Beer Forum

Suppose that you make a 2 liter starter and you plan to shake it every hour or so for oxygenation. Lets assume that you do the first initial shake and then walk away, get drunk, and forget to shake your starter for the next 6 hours. Let's also assume that during this six hour period the yeast used up all of the oxygen you initially put into the wort and have now started fermentation. If after these six hours (and after fermentation has started) you decide to shake the starter to oxygenate it, will the yeast resort back to aerobic metabolism and continue growth? If not, is it a bad thing to shake the starter after the yeast have started fermentation. Thanks in advance for any info you can give me about this kind of situation.

it's yours...shake it as much as you want

When you do this though, it might be best to chill the starter, and decant the mini beer off... since it will be oxidized from the reintroduction of alcohol. But if you put more o2 in the solution 6 hrs later, you will get more yeast growth.

Also, if you are pitching into a bigger beer/ super hoppy or roasty, or whatever, you probably don't have to worry about the 2 liters affecting the flavor profile of that big beer too much, so just pitch it. But if its a delicate blonde or something, chill and decant.

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