Brülosophy contributor Ray Found did an exBEERiment comparing shake aeration to no aeration. Results are in!
Thank you! My hunch is that there is sufficient oxygen being introduced into the fermenter, enough to facilitate proper fermentation. Whether through the wort splashing, just some light splashing of the wort while moving the fermenter, or even present oxygen in the empty fermenter.
These experiments continue to surprise me and reiterate the idea that there are very few constants in this hobby.
I really dig these as discussion starters. I think its fair to say after this experiment that of those five people, only one could tell the difference between shaken vs not shaken wort of a highly hopped ale. I would not extrapolate that to mean that you dont have to aerate or oxygenate, and I dont think the findings of the experiment are suggesting that.
[quote]I would not extrapolate that to mean that you dont have to aerate or oxygenate, and I dont think the findings of the experiment are suggesting that.
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I agree. I wonder what would happen if this were repeated with, say, a Helles?
One way to find out. Get someone to try it and let you know.
I agree. I wonder what would happen if this were repeated with, say, a Helles?
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Exactly. That would really show whether it counts or not.
100% agree!
Sidenote-- anyone else having trouble with the Tapatalk app lately?
I agree. I wonder what would happen if this were repeated with, say, a Helles?
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We have plenty more O2 xBmts in the chamber, so to speak 
I would guess that part of this result is due to the well built starters. If the yeast going in all had copious reserves of the fatty acids they need to generate new cells than their o2 requirements are much much lower.
I’m not sure how one would actually isolate that piece though. perhaps with a lower gravity wort to start and no starter. pitch a single vial into each 1.040 wort and compare again.
and as mentioned by the author, a very hoppy beer is maybe not the best option. I would think a simple english pale ale would be a good bet for this.
Does anyone know how German breweries oxygenate? Is it within the rules of Reinheitsgebot to inject pure O2 into the wort?
For the breweries who topcrop the krausen yeast, you could argue that they don’t need to oxygenate at all since the yeast is very well exposed to oxygen already.
Remember that fad about 5 or 6 years ago about using olive oil to “oxygenate” instead of aeration? Same concept, except that the olive oil thing probably doesn’t actually work.
[quote]We have plenty more O2 xBmts in the chamber, so to speak
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Excellent! Thank you for doing these.
You could look at this in 2 ways…either that doing nothing works as well as shaking, or that shaking works as poorly as doing nothing.
I have just been pumping ales <1.060 into the fermenter, that causes lots of slashing and foam. Lagers and real big beers get 02.
I have been contemplating throttling the pump to get less flow and splashing for English Bitters.
I’ve been finding the same thing, Jeff. By the time I get the wort pumped into the fermenter is appears to be well aerated. Results bear that out.
I would like to see an experiment done using pure o2 to get the wort up to 10ppm+ that is recommended. I will try that this summer.
Indeed.
I make lager quite often, never once used O2, never once have had issues with fermentation.
We have it planned, though I don’t have a DO meter so the O2 level will be predicted.
It seems to be behaving reasonably well for me today.
Yeah, it’s back to good for me now as well. Thanks!
a long time ago I won awards without paying attention to my O2 or pitch rate for lagers. Once I did, I won awards for the lagers more frequently, and I like the taste of the beer better. It works for me.