A bit irritated, concerns over oxidation.

So, everything about my APA has gone smoothly...until last night. I got some Citra hop leaf debris stuck in the Better Bottle racking/spigot and it slowed the flow down so that only about half the tubing was full of beer. I'm concerned that I exposed much of my beer to O2. My hope is that everything will turn out fine, but it's pretty damn irritating to have the near final step of the process potentially ruin a batch. Tasted absolutely fantastic...we'll see what 3 weeks conditioning brings.



The recipe if anyone is interested:

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: WLP001
Yeast Starter: No, Vials X2
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.060
Final Gravity: 1.009
IBU: 36.1
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 9.2
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7
Tasting Notes: Very Tropical, Mango, Peach, some pine, really nice malt presence.

Recipe: Equatorial Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.85 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.72 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.060 SG
Estimated Color: 9.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 36.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 79.2 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name
4 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter
3 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L
1 lbs Munich Malt - 10L
1 lbs Vienna Malt
8.0 oz Aromatic Malt
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine
8.0 oz Honey Malt
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 50.0 min
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min
0.75 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min
1.00 oz Motueka [7.00 %] - Flame-out
0.25 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Flame-out
2 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001)
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 7 Days


Mash @ 150 for 75 min.

After flameout bring water down to 178 degrees, and let sit for 30 min. Then cool to pitching temp.

Primary Fermentation: 14 days @ 67
Dry Hop: 7 days @ 67

Total: 21 days

Dry hop in primary.

 

This thing:

http://www.better-bottle.com/products_master.html

Well, I assume if beer is flowing down a tube, think water down a tubular water slide, that the air above the beer in the tube means that the beer is being exposed to the O2. As opposed to the beer taking up the full volume of the tube. If the beer had taken up the entire volume of the tube, the air would have been pushed out, before the tube end became immersed in the beer, as it's filling up the bucket/carboy.

 

1/2" silicone tubing @ 4ft length. It was flowing in an orderly fashion, just with about 1/4" of air above the stream.

 

I hope you are correct...I want to believe.

 

This was during the transfer from primary to bottling "bucket." I use a wand when bottling.

 

Thought I'd update:

No perceptible oxidation flavors at 3 weeks, which is where I've decided to stop conditioning. Tastes amazing.