Did I just ruin my batch with olive oil?

So, when I was brewing my newest batch of high gravity IIPA I remembered someone saying something about using olive oil as a yeast nutrient. This didn't sound bad so I went ahead and dropped 1/4tsp (without thinking) into my 6 gallon batch thinking, "hey, this isn't much but let's see what happens...". Afterwards I started reading around and found that a DROP of olive oil was too much for a 5 gallon batch and it was supposed to replace oxygen during the fermentation process. Did I just ruin my beer?

I doubt you ruined your beer, but it will be interesting to see how well it forms and retains a head of foam.

One thing about IIPAs is they have a lot of hops, which tends to help head formation quite a lot. Oil usually does the opposite. I don't *think* 1/4 tsp is going to be a huge deal, but I've never tried it so I don't really know for sure.

I defiantly want to know what happens. Guess we wait.
You may have unintentionally started a new brew craze, but then again maybe not.

It's definitely not ruined.

Nope. The only think that might be ruined is some of the head retention, and that's still just a maybe.

I'll definitely keep you posted. I can't take cred for the idea, New Belgium came up with it as a way to fight oxidation in their beers and prolong its shelf life. If anyone is interested here's the specs on the beer, the honey isn't in yet, waiting till Friday to add it in to the actively munching beasties:

I read about this a while back but it said it was impossible to measure a small enough amount on the homebrew scale, smaller than 1 droplet.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/using-olive-oil-instead-oxygen-47872/

This thread has the article I read.

I'll be curious to see if it has any effect on head retention.

As a side note, 5 lbs of honey, mmmmmmmmmmm.

In high school chemistry, I learned to 'split' a drop into 20 units. For a homebrewer, the simplest way to add olive oil is to dip a paper clip 1/4" into the oil, then touch the end of the clip to a paper towel for a second or two. Stir what is left on the clip into the wort.

how can you be sure the oil makes it off the paper clip?

I just barely dip a toothpick in olive oil and swirl it for a second. Works well for both starters and full batches.

If I had only been smart enough to have posted "am I about to ruin my beer?"... On a sidenote, that was one of the articles I had read the other day after it was too late. I may try this again using the pin or toothpick method.

Is the only negative effect a loss of head?

Rainz said:

I defiantly want to know what happens. Guess we wait.
You may have unintentionally started a new brew craze, but then again maybe not.

Click to expand...

How defiant of you!

In a 5 gallon batch, will a single drop of Olive Oil have a large effect on head retention? It seems that one drop is way overshooting the recommended amount for aeration purposes but if it has little effect on the final product I don't see why it would be bad to add. I've had a few beers lately that didn't get the FG as low as it should and I'm worried about my aeration techniques (shaking/whisking atm) and this seems like it could help me out.

rjthomas21 said:

In a 5 gallon batch, will a single drop of Olive Oil have a large effect on head retention? It seems that one drop is way overshooting the recommended amount for aeration purposes but if it has little effect on the final product I don't see why it would be bad to add. I've had a few beers lately that didn't get the FG as low as it should and I'm worried about my aeration techniques (shaking/whisking atm) and this seems like it could help me out.

Click to expand...

5 lb of honey should help drop that fg!

So, a final note on this beer. Just poured my first pints today and as you can see there is 1,000,000% no issue with head retention lol...

Beers a little more harsh bitter than I like but then again it's only been out of secondary for 3 weeks so we'll see what happens. Absolutely not a session beer either, 10%'ish abv and its slightly (vaguely?) hot. That being said, this beer drinks like dogfish 120 minus a little sweetness and maltiness. I'm pretty sure it'll be just about perfect in a few weeks to a month (or so).

Aroma is awesome, it's real clean, and there is still a slight bit of sweet...nice beer.

Few minutes later...

Congrats! Looks as though your experiment was a success! Just double checking my understanding of what you did. No standard aeration at all, just olive oil?

What was the starting and final gravity? Just curious to see if the oil helped the fermentation at all.

Not to reopen an old discussion, but I thought NBB used it for yeast propagation and storage, not fermentation. And they also stopped doing it after finding ti lead to premature staling.

I'll check on the FG, just have to de carbonate a little.

As far as staling, I thought their (new belgium) whole purpose was to fight premature staling?

...that their whole purpose in adding olive oil was to provide the fat molecule the yeast used the oxygen to create so they didn't need to oxygenate which would address their staling issue that is...

Denny said:

Not to reopen an old discussion, but I thought NBB used it for yeast propagation and storage, not fermentation. And they also stopped doing it after finding ti lead to premature staling.

Click to expand...

I could see that being a problem in a brewery but in the home brew scale where 5 gallons lasts two to three weeks it is gone before any staling could occur.

I think you are correct about the yeast propagation.

DerCribben said:

...that their whole purpose in adding olive oil was to provide the fat molecule the yeast used the oxygen to create so they didn't need to oxygenate which would address their staling issue that is...

Click to expand...

Again, AFAIK, it was for yeast storage and propagation, not fermentation. And while preventing staling may have been the purpose, all the info I can find says it didn't work.

Monster Mash said:

I could see that being a problem in a brewery but in the home brew scale where 5 gallons lasts two to three weeks it is gone before any staling could occur.

I think you are correct about the yeast propagation.

Click to expand...

Craig, here's a link to the only decent homebrew level olive oil experiment I know of...

http://hbd.org/discus/messages/43688/45581.html

The ester profile of the beers produced using olive oil addition was significantly higher than the
controls and the flavor stability of these beers was significantly improved.

Click to expand...

and

This method of treating the yeast with olive oil during storage instead of aerating the wort did improve the overall flavor stability of the beer without compromising flavor quality.

Click to expand...

From the original 2008 thesis.

So, Denny, where did you get the idea that “ti lead to premature staling”?

I recall reading it several years ago when this was all the rage. I'll try to find the article again, but it will be a week or so before I have time to search for it.

And at my age, I may be misremembering. They say the memory is the second thing to go.

Here's my hydrometer reading, is it 1.011?