Oxygen

[scubadiver]

Hi all.
I wandered into my local HBS the other day for some malts for my next batch of beer and came out with an air still and some tripple distilled yeast I realise now after finding and reading this forum that some of what I was told may of been salesmanship, as no mention was made of double distilling etc.

For my first wash I intend to do exactly what it says on the yeast packet and make a simple sugar wash then follow the advice given in a post on this forum by aidanmac (sir I thank you for the pdf) but with my experiance in all grain brewing proving to me that wort oxygenation produces better results I cannot help but wonder if I would benifit from oxygenating the wash with pure oxygen bubbled through it with my airstone your thought please.

I thank you all for the priceless information available on this board.

[chill]

Yes, oxygenating the wash will help the yeast. Anything you learned about fermentation for beer will apply equally here. After all, whiskey is just distilled beer. Well, less the hops.

Chuck

[Capt-Cudellez]

If you have done AG brewing your miles ahead of where most of us start off. Just for others reading this, the wash should only be airiated before pitching the yeast (or you can continue for the first few hours if you have something like an air stone).

The yeast use the oxygen to reproduce and increase their numbers. After the oxygen is used up they will start to feed on the sugar and create alcohol and CO2, so if you continued to airiated the wash then they would have no need to feed on the sugar, bad news for us brewers.

[Frank]

@Scubadiver
FYI, I wandered into a LHBS a few years ago for some beer kits and the wife walked out with an Airstill (as well as attendant expectations regarding my interest and capacity to make her spirits cheaply ) so... I reckon I know a bit re where you are at etc

Mate, there's lots of parallels re beer and spirit fermentation IMHO.
Pretty well anything you do to make a succesful beer fermentation (eg aeration) can be used for making a good spirit wash (esp the bits where using patience and quality-over-quantity are involved).
Take care of your brewkit cleanliness and your yeast + take time = all good.
Have fun!