Casual Question About Basic Shake Aeration

Hello All! Thanks for existing, otherwise homebrew would be remarkably difficult.

I've got to have a first post some time, so, even though this has certainly been asked before, I hope everyone will forgive me.

Anyway, I essentially want to know how effective the specific method of aeration I use is 1)Safe, 2) Effective, and 3) Usable for higher gravity brews.

So! Step by step, this is how I aerate.

1) Before I even start making wort, I boil about 3 gallons of water for sterility and de-chlorination. I put cool it all in an ice bath in the sink, and then (at about 90*) I add 2 gallons in my sealed and sanitized fermentor bucket in an water bath; sometimes it'll sit there sealed all night. Point is, I get it to room temperature. I set the other gallon aside in a sealed jug for other uses, very often to top off the fermentor bucket.

2) When I pour the warm 2 gallons into my fermentor, I pour it from high up into the bucket and splash it around a bunch. Then I pick up the bucket, slosh it around a bit, then pour it back into the pot, and then pour it all back into the bucket. Lots of splashing. Sealed, next step.

3) When I'm done with my wort, and I cool it in an ice bath, I get it to about 80* before I lose patience. This is fine though! Because now I take that warm wort and, like in step two, I pour it all into that big fermentor bucket full of 65* water. Temp is now about 75*. Like in step two, I pour out some of it into my pot, then slosh that bucket around a bunch. Take the pot, pour it from high up, make some big splashes. I do this about three times. Then I fill to the 5-gallon line with the extra water, splashing a bunch.

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As I write this, I feel like I'm fretting over something that I probably don't need to; however, all the literature I read about talks about the importance of aeration to the point that there are special devices to do it, so I don't want to do it wrong.

So far, I think it's worked for my beers. My last BB Dunkelweiss had a FG of 1.018; my current big beer, a BB Imperial Pale Ale, has just finished primary at 1.02. Everything else was done perfectly (I was very impressed with myself!), and they taste great, if a bit malty (though for the Dunkel, that might be the point - there was a lot of Maltodextrine in it).

I'm about to work on a RIS, with an OG of 1.108. Granted, it's only a 1-gallon batch, but I'd like to know for the future too - is this method enough to supply the yeast oxygen for a high gravity beer, or should I really go out and get that aeration stone?

Thanks!

 

Ah, I love data from the Yeast Manufacturers. And thank god for it too, because I read on another forum that using an aquarium filter is totally good enough to get 10+ppm. Anecdotal evidence is once thing, but but hard data is another. Thanks!

Side question - how did they brew high gravity beers before the invention of O2 tanks?

Edit - I suppose adding more yeast, since the point of oxygenation is to help yeast grow and multiply. I suppose adding more yeast after a stalled fermentation isn't a terrible idea...

 

Great questions, Jack and Peter. Glad you asked. So, aha, I *am* using Safale US-05 yeast, but it is no longer dry. I just racked a big Imperial Pale Ale to secondary - I glossed over it in my intro post, but I should mention that the US-05 worked hard and completed primary with a SG of 1.02 (OG 1.074, 7% ABV), which was in my target range. So I harvested the yeast from the cake, about 30 ounces of off-white yeasty sludge split between three 12-ounce bottles, and it's now chilling in my fridge.

I was saving it to pitch to my 1-gallon RIS and eventually to a 5-gallon pale ale (which I'm not concerned about, really). I intended to pitch the RIS directly onto the cake, but alas, timing didn't line up.

So now I'm thinking, from everyone's input... I could probably overcome the oxygen requirements, by pitching, what, half? of my saved yeast to the RIS and following Peter's instructions for aeration. What do you think?

You know, I bet there's a calculator for this.

Edit: Found it. Though it doesn't speak much for aeration.

 

So, the answer to my question was as suspected - pitch a lot of yeast. And boy, did I. I suspect some of you may have seen this coming and figured you'd let me learn from it

So after a day of really righteous activity, almost immediately, I went to sleep. I woke up at about 4am with a bad feeling and, sure enough - the fermentation airlock had clogged up and shot into the ceiling. Fortunately, I only lost about a quart of wort, into the bag I had around it, but I'm still waiting on the wife to ask about the brown marks on the ceiling...

Three days of heavy fermentation, it is now resting. Beer went from 1.108 to 1.03 in three days. I tasted it - it tastes like a stout! A stout with like rubbing alcohol thrown in. For real, it burns. It's now sitting in storage for a week before I move it to secondary - there's so much yeast in there I don't want to risk picking up off flavors.

Then it's gonna sit for about 4 weeks to mellow out before bottling. Nice.

 

Thanks for your help, and everyone's help, by the way.

That's where I'm most worried. I know they can get hot, but I didn't want to risk infection by sticking a thermometer in there. So instead I put the carboy into a cool water bath when fermentation started up, back in the bag when I went to sleep, and then a water bath during cleanup from the explosion.

So in all likelihood I probably had a high temp during fermentation, which certainly would contribute to fusel flavors.

This is why I only made one gallon, after all - now I know some things to expect

I would leave it in primary for longer but it's a ton of yeast, man. I'll siphon off some of the cake into secondary, but having a soapy batch years ago, I'm terrified of autolysis. There is truly a lot of yeast in there.

 

Hey, that's a cool tool. Do you have a link to where I could find one for my own? Or would that be a hardware store purchase?