Oxidation during bottling?

Not if you drink those first.

 

I had the same problem. I put them aside and destroyed them, but I had to wait for them to carb-up first. I disposed of them properly by pouring them down the old Alimentary Canal.

 

It is very likely these beers are going to ge staled, put them aside and drink first when carbed

 

Bottle conditioned? Won't the yeast eat it all up?

 

The yeast will use as much O2 as they need. Which unfortunately is less than the amount of O2 in the headspace, let alone any already pre-dissolved in the beer.

 

RDWHAHB.

I too have experienced this nuisance from time to time when bottling.
Never noticed any adverse FX.

 

Relax, Don't Wet Hump and Homebrew : )

 

Yes, they are ruined... PM me and I will provide you with an address you can send all your oxidized beer to. I may even reimburse you with $0.05 return for each bottle sent to me.

 

Homebrew mantra: Relax. Don't worry. Have a homebrew.

 

I thought it meant Really Dude? Why the Hell Are You Homebrewing? Every time I would ask a question people would put that...



















Nah, just kidding.

 

To be honest, I don't think oxidation is nearly as big of a risk as everybody thinks. Last September I bottle a kolsch and I had the wrong size vinyl tubing for my auto siphon (who knew 1/2" tubing doesn't fit a 1/2" auto siphon, lol). Anyhow, I had a continuous stream of bubbles forming at the end of the autosiphon and flowing through my beer into the bottling bucket. I just assumed that beer was eventually going to turn into a wet cardboard mess. 7 months later and it still tastes great, with no oxidative qualities. I even entered it into NHC, received 3rd place for the category with a 37 score and nobody mention oxidation in the beer. So needless to say, I think your beer will be fine.

 

I partially agree here - oxidation is more critical to prevent in some styles than others. In general, the lighter the style - that is, the less hops and malts you add, the less impact there will be to oxidation. Why? There are less components in the beer to react with oxygen to result in off flavors. A low gravity, low-hopped kolsch is probably not very impacted by oxidation; while a double IPA, on the other hand, will be destroyed very quickly by oxidation. That being said, as a best practice, brewers should be trying to avoid oxidation. It certainly won't help any beer (except maybe your 12 year old properly cellared doppelbock, RIS, or barleywine... that was bottled properly to begin with...)

 

No worries, just get the tubing/clamps etc whatever situated for next time. Your beer should be fine, just drink those bottles first.

 

Good point!

 

just entered my first comp and got a 31 with my pale ale. both judges mentioned oxidation in both aroma and flavor, which seemed to cost it pretty substantially. I'm trying to review my process to determine where the oxidation was introduced, and bottling is the only place it could've happened. One guy I spoke with suggested introducing a layer of co2 to the top of the fermenter after opening and while siphoning to the bottling bucket, while also flushing the bottling bucket with co2 before siphoning into it.

What else could I pay attention to to possibly minimize any oxidation in my process?

Thanks!

 

If you're bottle conditioning, there's only so much you can do: there is inevitably going to be some oxygen introduced. To minimize this, you want to make sure your tubing seals airtight onto your autosiphon (or just use a single piece of tubing without the autosiphon) and regulate the speed of transfer as carefully as you can so that the beer pours slowly and gently into the bottling bucket. Usually, this will be adequate to avoid significant problems.

This is all assuming you don't have the ability to purge with CO2 (in which case you'd probably be kegging). If you have the ability to purge the bottling bucket and bottles with C02, that will help a great deal. If you have the ability to keg, even better. You can avoid almost all exposure to oxygen by carefully transferring from the fermenter to a properly purged keg.

 

When I bottle I prop up the back of the bottling bucket with a folded kitchen so it tilts towards the spigot, this eliminates the problem you describe except perhaps for the very last bottle.