I was racking from carboy to keg and I could hear a faint sound of rushing air. Tightened the hose clamp, still there. Then I see it; a hairline fracture on my racking cane, not covered by the hose. I covered it with my thumb and it stopped the air from rushing in. I siphoned off half my 5 gallons like that, before i covered it. On a scale of 1 to rust, how oxidized do you think my beer will be?
My first question would be what style of beer did you brew? Hop-forward beers and beers that you'll want to age for 18 months will probably suffer the most. Most likely you'll drink good beer this time. You'll learn from your mistakes and drink great beer next time.
The flavor effects of oxidation take some time to become evident. If you can consume this beer fairly quickly (which you should do for a hefeweizen style anyway) you may never even notice the effects of oxidation. One idea: throw a party!! Cheers!
I won one in a raffle and then gave it to a fellow brewer who routinely brews double batches...an ~8 gal brew bucket is much more practical for me.
