Beer Forum

Last night I brewed up a nice little pale ale. Hit all my numbers with an OG of 1.055. Then I tossed in my yeast starter and went to aerate only to find out I ran out of O2. It's been going overnight. I won't be able to pick up any oxygen until after work. Would it be good to hit it with some O2 after work or should I just let the beer take its course at this point?

Thanks All!

did you shake the fermenter or anythign before pitching?

I wouldn't do anything at this point. I think it will be fine particularly if you pitched a good big starter.

As stated above, do not add any O2 after fermentation has begun. Next time if you are out of oxygen simply cover the carboy with sanitized foil and swirl/shake the crap out of it for 5 minutes to introduce ample oxygen for fermentation. This should give enough O2 for an average gravity pale ale.

I never shook the carboy after transferring and also filled the carboy up from the bottom. After doing some research I found some people who added O2 the next day and were okay. Introducing oxygen the next day also somewhat common for very high gravity beers the key seems to be not to add so much that there is some left over after fermentation so I did a 30 second hit of O2 about 18 hours after i pitched the yeast. Here's hoping it all goes well.

Cheers,

Please continue to post results, I am very curious.

So I guess the obvious answer is to have a backup O2 canister. This advise also works with CO2 since I always tend to run out on a Sunday after 5pm.