Oxygen before pitching - how important?

[YeastFeast]

How important do you think oxygenating is before you pitch your yeast...assuming you are pitching a healthy amount of yeast.
I ask because I never oxygenate. I almost always pitch liquid yeast built up on a stir plate and never had an issue.
Another thought...will adding oxygen before pitching improve the fermentation as far as taste goes and am I missing out on that?
Thanks for your thoughts on this!

 

[stamandster]

Meh, on a scale of 0 (not important) to 10 (super important) I rate it at a 3 to 4, provided there's a good reason to do it (ex. high gravity, you want yeast to finish out QUICK, under pitching yeast, or some other issue). I used to use pure o2 with a stone, and I see no real difference. You are better off worrying about other things.

 

[MaxStout]

Having fresh liquid yeast and making a robust starter are far more important. A little yeast nutrient in the wort can help.

For dry yeast, rehydrating shortly before pitching will give it a good head start.

 

[Broken Crow]

When I 'intensely studied' (read a ton of threads on this site and few others and some books) the answer to that question, I walked away with this: Dry yeast: No big, just shake your fementer. Liquid yeast; Oxygentate your starter. High Gravity with either; use a stone on pure O2 for some time I can't remember, or an aquarium air-pump for much longer.
My own experiences seem to have borne that out and since @stamandster has been on here years longer than me and gives sound advice, I defer to his greater judgement and +1 it.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I read Chris White's Yeast back in 2010 and it convinced me to gas my wort. He used 1 lpm straight O2 for 2 minutes, I halved the rate and doubled the duration, so 0.5 lpm for 4 minutes. Seemed to ensure a vigorous fermentation and reliable results, and I've stuck with it ever since...

Cheers!

 

[Dog House Brew]

I still use a stone without any meter. I open it until I see small bubbles. I do that for 90-120sec. It will usually have a small bit of foam. Most of my beers are higher gravity. When I do lagers in the early spring with dry yeast, I just pitch and go. When I’ve been out of O2, I’ve not seen any appreciable difference.

 

[Bobby_M]

I believe the ability to notice a difference is dependent on the general health of the slurry, aka the pitch rate of viable cells and the gravity of the wort. If you were pitching a pouch of yeast directly into the batch of wort (which you're not doing), then you'd certainly benefit from oxygen there because yeast need oxygen for production of new cell membranes (offspring).

Just the nature of stirring the starter means you're adding limited oxygen to the yeast for reproduction outside of the wort, which is the better way to go. It's just a matter of whether adding extra/pure oxygen to the starter would be one step better than that. There's some reason to believe oxygen before pitching is better than adding it to the wort https://academic.oup.com/femsyr/article/9/2/226/568736

When I'm making a starter for a challenging high gravity ferment, I put my O2 stone into the starter wort for 10 seconds before pitching the pouch in and I also flood the headspace once or twice after that. I have no idea if it does anything but I sleep like a baby on those nights.

 

[Jim R]

It is inexpensive with small oxygen canisters that are readily available locally and it only take a minute or two. There is no reason for me to skip this simple step.

 

[YeastFeast]

Appreciate everyone's feedback. I posted because I was leaning towards adding oxygen to the wort (although I've never had an issue NOT adding it) but wanted to throw it out there to the community to see what people were doing/thinking. The article from @Bobby_M on oxygenating the starter was interesting. I also am having a hard time ignoring just about every major yeast company saying you should add oxygen to the wort and oxygen's importance AFTER pitching. The major yeast companies aren't trying to sell oxygen equiptment (as far as I know) so I don't know why they'd write articles on this subject if they didn't think it was important? Also read a few articles from independent labs who point out the importance of adding oxygen before pitching...but I usually start falling asleep before I get though the whole article and quit reading. I'm making an Imperial Stout next so guess I'll make a decision soon to buy or not to buy oxygen equipment....
Cheers!

 

[Jag75]

When brewing 5 gallons I just stir the wort really good . When brewing 3bbls I let the wort pour into the fv from the top . I think this does the same as stirring. It might make a difference when brewing larger batches , like the big breweries.

 

[Bobby_M]

Appreciate everyone's feedback. I posted because I was leaning towards adding oxygen to the wort (although I've never had an issue NOT adding it) but wanted to throw it out there to the community to see what people were doing/thinking. The article from @Bobby_M on oxygenating the starter was interesting. I also am having a hard time ignoring just about every major yeast company saying you should add oxygen to the wort and oxygen's importance AFTER pitching. The major yeast companies aren't trying to sell oxygen equiptment (as far as I know) so I don't know why they'd write articles on this subject if they didn't think it was important? Also read a few articles from independent labs who point out the importance of adding oxygen before pitching...but I usually start falling asleep before I get though the whole article and quit reading. I'm making an Imperial Stout next so guess I'll make a decision soon to buy or not to buy oxygen equipment....
Cheers!

The yeast labs are correct IF you don't make a starter. The yeast will have to reproduce in the batch of wort and need the O2. The labs are trying to make instructions easier without a flow chart.