Aeration during fermentation

[legion]

Hi,

In Graham Wheeler's BYOBRA hints and tips section he advises to aerate the wort 24 hours after fermentation has begun and maybe more times for strong beers and again if fermentation has stuck, unless when close to completion.

Does anyone do this? And how close to completion can it be done? Would it be okay to aerate a fermentation stuck at 1020?

Many thanks in advance.

Adam

[bigdave]

If what Ive read is correct, aeration at this late stage can ruin the brew! If your SG is stuck at 1020 then giving it a firm but gentle stir every day will lift the yeast back into the brew and help get it going again.

[legion]

I do not have any brews that are currently stuck, it was more out of interest that it may help my brews to aerate again after 24 hours.
Graham Wheelers info conflicts with what is normally advised on this site. Earlier in the book when he talks about yeast he describes professional brewers aerating the wort on a daily basis and goes onto say that home brewers are overly concerned about getting additional air into the wort once it has started to ferment.

[kfm]

Chris, I've always been concerned about adding finings directly to the FV after fermentation is over on the basis of oxidising the brew. Some posts suggest other brewers do this, thereby saving the additional step of racking to secondary. What's your take on this, is a gentle stir of prepared gelatine into the FV likely to risk the beer?

[garwatts]

In many cases a commercial brewer probably wouldn't know what you were worrying about as their yeast mops up the small amounts of o2 which are introduced when you add finings. Racking to the cask in a commercial brewery can be a much more turbulent process than adding a jug of finings and doesn't cause them any problems.
In my experience though, it is worth being cautious when using dried yeasts (or specifically s04 and Nottingham), I wouldn't let this put you off using finings, just add them gently and swirly them in rather than vigorously stirring them in. If your system allows you to add the finings to the cask before you rack to it even better, they will mix in naturally as the beer fills the keg.

So if racking into a corny, then add finings then the beer?