into the bucket through the strainer. Also this gets rid of the trub in the kettle like the hop bits etc.