Low Oxygen Brewing

Yes, I am aware.

15 years. 2,000 years of brewing. 500 years of consistent brewing. 150 years of scientific brewing. 20 years of craft brewing. 15 years of HSA. There was even some questioning if HSA even exists much less if it is a problem to be fixed.

You get my point.

 

I do. I also hesitate to dismiss relatively new information/concepts just because they're relatively new. Well, as long as they aren't complete nonsense, anyway. The state of the art should advance, else there would be little point (to me anyway) of making my own beer. God knows I don't do it to save money. I think part of the reason HSA is so hotly debated at times is that HSA proponents rarely take the time to frame the discussion in terms of a good-better-best continuum or a marginal improvement type of scenario, and HSA sceptics feel like they are being told their beer sucks.

Well, there's a reason I ferment Imperial Stouts in a bucket. (No, it's not hot side, but...)

 

I've never seen a better summary of the vitriol surrounding LODO methods and HSA. Bravo.

 

Sierra Nevada is the one I know of in the US. They have column strippers to remove the disolved gas in the brewery water. Correspondence with Bill Manley and John Palmer confirmed that.

In Germany you can add Augustiner, Ayinger, and Schönram. There are probably more, but those are the ones talked about.

Edit - to make a Helles like Augustiner you need to avoid O2 on the hot side. Many of the smaller older breweries have a house flavor, that once you know what it tastes like, you object to it. One German brewer said it is best to fill the mash tun and boil kettle from the bottom, those that fill from the top have more of this off flavor due to the aeration and splashing. That brewer mainly makes Dunkel.

 

Here's a great podcast with The Beerery. Starts at 32:00. Lodo info starts at 48:00.

http://fermentationnation.net/2016/11/episode-43-low-oxygen-brewing-with-bryan-rabe/

 

Not exactly sure why, but my account was not allowed to post....

What are the questions that need answers?

 

In a movie theater, which arm rest is yours?

 

I have a few questions that I don't think have been asked yet.

1. I like to brew with kveik, a family of Norwegian farmhouse yeasts that can ferment in the high 90s Fahrenheit. I typically start my fermentations at about 95°F, and I insulate the fermenter so that the temperature probably rises a few degrees during active fermentation. Is adding pure oxygen at that temperature a bad idea? If so, is there any way to provide oxygen for my yeast, aside from using a fresh, well-oxygenated starter?

2. Does yeast nutrient contain copper, and if so, should its use be minimized in low oxygen brewing?

 

I add the yeast to the fermenter, sit for about 5 minutes, start o2(8ish ppm) then transfer. With the way I treat my yeast, I see all DO in the fermenter gone within about an hour, and active fermentation within 4-6. Chemical reactions happen magnitudes slower as the temperature lowers. This is why he have a bigger albeit still small ( sub 8hrs) time window on the cold, but prefermentation side.

No, I do a slow underlet, and no dough balls. grain condition helps a lot (well milling in general)

HSA is/has been a proven scientific fact, whether it maters to a person is the debate.

Sadly I do. But thats ok, I am entitled to my own opinion.

Pretty much all Macro brewers are, as they have to be, plus scale helps out dramitically. Most of those you just listed have state of the art German brewhouses, and are indeed low oxygen.

You will see my name in the credits there, I am aware of it.

Bamforth dramatically changes his tone in his most recent book "Freshness". You should check it out.

HSA, DO, etc has been around since the early 1900's, its certainly not anything new. All these can be measured, and proven with science. Whether they matter to someone is really the only question.

 

Thanks. I might. (I bought "Foam" and was a little underwhelmed, but that was mainly because I was hoping it would answer a particular burning question, but it didn't.)

 

Yeah but they are usually talking about finished, packaged product. Since yeast scavenges oxygen during primary fermentation, I feel that it's a bit silly to avoid oxygen during the mash /or boil if you are later going to blast the wort with oxygen prior to / slightly after yeast pitch. Maybe I need more education on this topic.

 

Hit me up, via a PM.

The theory is that there is a malt antioxidant -ascorbic oxidase- that when preserved, lends itself to glorious fresh tasting lingering grain flavor. Since this is an antioxidant if any part of the hot side brewing process that contains oxygen the oxidase expels itself. You can actually see (well, smell) this happening when you dough in. You know that mashing smell of wondrous grain? Thats it evaporating, low oxygen hot sides have literally zero odor, and that flavor/aroma is preserved until serving.

 

Would you suggest doing lodo with all beer styles. My last batch (marzen) tasted like raisin bran but i'm not sure if i would get that with a brown or red ale.

 

1. Not really as long as the yeast are active and can consume it.
2. Its depends on the brands, but usually its zinc, and sulfate, etc.

As we have always said, recipes sometimes need to be reconsidered. I am not sure what the recipe was. All the beers I brew are lodo. But if you are trying to recreate something that is historically/stylistically not lodo, then YMMV.

 

I’m curious about the yeast pitching process - I usually pitch a starter fresh from the fridge that was cold crashed and decanted, so I’m assuming it takes a bit longer for the yeast to wake up, and thus longer exposure of the wort to the pure oxygen I just injected...

Would you suggest warming the yeast back up before pitching, or not cold crash / decant at all?

 

Decant all your starter wort in the AM then add a small amount of wort and O2 to wake them up the morning you brew. They’ll be rip roaring ready by the time you need them. Just make sure the starter is relatively close to to pitching temp. (No room temp starter pitched into 46* wort)

 

They may be rip roaring, but they will be rip roaring in an environment that's different from the one you're about to plunk them into. That small amount of wort doesn't trigger them to get ready to build cell walls and divide, which is the first thing they need to do in the main wort.

I have never seen any data to indicate any benefit to the final beer of "waking up" the yeast with a small amount of wort. And I can't come up with any logical hypothesis to point to a possible benefit. OTOH, it may not hurt to do it.

 

I always like to pitch active yeast, but, in reality, a quick start has much more to do with the amount of yeast that you pitch and much less to do with their level of activity when you pitch them.