Adding olive oil to yeast

premium

Interesting read. Has anyone else heard of this?

http://brewcrazy.com/brewing-beer-with-olive-oil-article/

It was all the rage on homebrew message boards a few years ago.

Yes, it works quite well in my experience.

White Labs down in San Diego actually did a mythbusters-type experiment recently in which they brewed up (and served, at their new tasting room) a single batch of beer that was then split up and treated with either olive oil or different levels of aeration.

My recollection of the outcome was that all the batches ended up tasting pretty much exactly the same. Which suggests that switching olive oil for aeration was effective (despite the fact that I think the goal of the experiment was to prove that it wasn’t). That’s my recollection, and it’s been a few months. For folks really interested, White Labs likely has further info.

weird.

I figure aeration shouldn’t be excluded but a drop or even only an inoculation loop worth of olive oil doesn’t hurt. Especially not when reviving old yeast cakes (which I never do for some reason). It simply helps the yeast get started.

Originally posted by kmweaver
My recollection of the outcome was that all the batches ended up tasting pretty much exactly the same.

+1

Fermenting quicker is not a plus for me. I’d be down for improving the taste.