[Homebrewers] Olive Oil Addition to Yeast as an Alternative to Wort Aeration

[Steve Seeley]

New Belgium has brewed commercial beers using olive oil in the yeast slurry with no 
  aeration/oxygenation of the slurry or wort. The following is the abstract of a paper which appears in the current MBA Technical Quarterly.
   
  Olive Oil Addition to Yeast as an Alternative to Wort Aeration
  Grady Hull, New Belgium Brewing Company, Fort Collins, CO.
   
  Abstract: To extend the flavor stability of their beers, many breweries 
  are researching ways of reducing oxygen ingress throughout the brewing 
  process. However, the practice of aerating the wort prior to 
  fermentation is almost universal in the brewing industry, because oxygen 
  is necessary for yeast health and growth. Recent studies have shown that 
  alternative methods to traditional wort aeration, such as aeration of 
  the yeast prior to pitching or the addition of the unsaturated fatty 
  acid linoleic acid, can yield fermentation characteristics similar to 
  wort aeration. It has also been shown that using these alternative 
  methods instead of aerating the wort can reduce oxidation potential. 
  This paper reports the findings of a series of full-scale production 
  tests that were conducted in an operating brewery to evaluate the 
  effects of an alternative yeast treatment. By mixing olive oil into the 
  yeast during storage, instead of aerating the wort, proper fermentations 
  were achieved with only minor increases in fermentation time. The beers 
  produced from these fermentations were comparable in flavor and foam 
  retention to beers produced by traditional wort aeration. The ester 
  profiles of the beers produced using olive oil addition were 
  significantly higher than the controls, and the flavor stability of 
  these beers was significantly improved.

       
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