Olive Oil In Starter

[Nick JD]

I'm no Beerphysicserologist or nuthin' - but a few mils of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) thrown in would aerate your wort quick-smart.

2 H₂O₂ → 2 H₂O + O₂

Swirl some round in the bottom of the fermenter, add your cold wort, wait a few minutes and then whack in ya yeast.

Like I said though, I'm no Beerphysicserologist. While it oxidizes your hydrogen sulphides it's probably going also to oxidize the crap out of your maltose...

 

[Leigh]

very interesting leigh. why dont you make up some controlled trials and bring them to the caseswap for testing by the expert panel.

seriously, it is interesting.

Love to, but no fermenters and no ingredients ATM...

interesting idea, but I think the olive oil works through a different mechanism. From the thesis:

"The reason the yeast needs oxygen for a proper fermentation is because it needs to synthesize sterols and unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) for its cell walls ... One interesting alternative to aerating the wort is to add the UFAs directly to the yeast during storage. Theoretically the yeast should be able to take up the UFAs and use them in a subsequent fermentation without the use of oxygen. This should result in a beer that has better resistance to staling oxidation without adversely effecting fermentation performance or flavor." (pp. 8).

Having had a bit more of a think about this, I think the best experiment would be to use radio tagging of the oxygen in either the atmosphere above the wort, or in the LFA's added (fairly easy to synthesize canola oil). Then one could collect the CO2 produced during fermentation and check whether it has the tagged oxygen or not.

This would be a definitive test to prove the mechanism...you could determine whether the CO2 is a biproduct of the reduction of the COOH groups on the LFA's if the yeast utilises these, or from oxidation reactions just like the normal ferment.

But I still stand by my statement that there is not enough canola oil to perform the activities you quote from pp8 of the thesis.

Nice to be able to do these types of studies, but I no longer have access to the right lab equipment

 

[chappo1970]

...to use radio tagging of the oxygen in either the atmosphere above the wort, or in the LFA's added (fairly easy to synthesize canola oil...

:blink: !

Leigh I have a remote controlled car with a radio transceveiver but I don't know if I can occy strap that to an oxygen molecule? h34r:

Sorry mate I'm dumb arsed builder you'll have to type sloooowly so I can understand, please?

Chappo

 

[Leigh]

:blink: !

Leigh I have a remote controlled car with a radio transceveiver but I don't know if I can occy strap that to an oxygen molecule? h34r:

Sorry mate I'm dumb arsed builder you'll have to type sloooowly so I can understand, please?

Chappo

Not a dumb arse at all mate...when I build stuff my squares are more diamond shaped LOL I measure three times, cut once and still balls it up!

radio tagged as in hit with some radiation to make it stand out from the crowd...

 

[chappo1970]

Not a dumb arse at all mate...when I build stuff my squares are more diamond shaped LOL I measure three times, cut once and still balls it up!

radio tagged as in hit with some radiation to make it stand out from the crowd...

Ahhh! So Chap Chap just needs to take a trip to the radiology dept at the RBH and see if they let him radiate his fermenting beer. :lol:

Leigh please don't think I am taking the piss because I'm not but still it is funny!

Chappo

 

[pingdong]

I am new at making beer but i want to have a go at this. I have bought a wyeast lager activator pack and planing to make it into a starter. I will do as follows but let me know if im wrong. I will make a 2 lts starter add a drop of olive oil and boil for 15 mins. cool in sink to below 22 and pitch yeast. then cover with foil and put in my temp controll at 22 till finished. then put in fridge for a few days. then take out of fridge on brew day and slowly raise temp. then tip out beer and add to my fresh wort. Do i then add more olive oil?

 

[felten]

A drop is way overkill but I can't remember if that would lead to any problems or not.

If I was new at this stuff I wouldn't start with screwing around with olive oil, it's just a bit of a novelty really. If you don't have a stirplate for your starters, then you can just shake them every hour. If you don't have the time to shake them, then you can just use more wort to begin with to get the yeast growth you need.

my 2c

 

[Sammus]

A drop is way overkill but I can't remember if that would lead to any problems or not.

If I was new at this stuff I wouldn't start with screwing around with olive oil, it's just a bit of a novelty really. If you don't have a stirplate for your starters, then you can just shake them every hour. If you don't have the time to shake them, then you can just use more wort to begin with to get the yeast growth you need.

my 2c

+1

definitely don't worry about this if you're new at making beer, don't even need to worry too much about shaking and stuff, the difference will be SFA really. Just brew like normal...once your into it a bit you might want to try it to see if you can even notice any difference...

 

[Deebo]

Dragging up a dead thread..

Found the information pretty interesting but was wondering if anyone still use olive oil in place of aeration? (if not, why not?)

 

[donburke]

Dragging up a dead thread..

Found the information pretty interesting but was wondering if anyone still use olive oil in place of aeration? (if not, why not?)

i first read this thread and attached article about two years ago, and tried the tiniest little bit of olive oil in my starters for the next few brews,

i honestly didnt notice any difference in the starters or finished beers, so abandoned the practice, i saved the oil for my salads and cooking

 

[Bribie G]

Chappo was a keen advocate of this but it didn't seem to enhance his brewing career

 

[Lecterfan]

Necro:

Just out of interest, from the Whitelabs blog dated 26th July...

 

[Endo]

Necro:

Just out of interest, from the Whitelabs blog dated 26th July...

That's what has gotten me interested in the topic.

Its another one of those things with information, lots of sceptics and not a lot of data to go off for homebrewers :S


So for someone who doesnt usually use starters (I use the wyest smack packs) and being slightly paranoid about nasties.... One drop at flame out then pitch yeast? I no chill so the wort gets a good splashing as well.


Wonder if I should do some actual work today and stop reading up on this topic.... :huh:

 

[QldKev]

1 drop goes a long way. I still aerate by pouring from the no-chill cube into the fermenter, but find this helps a bit.

Have a read of this olive-oil-thesis


QldKev

 

[mark0]

... and being slightly paranoid about nasties.... One drop at flame out then pitch yeast?

i was also thinking about the sanitary aspects of this. Would be interesting to see the effects of adding to hot wort, rather than yeast starter.

Wonder if I should do some actual work today and stop reading up on this topic.... :huh:

Nope.

 

[Endo]

1 drop goes a long way. I still aerate by pouring from the no-chill cube into the fermenter, but find this helps a bit.

Have a read of this olive-oil-thesis

Think I will give it a bash in my next brew. Everything I have read has shown that there is no ill effects. Just maybe no positive either... Worth a shot.

i was also thinking about the sanitary aspects of this. Would be interesting to see the effects of adding to hot wort, rather than yeast starter.

Yeah need to research that bit more I think

Nope.

1.5hrs to go....