2nd aeration worthwhile?

[BarryNL]

I heard a Basic Brewing Radio podcast with a guy from Wyeast who was saying that further aeration upto 14 hours after pitching can be benificial to the yeast - particularly with 'big' beers - which probably means 1.065+.

I just made a 1.074 stout and am wondering whether to give it another blast with the aeration stone tonight. Anyone do this, is it useful?

[steve_flack]

Personally I aerate like mad before pitching then leave the beer alone.

[mysterio]

I've had no problems using a good initial aeration. I might consider it if I was making a beer above the ~1.090 range, maybe.

[UserDeleted]

I don't do it, but its a bit like dropping, the timing is critical if you want to avoid 'staling' problems. As long as there is no visible sign of fermentation then you are safe to do it, but the minute that you have 'islands' of yeast around bubbles then its too late. Commercially with commercial pitching rates this typically occurs around 14hours after pitching, in the homebrew environment it can be 24 or 36 hours later or even as few as 2 hours if pitching onto a prior yeast cake.