If aerated right after pitching, that's a good thing. Those yeasties need oxygen before than can start fermenting.
Hi all, I've been lurking here for a few weeks and finally have a question that I haven't been able to answer by searching. At least, I think I found the answer but am still in denial
Background: Two weeks ago today, I made a brown ale from a True Brew ingredient kit (my first brew). The one bad thing I did on brew day is I didn't aerate the wort...just used a siphon to transfer from the wort pot to the fermenter. I had a 1/2" krausen within 18 hours, so the yeast did kick off, and then it disappeared after a couple days. OG was 1.040 (recipe calls for 1.041-1.042) and after 9 days in the fermenter, it was down to 1.021. 5 days later (today), it's still at 1.020. According to the recipe, final gravity should be 1.010 - 1.012.
Now, the actual problem...I was thinking of pitching another packet of yeast to get things going again, but decided that aerating the beer would be a good idea. To do this I sanitized the countertop, fermenter lid, and plastic spoon, then popped the lid off and gave the beer a good stirring/swirling. Within 15 minutes AFTER doing that, I found a post on here that suggests aerating beer leads to oxidation, which leads to 'wet cardboard flavors'. It sounds like I should have just added some activated yeast rather than stirring up my beer
Assuming everything else goes fine, how bad is this going to taste?
[edit] Additional information: temperature at my fermenter has been a fairly steady 63 - 68 degrees. The first week and a half were more like 63 - 66, but I recently turned up the heat in an attempt to get the fermentation going.
