Transferring from brew pot to bucket

[brewpood]

Prepare yourself for a very basic question, please. I'm getting ready to make batch #4. I aerate my chilled wort by whisking it (and the water addition), pouring it back and forth between brew pot and primary bucket, and swinging and shaking the primary bucket. My question is about a sanitizing step I take in the midst of this.

For the past 3 batches, when I have poured the cooled wort into the primary bucket, I've washed out the brewpot, and then also sanitized it. Then I start the process of pouring some wort back and forth between the bucket and the pot to aerate.

Am I taking an unnecessary step by sanitizing the pot? Thanks!

 

[kombat]

Yes. The brew pot is already sanitized from having boiled the wort in it.

It sounds like you could save yourself a lot of time and energy by just getting a Fizz-X stir rod. Transfer the cooled wort into your fermenter, then work up a good froth with the Fizz-X on a drill.

Also keep in mind that if you're using rehydrated dry yeast, you don't need to go through all that aeration exercise. Aeration is really only important for liquid yeasts.

 

[unionrdr]

It doesn't matter if dry or liquid. Yeast need o2 for the reproductive phase before visible fermentation begins. The fact that dry yeast has a nutrient in it isn't reason to deny them oxygen.

 

[MuddyCreek]

Popcorn, check!

Homebrew, check!

Let the fights begin...

 

[SteveHeff]

I've had great success just by dumping from my pot 1 time and having at it with a whisk, as well. There is plenty of air mixing in with the wort as you're dumping it from the pot to the bucket. You don't have to go crazy, but remembering to whisk for 30 seconds can really help. Whether you use liquid or dry yeast should not make a difference. Keep the process the same for both just so you don't accidentally forget to aerate.

 

[kombat]

It doesn't matter if dry or liquid. Yeast need o2 for the reproductive phase before visible fermentation begins. The fact that dry yeast has a nutrient in it isn't reason to deny them oxygen.

Yeast need oxygen to synthesize the sterols needed during the reproductive phase.

Dry yeast already has all the sterols they'll need "frozen" into them at storage time.

From the experts:

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.

If the slurry from dry yeast fermentation is re-pitched from one batch of beer to another, the wort has to be aerated as with any liquid yeast.

- Danstar Yeast FAQ

 

[boydster]

Revvy posted on this same topic before... I usually take his advice whenever it is applicable to my situation. If it can't hurt and it doesn't really take much time/effort, what's the problem?

Evidently there is some info on Danstar's website that indicates you don't need to aerate dry yeast...there's supposedly sufficient stuff in the yeast cells already. But honestly you have to consider the source. We're talking about Danstar here, the makers of Nottingham with it's notorious tendency to suffer the 1.020 curse.

So honestly, I'm going to take that info with a grain of salt....I will aerate and not stop doing so....I feel that it can't hurt if you do it, it could only help....

Plus, I have never been happy with the results Notty or Windsor, and use Fermentis dry yeast for the majority of my beers...I'd say I use US-05 for about 90% of my beers.

And this is what it says on their website;



BTW, this PDF. from them is great info for people. http://www.fermentis.com/FO/pdf/Tips-Tricks.pdf

 

[unionrdr]

Idk...not aerating with dry yeast seems to take a bit longer for it to visibly start fermenting with the same vigor as when I do. While there may be some truth to those statements,My own observations say there's more to it.

 

[kombat]

Nottingham is known for stalling at 1.020? Since when? I thought that was an extract issue, not a yeast issue.

I thought the thing Notty was known for (if anything) was ferocious fermentations requiring a blowoff tube. Doesn't sound like a yeast particularly starved for oxygen to me.

 

[boydster]

Out of curiosity, I looked over the info from Fermentis myself (http://www.fermentis.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/TT_Booklet_En.pdf):

Oxygen is required to assure a healthy cell multiplication. Oxygenation is
either made by top filling and splashing wort against the wall of the
fermenter, aeration or direct oxygen injection. It is usually recommended
to make the oxygenation on cooled wort. At this stage hygiene is essential
since bacteria may develop during the aeration. Oxygen should only be
added in the first twelve hours of fermentation (9 ppm). Adding oxygen
during late fermentation will increase aldehyde levels and amplify diacetyl
formation. High levels of oxygen will suppress ester production. It has been
noticed that oxygen can increase SO² concentrations in some worts.

I use S-05 a lot, and I like the beer it makes. I'll probably continue to aerate. Maybe Danstar's process is different in making their product and doesn't need aeration, that I don't know, but since I use Fermentis' yeast when using dry yeast, I will follow their best practices.

 

[boydster]

Popcorn, check!

Homebrew, check!

Let the fights begin...

You must have had that same feeling storm chasers get when they see a funnel cloud forming

 

[unionrdr]

Or the three storm chasers that died in Oklahoma. They were getting fanstatic results....& got too close to the suck zone. Kinda like when a brewer has a good run on several batches,then gets careless. On an interesting note,that tornado broke the record for an EF5-2.6 miles wide!!

 

[boydster]

Crazy, beautiful, scary, and awesome (in the true sense of the word, not surfer lingo).

We got way off topic here, didn't we?

To the OP... yeah, you're adding an unnecessary step with the extra sanitation.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,they are scary yet facinating. My wife loves'em...but that's another story. Yes,sanitizing the kettle after being dumped each time is a touch much. As quick as the back & forth dumping goes,I don't think it's enough to be concerned with as long as the windows aren't open with construction going on nearby,or the like. *Just hit 20,000 posts!

 

[brewpood]

Thanks! Just to clarify: I have been sanitizing it only once in this process, rather than multiple times: right after pouting out the wort and rinsing the pot with tap water. Still too much?

 

[unionrdr]

Well,ya know,I just remembered something. The trub,& muddy/silty stuff at the bottom of the kettle after emptying the first time. So rinsing & sanitizing after that to get rid of that whirlpooled gunk would make sense. Didn't think of that till the scene flashed through my head just now.

 

[boydster]

If tap water touches it, sanitizing is a good thing. I still don't know if the tap water rinse is a necessary step, because you can do your aerating right in the bottling bucket (if you choose to aerate) when you first transfer it over there and that prevents you from bouncing the wort back and forth so much.

 

[unionrdr]

I was looking back at my own experiences at that step. Theres the muddy/silty gunk that settled to the bottom during chilling. I figured maybe he was rinsing that out & sanitizing before proceeding with aeration?...

 

[grem135]

I just pour my wort through a double mesh strainer after cooling then wire whisk the hell out of it and top off.
BTW, I have only done extract batches and I use dry or liquid yeast and never had one get the 1.020 curse.

 

[J8D]

Wire wisk in bucket and call it good.

 

[Kahless]

I add the topping up water into the fermenting bucket, put the lid on (sanitized finger over the airlock hole) and then I shake it for a few minutes to dissolve lots of air into the water. Then I pour the (mostly) cooled wort from a great height, splashing it into the aerated water for some more air.