Desperate for a solution to my oxidation problems!

I am one of those people who brews light colored hoppy beers without experiencing oxidation issues. I can report that I do not use an auto-siphon in my homebrewery.

Above you can read the post by @Scumbag81 where he suggests that an auto-siphon is a source of excess oxidation.

Cheers!

 

To pile on... There was a similar thread a couple years ago, but I can't find it. I remember it though because I ended up sampling some of the poster's beers. Unusually dark color after conditioning, and sort of stale-ish flavor. And it was his IPAs and DIPAs that were having the problem. Sure sounds like hoppy beers are a common theme here.

 

So what do you use?

 

Is there something about hops that would lead to a greater amount of color change in the beer? My second brew ever was a tripel that I transferred to a secondary, transferred to the bottling bucket and then bottled, all using the same autosiphon. That beer is still fairly light, despite being aged for 3 months and now being in bottles for about 3 more, but my IPAs all seem to darken with time. I'll probably try bottling my next batch from the spigot, rather than the siphon, but there's still the phase where you transfer to the bucket and add the bottling sugar that could introduce some oxygen. I know you can transfer under CO2 for kegging purposes, but I don't know how you could do something similar when bottling.

 

I am 'old school': racking cane & tubing filled with tap water to 'prime' the siphon action.

My process is very similar to this video except that I use tap water vs. sanitizer (Star San) to prime the siphon:

 

I'd say no, or at least not just hops as a single factor. There are plenty of extremely pale hoppy beers. But perhaps as a contributing factor, along with something else, like O2 or <insert hypothesis here>.

 

Sorry, that's what I meant. Is there something about hops that would make a beer more susceptible to darkening than a not-hoppy beer that was treated the same way?

 

Drink Faster?

 

I always purge the bottles this way : at 10 psi open CO2 valve for 3-4 sec then relief , once again the same, then a longer one of about 10 sec to make sure it is enough pressure inside the bottle before opening beer valve and relief valve to try to form the less foam as I can, never had oxidation problems with this method, I am convinced that my oxidation came from dry-hopping because I didn´t have this problem with the other last batches.

 

+1

 

Do you use oxygen absorbing caps? I have no idea how well they work, or if they even work at all. Just a thought that popped into my head as I cap some bottles right now.

 

The consensus seems to be that the O2 absorbing caps don't do much:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/oxygen-absorbing-bottle-caps.6323/#post-1310715

 

Something to re-read :

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/oxidation-from-dry-hopping-in-the-keg.180963/

 

Something interesting in regards this matter :


http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue2.1/garetz.html

 

YUS!

IPAs and IIPSs are crap until they are 2 months old.

 

When I see breweries bottle they always over fill, but now that you mention this I always try to stop filling just before it overflows. I've only done a few batches and haven't really had any issues. Do you usually overflow when bottling? Is that recommended?

 

I don't bottle very often, and when I do it's usually from a keg. But before I kegged, I used to bottle carbonate everything. In both cases I fill(ed) to overflowing, and then remove(d) the beer gun (or bottling wand). The gun/wand takes up space in the bottle, and when you pull it out, it leaves a fairly standard amount of headspace. Sometimes when bottling for competitions I pull the gun out half way and put a little more beer in the bottle before removing the gun, to reduce the headspace a bit. Less headspace means less O2, regardless of how well one thinks one is purging the space with CO2. (CO2 is a gas. Not a piston.)

 

Thx. I use a bottling wand, so next time I'll shoot for just slightly overfilling.

 

I try not to overflow. I fill and try to stop when it is at the very top. A towel on the floor takes care of accidents. Take care.

 

Try a complete change in process. How about avoiding bottling bucket completely? Bottle from your fermenter, and use carbonation sugar tabs/drops. It will help you narrow down the source of your problem.