New to Homebrew

Hello everyone.  I am new to the site and new to brewing!  I brewed my first wort on Saturday evening.  A Belgian-Style wheat ale.  I am currently using extracts, but will be moving into grain beer at some  point.  I do have one question if anyone would like to comment.  I took a class at a local brew store (last Thursday) and there wasn't much, if any, mention of aeration.  I read in the book that came with my brew kit about the importance of aeration, prior to pitching the yeast.  Needless to say that is step I skipped.  I pitched WY3944 (after 8 hours of room temp acclimation and three hours after I broke the "slap pack").  After about 20 hours there was zero signs of fermentation (air lock, bucket seal are good).  I made the decision to sanitize a whisk, open the fermenter and whisk for two minutes to a thick foam on top of the wort.  The wort had the smell of yeast with a little foam, but not much.  Now to my question, did I ruin my first batch?  I feel like it was risky, but again this is my first batch...I don't even know what risky is yet.  Thanks all. 

Aeration is vital to yeast health and oxygen is needed for yeast to grow and revitalize.  This is the aerobic stage which generally occurs in the first 12 or so hours.    This is also referred to as the lag stage.  A lack of oxygen causes fewer healthy yeast cells and the beer is more prone to off flavors.  This may not be a big deal in this style of beer though.  It will, almost certainly, make the lag stage seem to take forever.

A sad affect is not enough yeast cells make it to the next round where there is massive growth.  The cells may not be strong enough to bud daughter cells.  This creates many more variables in fermentation like not attenuating and, of course, more off flavors.

Because this is the lag stage and was probably under oxygenated, give it a good 48 hours before you start worrying. 

Cheers.

Well I am happy to report that I re-pitched the yeast and got fermentation!  The beer was awesome after a week  in the bottle and even better after two.  Thanks so much for your help.

jomebrew said:

Aeration is vital to yeast health and oxygen is needed for yeast to grow and revitalize.  This is the aerobic stage which generally occurs in the first 12 or so hours.    This is also referred to as the lag stage.  A lack of oxygen causes fewer healthy yeast cells and the beer is more prone to off flavors.  This may not be a big deal in this style of beer though.  It will, almost certainly, make the lag stage seem to take forever.

A sad affect is not enough yeast cells make it to the next round where there is massive growth.  The cells may not be strong enough to bud daughter cells.  This creates many more variables in fermentation like not attenuating and, of course, more off flavors.

Because this is the lag stage and was probably under oxygenated, give it a good 48 hours before you start worrying. 

Cheers.

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