Wort Aeration

[Lukass]

Hey y'all,

I recently bought a wort aeration system because I am brewing my first high gravity barleywine. After pitching the yeast/yeast nutrient, the recipe calls for aeration of the unfermented wort with the oxygenation stone for 1 full hour. My question is, is this cooled wort still very prone to infection during this time? and is there a way to aerate the wort for this full hour without leaving the wort exposed to wild yeast, bacteria, etc?

I am always trying to get my wort cooled ASAP, but I feel like this whole aeration thing leaves another whole hour for chances of infection... or maybe I'm just paranoid cuz these ingredients weren't cheap!

Thanks!

 

[BrewCrewKevin]

From what I've seen, a few minutes should be fine. I saw a video from a Wyeast guy one time that said with Pure oxygen (O2 tank), 1 minute, and with an aquarium pump (air), 5 minutes.

That shouldn't be long enough to cause an infection. When my beer is coming down to temp, I leave it in the BK outside wide open for sometimes an hour or so until it's down to temp, I haven't had an infection yet. So I would think you'd be fine.

If you want to for an hour, first of all, make sure it's not vigorous enough to bubble over.

Also, if you still want to do an hour, does the hose fit through the airlock hole in your fermenter? (Either the small hole in the Ale Pail or the hole in the carboy bung)? Just an idea.

 

[ja09]

I think most people on this forum go less than 2 minutes on a big beer with pure o2, then one more time 24 hours later. I've never gone longer than 90 seconds which is plenty for most beers. Just make sure to pitch the appropriate amount of yeast cells and 2 minutes should be plenty.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[aiptasia]

If it's an airpump system, five minutes is fine. If it's a pure O2 injection, one minute max. That's generally well over the oxygen saturation point of any wort. Your yeasts need that oxygen and also nutrients for proper cellular respiration and cellular division and will burn up that oxygen rapidly reproducing in the early stages of fermentation.

 

[Lukass]

Thanks guys,

I figured an hour would be WAY too long, as I hear too much O2 is toxic to the yeast, so I'll probably just do 5-10 min or so.

I got the recipe from Sam Calagione's book, Extreme Brewing, which calls for a long aeration time in primary, as well as secondary fermentation with the super high gravity yeast.

I think as long as I keep it to a short amount of time, and keep the lid on my 6-gal bucket partially covered, I should be fine. Just figured I'd check with some people first