Lawrence Brewers Guild

In the last two issues of Brew, the topic of using a drop of olive oil instead of aerating wort to feed yeast has been mentioned. Well, I tried it today on my 10 gallons of Irish Red. I did a simple warm water yeast starter for my dry yeast, and shortly before pitching I added one drop of olive oil to about 8 ounces of water and two yeast packets. About 30 minutes after pitching I had bubbling in the airlock, and after two hours I had to add blow off tubes instead of my airlock. I have not usually used yeast starters, just pitched the dry yeast and had to wait about a day for fermentation to start, so Im not sure if its the oil or the starter, but its going like crazy now, and my basement smells great.

Mike

Sounds like we have the start of a science project! I am very intrigued by those articles too. I hope others chime in with their results. It all ends in the glass-- let us know how the final product ends up.

I am carbonating 10 gallons of bitter that I used oil with. Fermentation was strong, and fast. Dry yeast Nottingham. Tastes great before carb. I have another 10 gal batch of RyePA, Safale 1056 same fermentation. Going into keg in a few days.

I did not make a starter. I sprinkled the yeast on the wort when it was still on the warm side, sanitized a steel skewer, dipped in oil, let the excess drip of, then dipped it into the wort. Probably half a drop or less of oil.

When I kegged the bitter, I noticed a small amount of oil still sitting on the surface of the beer. Once it is carbed, I will see if head retention was effected.