Any danger or reason in adding bottled oxygen to my secondary (White Labs Kolsch yeast)? I kept the primary right in the median temp recommended and yet it was only active for 2.5 days. After reading another secondary question someone pointed out that it might not be worth attempting a secondary as I have no visable activity anymore.
thanks, Ward
Do NOT add any oxygen to your beer at this point!!! It may produce yucky off-flavors similar to wet cardboard. Sounds like your beer is already done fermenting and will probably clear up fine in the primary, so a secondary would be optional. Leave it alone for a few days, then bottle. Don't worry. You should be fine.
Never, EVER, add O2 after your beer has started fermenting. Even if it has stalled. You will just end up with stale beer.
Tom Veldhouse
It is not unusual that the fermentation is over after just a couple of days.. So, if all the maltose in the wort is gone, why would you still attempt to give fresh oxygen to the yeast? Doing so will ruin your beer from now (the taste!). Should you want to add some gas into the secondary then NEVER use O2 but you might blow some CO2 over the surface. This can be useful to protect the beer against infections when the beer is entirely 'dry' (all sugars being fermented). I do this every time. You won't need much CO2 for this. CO2 is very protective. I tried to blow some CO2 over remainders of sterilized veggies before putting them back into the fridge (I closed the jar by the lid of course) and I noticed they could be kept fresh much longer in the fridge than usual.
Norbert
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