Random Beer Serendipity Posting

I haven't found oxygenating equipment necessary, at least not for the beers I've made. Should I get into making bigger beers than what I've made so far, I may have to get some equipment. At least that's where I'm at right now.

Adding olive oil in lieu of oxygen isn't something that I'd really considered up till this point. I'd want some sort of consensus for "best practice" and "yes, this is better, oxygen is not necessary" before abandoning oxygenation of wort as a means of obtaining healthy yeast growth.

It does seem that such a small addition of olive oil sure does replace what seems like a lot of oxygen, but I haven't attempted to quantify by mass either amount. It also seems that such a small amount of olive oil shouldn't have that much effect on head retention, but again, this is unscientific speculation based on gut feeling only.

 

http://www.whitelabs.com/blog/olive-oil-vs-aeration-experiment
www.haandbrygforum.dk/gallery/albums/userpics/.../Olive-oil-thesis.pdf‎

 

Ooo. 2nd link needs fixing.

 

same comment I posted on the link:

 

Thanks. Not sure how to fix it, but google
Olive Oil Addition to Yeast as an Alternative to Wort Aeration

and that will take you to the PDF.

 

It's an intriguing study, to be sure. The conclusion was that flavor stability was increased, but at a cost of slightly higher esters and slower fermentation - but within spec - and the tasting panel actually preferred it to the oxygenated control batch. The effect on foam was insignificant. Most significantly, IMO, the Olive Oil beer was deemed suitable to bottle and ship.

It comes up from time to time in the various forums. I'm not aware that anybody - commercial or homebrewer - has adopted it as a standard practice.

 

New Belgium did the technique for a short time then stopped. A story ran in BYO back in '08 on the technique but it looks like it is not online. Kris used quite a bit more olive oil in the experiment than was recommended since recommended level for a 5 gal batch was for a small paper clip end dipped in olive oil, then into the starter I believe. The fact that New Belgium discontinued the program was fairly telling for me...but is a good alternative if O2 is out.