Forgot to aerate...

I think it is safe to aerate but normally only after the first day and no longer, but a few questions might help decide a good course of action.

What is your fermentation vessel, a bucket or glass/plastic carboy? This will determine how easy or difficult it might be to aerate now.

How did you get the beer into the fermenter -- siphoning or pouring - and was any splashing involved in the transfer? If you had some good splashing or the beer went through a strainer to remove any trub, you might be okay and you can blame the sllow start on the yeast (so far).

What yeast are you using? Do you have oxygen available to use for aeration, or are you proposing to shake the fermentor?

 

I wouldn't worry at 24 hours - if you get to 48, then maybe it's time to worry, and maybe re-pitch.
If you pour the wort into the fermenter, that should be plenty for a 1.075 beer. Much more than that you'd want to think about air pumps and stuff.

 

At this early stage, I think aerating is more likely to save your beer than harm it.

 

Good evening Kdubzz,
It sometimes can take up to 48hours to start...and in rare cases even more.

But, at this point, it would be OK and recommended for a high gravity beer to aerate the wort (if forgotten). Oxygen is necessary for yeast cells to expand their cellular walls before they mitosis... devide into two cells. This way, they get to reproduce at a quicker rate before high fermentation (meaning high level of alcohol). The idea is to get high level of yeast cells before the ethanol level raises up. Ethanol drastically slows down the capacity for cells to reproduce and ferment...but mostly reproduce. This means that a low yeast reproduction at the start will leave less cells to do the same amount of work (ferment sugars), which can lead to slow or unfinished fermentation and off flavours.

That being said, it is highly important to sanitize everything you are going to use if you are planing on opening that bucket. At this point, your fermenter is a big bowl of sugars at perfect temperature to be colonised by unwanted yeast or bacteria passing by.

Once the sanitizing is done, you can use a spoon or mash paddle to give it a good steer (get some air bubble into it) for a few minutes and put the lid back on. This should be enough... No need for fancy procedure.

From now on...patience is key. Once the fermentation as started, avoid opening the bucket or steering unless necessary. After fermentation starts, oxygen is highly unwanted. Unused oxygen by the yeast would oxidize beer components ... give off flavours and low preservability.

Other things to consider:
-What was the yeast packet expiry date?
-Was there any instruction to do a yeast start before pitching?
-Is your fermenter lid cracked? (Mine was and the air escaped by the lid.)
-If you've poured the wort vigourously into the fermenter(producing bubbles), you can consider that there is enough oxygen already.

Extra reedings:
-Keys to Aeration
-Ethanol Inhibition of Yeast

Cheers!

 

I'm guessing you do not have any of the following tools, or you wouldn't be asking:
Airstone and oxygen source;
Airstone and aquarium pump; or
A mixster and drill.

That leaves the shake shake shake method (invented by Kool and the Gang), if you are burly enough to lift the fermenter and shake and if the bung is secure so that it doesn't leak. Or, if you have a bucket fermenter, you could sanitize a whisk and try to stir it in.

I personally do not employ the shake method because it is less effective at introduce oxygen and it feels sort of dangerous (I am not a burly guy -- I 'd hate to develop back problems or drop 50 lbs of beer. I use an airstone and oxygen source, although I also have a mixster/drill setup that I have used for mead which I could use for beer if I ran out of O2.

 

With it being dry yeast, I'd let it ride personally.

 

One package of dry yeast into 1075 is not a good idea. Unknown dry yeast is not a good idea. Attempting an oak aged imperial stout first time out is a really bad idea. I'm getting somewhere here. Just relax. Definitely prepare another package of dry yeast, rehydrate the yeast and pitch that. Maybe two additional packages. Dry yeast is packaged after the oxygen uptake stage so they are pretty much ready to go. It's still a good idea to have oxygen available for the freshly pitched yeast but not nearly as important as with liquid yeast.

I would not attempt to add oxygen at this point. You may be in the clear, but given this is your first attempt, you may also mess it up and make it worse.
RDWHAHB.

Cheers.

 

I recommend shaking your bucket vigorously for a good 5 minutes. There is going to be a strong fermentation that could use some oxygen. Good luck!

 

As premierpro says, git it a good shake after pitching another dry yeast pack(always remember to pitch 2 packs for 5 gals of beer with an OG above 1060), oxygen won´t hurt anything at this point because fermentation didn´t start.

 

Dry yeast does not require aeration.

Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew.

Cheers!

 

I always pour my wort through a funnel that has a strainer in it, and then the wort splashes to the bottom of the carboy. I believe that's very good aeration for all but the high gravity beers. For your future knowledge, when you pour the wort from your brew kettle into a plastic pail for fermentation like you did, you should try to create as much splashing as possible (without making a mess) so that your wort gets aerated that way. I'm glad to hear that your yeast started showing that they are working. Enjoy your beer in a few weeks.

 

Mostly I do not aerate with dry, but with a high grav batch, a single pack, and no signs of fermentation, I'd consider it.

 

Peter, aerating does no harm. I am not aware that there is a genuine benefit if you do aerate while pitching dry yeast.

As discussed by Danstar (Lallemand) below:

“I always aerate my wort when using liquid yeast. Do I need to aerate the wort before pitching dry yeast?

No, there is no need to aerate the wort but it does not harm the yeast either. During its aerobic production, dry yeast accumulates sufficient amounts of unsaturated fatty acids and sterols to produce enough biomass in the first stage of fermentation. The only reason to aerate the wort when using wet yeast is to provide the yeast with oxygen so that it can produce sterols and unsaturated fatty acids which are important parts of the cell membrane and therefore essential for biomass production."

Cheers!

 

Where I would like some reassurance is whether there are enough sterols present to produce enough biomass for higher gravity beers. At some gravity, it stands to reason that there will not be. Consider that mead makers often use dry yeast to make some very high gravity batches, by comparison. I've never seen anyone suggest that mead makers do not need to oxygenate. In fact standard modern mead practice with staggered nutrient additions essentially oxygenates too (with a mixster), repeatedly, over the first several days of fermentation. I'm not speaking from a highly informed position, but I do think that advice from lallemand must have its limits.

 

You can send your query here: http://www.lallemandyeast.com/company/contact/contact-us

Dr. Tobias Fischborn has always been very responsive to me.

Cheers!

 

This, in a nutshell, is why higher gravity beers should be pitched with a higher number of yeast cells. And why it's important to think in terms of cells per volume per gravity, rather than, say, "one package of any ("unexpired") age per 5 gallon batch" or other silliness.