Hot side aeration

[Smh77]

I've always been very careful while transferring my beer from container to container after I've pitched my yeast, however I just read something about hot side aeration that has me fairly confused. I've always thought that your wort needed air in it to have a healthy fermentation. I've stirred my wort to try to get air in it and I've strained my wort into my primary fermentor which also seems to get air into it pretty well. My question is, should I not be doing that? Am I contaminating my beer? Because something I just read said you always need to be very careful about getting too much air into your beer, as early as mashing and all the way through transferring your cooled wort into your fermentor. Any thoughts or advice?

[Beer Martin]

Hot side aeration is a myth!

Ok, well not really, but yes you do want air in your wort. Though, you should cool your wort before aerating the wort. I can't exactly nail down the reasons, but the O2 will bind with something in the hot wort that either evaporates off before cooling or binds to something before it gets to flocculate out of solution while cooling.

Before you cool your wort with a wort chiller or ice bath you can get hot side aeration. If you tried vigorous shaking the hot wort for 10 mins, or using an air tank to put O2 in hot wort you'll get your hot side aeration.

On the home brew scale some gentle shaking or splashing you wont see any hints of hot side aeration. You'd need to literally try very hard to put in the air for a negative effect.

After you cool the wort you need to aerate the wort for proper yeast health.
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[Smh77]

Oh good, that makes sense. Thanks! I was getting really confused on how to aerate my wort without getting air into it.

[beerking]

Hot side aeration refers to oxygen getting to the wort while it is still hot (before or after the boil). there is great debate regarding how bad, or good, that can be.

The aeration you are used to doing, which is for yeast health, should only be done after the wort is chilled.

[cavers]

I've managed to end up having to pour large quantities of hot wort almost every time I've mashed - and, FWIW, I've never noticed a problem with it. Does anyone out there know what hot side aeration will do to flavour?

[Vienna Lager]

HSA can be likened to a cardboard taste.

[seafra]

HSA can be likened to a cardboard taste.


Post-boil aeration above 80 F, definitely an oxidation threat. Pre-boil "might" present some long-term stability issues, but many will argue that the effects are slight, if any. Best philosophy: better safe than sorry.
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