Olive Oil Aeration plus Rant

[dragonhlm]

I was very interested in what Urbain was saying about Olive Oil Aeration. After a lot of forum searches I ran across this little gem: http://www.brewcrazy.com/podcast/BrewCrAzY-07-11-01.mp3
I downloaded the file and really tried to fight through to the end.
*Here's where my post breaks down into a rant, so stop here if you must.*
I had forgotten some of the reasons I deleted everything BrewCrazy from my hard drive. It made me really appreciate all of the behind the scenes work Justin puts into his shows. THANK YOU JUSTIN I don't think I say it enough. OK so I only made it to the 56 minute mark, but here is the break down.

"I'm Jonney Mack I have a dog who may have a boat? Cackle, Cackle, Cackle..... Olive Oil... Cackle, Cackle, Cackle..... one drop in a quart jar....Cackle, Cackle, Cackle.... and one drop from that into your starter....Cackle, Cackle, Cackle..... Big beers may benefit.... Cackle, Cackle, Cackle..."

I'm not kidding it was worse than the Bob and Tom laugh track! Which I can not stand. I don't need them telling me when stuff is funny.
Anyway if anyone gets further and gleans any useful tips on this subject I would appreciate it.
And just a quick note on the zymergist comments from the Session. I think he has found his home at BrewCrazy complete with self proclaimed "QUEENS" and "Doggie Love"

I hope there will be a post from Justin when he gets the email back from Urbain.

The BN for life. Accept no substitutes!!

[Field]

I used olive oil in my last five batches, you are supposed to use an incredibly small amount. A fraction of a drop.

The olive oil is supposed to provide lipoproteins or some sort of garbage. Oxygenation is needed for yeast to produce those lesboproteins (sp), because you're giving them their fix they don't need to make any of their own - so the oxygen isn't needed.
Thats the theory.

I add a drop of oil directly to the smack pack, vial or nalgene of saved yeast, instead of dropping it directly into the fermenter. That way I'm more sure of yeast-oil contact.
.

I've got 1 batch of an IPA I'm drinking and it tastes fine, fermentation was quick. I've got one batch of a Dortmunder that I kegged yesterday - there were some drops of oil on top of the beer - important thing is 'on top' (heheh I said on top), and since a keg draws from the bottom I don't see that being a problem. If I was bottling I might have been worried about getting some oil into a finished beer.

I also used the oil in 3 beers I made yesterday that I have no results from yet.

It's not a scientific result or anything, just anecdotal, but to me it looks like it starts up a good full fermentation. I'm not going to start doing split batches or controls because I'm not worried about proving anything, the results were proof enough to me. I don't even take gravity measurements.

[dragonhlm]

Thanks for the help Feldmarshal. I think I will do some tests on starters.

[Mylo]

Oxygenation is needed for yeast to produce those lesboproteins (sp), because you're giving them their fix they don't need to make any of their own - so the oxygen isn't needed.

Oh, YEAH... I like me some lesboprotein action. Who doesn't?


Mylo

[Sent From My iPhone]

Hey Feldy, in addition to the oil do you aerate at all?

[Field]

Hey Feldy, in addition to the oil do you aerate at all?

Nope just the oil.

The IPA started up by the next morning and was done within a week. That was the Rodger's IPA kit from B3, great kit by the way, and it's like a 1.070 beer.

The Dortmunder also had started up by the morning. That was the most surprising thing with the olive oil so far for me, I'm not used to lager yeasts starting their fermentation so quickly. Since the growth phase of yeast is also the ester formation stage, this could be a very good thing. I'm too lazy uhh pragmatic to do any real testing myself but I'm sure someone will go through the split batches and blind tasting necessary in the future. On the other hand it might be something to avoid when making wheat beers or Belgians where you want a lot of esters.

Of the newest:
One of the beers was a 14.4 Brix Amber Ale, it was already bubbling away this morning .. somewhere around 12-16 hours for visible activity, Wyeast 1272 at 62 degrees. I don't do starters, but would normally pitch 2 packs or vials when a beer is over 1.050, I only used 1 in this one and it seems to be going fine.

The second was a 12.5 Brix Vienna Lager, 2 packs of Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager, 50 degrees, and it was also already going this morning.
See the Dortmunder above, the olive oil trick has been 2/2 with early lager fermentation starts.

The third I don't have an airlock in, just tinfoil, so I'm not sure what it's doing yet, it's only 9 Brix, so thats not much of a test for yeast anyways.

[dragonhlm]

With the Olive Oil providing the sterols. I wonder if this would work for a stuck fermentation where you wouldn't want to re aerate the wort?

[WormsandBeer]

Hi guys, This is a very interesting subject.

I'm a scientist for my day job, and although I don't study yeast, I'm having a hard time understanding how this works.

Yeast use oxygen during aerobic respiration, just like we do. Our cells break down sugars and form ATP which is kind of like energy currency for our cells. Now, when oxygen is not available, yeast perform ethanol fermentation (and we make lactic acid), to break down these sugars, and make ATP. But, yeast don't get as much energy out of fermentation as they do out of respiration (same for us). Both of these processes are means to an end = converting sugar into usable energy for our cells in the form of ATP. (Yeast use ATP to make a whole bunch of things, like proteins, lipids, sterols, etc.)

Here's what I don't understand. If yeast ONLY used oxygen to make these sterols, it would make sense that you could supply a lipid such as olive oil and it would be able to help the yeast do that, thus lowering its need for oxygen. But the truth is that yeast use oxygen (and ATP) for a whole bunch of other things too (making DNA, RNA, proteins, etc) besides just making these sterols.

Now, that being said. If it works, it works, and I can't argue against that. I just don't understand how it could work, based on what I know about how yeast work.

Anybody have any ideas?