I Did The Olive Oil Thing...

[Brewtus]

After reading about the theory that if you use a drop of olive oil you do not need to aerate the wort I thought why not give it a go. I mixed up a Cooper Real Ale kit with a BE2 and 250g of dark dry malt extract. I added the water via a hose straight into the wort so as to minimize the aeration. I know that this will still give some aeration but I can't measure it. The normal inch of frothy head on the wort was just a small amount and looked flat. I used US-05 yeast and put it in a clean glass, sprayed a small amount of olive oil on it and mixed it dry by swishing the glass around. Next I added a little tepid water and let it dissolve for 20 min. It was a little goopier than yeast usually goes when dissolved like that but it bubbled up fine. I gently added the yeast and I will know in a few days if it is working.

What have I got to loose? $25 of ingredients and could be a brew behind the winter schedule.

 

[Zwickel]

two weeks ago, I did the test with olive oil too. I wanted to know wether its just rumors or not.

I started at the same time parallel with two slants, treated both slants the same way until an amount of 500ml, then added a drop of olive oil to one of it and to aerate the other one, both stirred on a magnetic stirrer.
After Ive added another 500ml of wort and after 24hours, one can see a very clear difference already. The colour of the starters shows the amount of yeast cells in it. The starter with olive oil in it is still at a dark brown colour, wheras the airated wort has brightened up to a light grey colour.

Let it settle over night and I found 3 times more sediment in the aerated wort than in the one with olive oil in it.

so what?

Cheers :icon_cheers:

 

[sponge]

sprayed a small amount of olive oil on it and mixed it dry by swishing the glass around

As in the olive oil spray in a can?

I was always under the impression that you only used fresh olive oil and only the tiniest-smallest drop you could possibly think of for it to work?

It sounds pretty hard to measure the amount of olive oil coming out of one of those cans....

 

[dr K]

It would be of some interest to note the effect of coating dry yeast with olive oil before the rehydrataion process, would the oil form a barrier around the yeast, interfering with normal rehydration, would the rather unusual osmotic pressures cause the yeast harm....questions, questions, questions.....

K

 

[Cortez The Killer]

My understanding was that aeration was not required for dry yeasts - so can't really see the benefit in using the olive oil method with them

Zwickel shouldn't the olive oil one have been left off the stirrer?

From what I've read the olive oil method has a greater lag time than the aerated method

Cheers

 

[Dave86]

I just wanted to clarify, is the idea to (assuming you can get your tiny amount) add the olive oil to your starter or to the wort? I understand the principle the fatty acids negating the need for oxygen. Is the idea to grow the necessary amount of yeast effectively in the starter alone, or to provide the fatty acids for the yeast once they get to the business end of things?

Cheers in advance for any input

Dave

 

[Brewtus]

As in the olive oil spray in a can?

I was always under the impression that you only used fresh olive oil and only the tiniest-smallest drop you could possibly think of for it to work?

It sounds pretty hard to measure the amount of olive oil coming out of one of those cans....

A pump pack. One squirt. The yeast was not covered in it just the smallest amount mixed it to it.

I can say that after nearly 24 it has not taken off. I will give it a little longer before I try to stuff with it to get it going.

Cortez, Never heard about it being for or not for dry yeast. Doesn't all yeast need oxygen (or fatty acid) to multiply? I thought this might complement the no chill method as you can avoid aerating the wort and reduce the risk of infection.

Dave86, Not sure what the point of your question is. In both cases you need the yeast to multiply many times over. Should be for both cases.

Zwikle, Did it work in the end?

 

[Dave86]

Sorry, to clarify I'll rephrase. Will adding the olive oil to the wort directly or the starter make a difference? On a new thought, could adding the olive oil to your wort mean you could reduce the size of your starter? I suppose the flavour profile of the beer might not be as clean if you used a smaller starter and added the olive oil to the wort?

 

[Brewtus]

Sorry, to clarify I'll rephrase. Will adding the olive oil to the wort directly or the starter make a difference? On a new thought, could adding the olive oil to your wort mean you could reduce the size of your starter? I suppose the flavour profile of the beer might not be as clean if you used a smaller starter and added the olive oil to the wort?

I do not know. I figure in the starter it is closer to the yeast where in the wort the yeast might not find it. This is why I am experimenting. Please feel free to join in and try different things.

 

[Dave86]

On a separate note for those unsure of how to measure out thier olive oil. According to this thread here 300mL of olive oil is enough for 4500L of yeast. ( :icon_offtopic: That is a lot of bloody yeast!)

Anyway, this equates to 0.06666mL of olive oil per litre of yeast.

Therefore, for a starter of 500ml 0.033333333 mL of olive oil (or 33 microlitres) is required.

So why not use a microsyringe, like ross sells here, which is supposed to measure out 33/1000th of a mL (33 microlitres)

Could be a handy and cheap way to do things anyway

Dave

Edit: The craftbrewer site lists them as a 0.3mL syringe, so there may be a bit of confusion as to what size the syringe actually is, still could be good though

 

[Zwickel]

Zwikle, Did it work in the end?

from my point of view: no, not at all.

two weeks ago I was in a hurry to get my starter going, because of late decision doing a brew, hence I decided to start parallel with two slants.
So, why not doing a comparison of the two methods. I thought in the end Im gonna put it together anyway.

As you know, I brew Pilseners mostly, that requires a huge amount of yeast. Normally Im aerating and stirring the starter for about 5 days (from slant to 3liter)
That means, I hardly can decide on Friday to brew on Sunday, except, I have some harvested yeast in the fridge.

Thats why I was interested to find a way to boost yeast growth, but nope, didnt work.

Cheers :icon_cheers:

 

[Dave86]

I do not know. I figure in the starter it is closer to the yeast where in the wort the yeast might not find it. This is why I am experimenting. Please feel free to join in and try different things.

I think I may have to get in on this as well, I don't really do much to aerate (naughty, naughty) so this may the option I've been looking for

Cheers

Dave

 

[Brewtus]

My batch finally took off after about 36hr, slower than normal but it got there. I am not sure how valid the test is as there would have been some aeration of the wort and if you believe one school of thought, dry yeast has all the stuff it needs without aeration due to the manufacturing process. Mind you if you sprinkle it on top, it is in the place where the most oxygen is absorbed into the wort even when not stirred. I rehydrated the yeast, with a trace of olive oil in warm tap water and poured it in but it stayed near the top.

Conclusion: I think it shows that olive oil may not be a practical way to kick your yeast along as , if I did the same without the oil, I would expect the wort and yeast to act just like they did. OK, it is not the most rigorous test but then it doesn't make me want to try again.

 

[Katherine]

I was going to start a thread but thought I should do a search first and yes it has being talked about.

Has anybody done a side by side test with using the Olive Oil Aeration method or with the fish aquarium pump?

What I have read about the Olive Oil method, longer in the bottle the batch should show fewer signs of oxidation with age.