I CAN'T SEEM TO GRASP THE CONCEPT THAT WORT CAN BE OXIDIZED BEFORE BOIL. CAN ANYONE ENLIGHTEN ME? THANK YOU. I'M ONLY 8 BATCHES DEEP WITH TONS OF LEARNING TO DO. REASON BEING I JUST KEGGED A PALE ALE AND IT HAS THE CARDBOARD TASTE. PRIMARY 2 WEEKS. SECONDARY 2 WEEKS. AND DAY 4 IN KEG. MADE SURE NOT TO SPLASH AT ANY TRANSFER. I DO KNOW THAT I STIRRED MY MASH A TAD BIT VIGOROUS. I'M THINKING MAYBE THIS WAS THE CULPRIT?
NO. YOU CAN'T REALLY CAUSE OXIDIZATION BY STIRRING YOUR MASH TOO MUCH. YOU PROBABLY DID IT WHEN YOU TRANSFERRED TO SECONDARY OR TO THE KEG, OR YOU HAVE AN INFECTION OR GREEN BEER.
It's much more likely that your O2 pickup (if that is indeed the cause of the flavor you're getting) happened during a transfer (to secondary or bottles) than pre-boil. And stop shouting.
LOUD NOISES! But nah, I don't think that's it. You aren't really gonna get oxidation flavors from pre-boil, especially because the boil gets rid of any oxygen and because homebrew batches are so small. Chances are you got it someplace after peak fermentation. I would recommend not going to secondary and just leaving the beer in primary for 2-4 weeks. Transferring to secondary isn't all that beneficial (unless harvesting yeast or maybe dry hopping) and it definitely introduces oxygen. Good luck!
Why are y'all yelling? I've been pretty lazy with stirring, transferring, and mixing hot wort with a drill (causing whirlpool that sucked a lot of air down). Still no oxidation after a healthy vigorous fermentation.
SORRY FOR THE SHOUTING!! Thanks for the replies. Maybe when I transferred to secondary, bung would not stay down and I did not see my airlock popping. Perhaps it was not properly sealed?
What if air was getting inside fermenter though (from my bung not sealed properly)? Would that cause oxidation or would that cause a sour beer?
Of course air was inside of it. It's always inside of it, unless you are flushing it with co2. Thats why you keep a small amount of headspace in your secondary. The fermenter isn't going to breath in and out in a fashion that would be recycling air into the beer.
Oh ok... I was under the assumption that racking into secondary rejuvenates the yeast briefly and produces co2 to rid the oxygen. I did have more headspace than desired. Thank you for your help.
Racking will agitate the beer enough to remove co2 from solution after fermentation. The fermenter still has a co2 blanket if left alone.
Myth? No. Oxygen can oxidize other compounds in the mash. Important contributor to flavor? Probably not.
I think there's a good chance that the beer is just green, and will taste fine in another 2 or 3 weeks.
agree with Vikeman, it's actually a bigger problem for production breweries with bottles & cans sitting on shelves than for homebrewers. I'm a little unclear why, whether it has to do with their pumps and mash mixers, but HSA is indeed a valid concern for them.
