Oxidation post active fermentation

Alright, I'll put it out there...why is it in the beer world oxidation is irreversible, but in the wine world it is not? If wine starts to get "tired" post-fermentation, all the winemaker needs to do is add a bit of campden tablets/KMS....why don't brewers do this? We'll add it to our brewing water pre-fermentation...but not post-fermentation? Why not dry hop with a campden tablet to allow the KMS to soak up any oxygen ingress. Just something i've thinking about lately...

 

Well, you certainly could, and you certainly could use meta all though out the brewing process to stave off oxidation from the start..
However you need to be very careful with it and brewers yeast, while some yeast are tolerant of it usually ale yeasts are not. H2s (hyrdogen sulfide, rotten eggs) is what happens when the yeast is mad about sulfites. Also an "over dose" can also yield very sulfuric notes much like cheap wine. That said they make commercial antioxidants, that use KMS/SMS but all use another cutting agent ( ascorbic acid) to try and reduce the potential for sulfur in the finished beer. Also they really work best on beers that don't have any yeast present (filtered, centerfuged, fined, etc). Here is an example of said product http://www.lowoxygenbrewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/ANTIOXINSB.pdf

Any time meta is oxidized it produces so2 (sulfur dioxide), so it's kind of a catch 22, of having oxidized beer or sulfury (potentially) beer. It's much easier to have sound practices that avoid oxidation in the first place, and not have to band aid it.

 

Understand...winemakers obviously have to tip-toe the line as well, but there are sulfite calculators to make sure that they stay well below that threshold. So why not add a few ppm Free SO2 when dry hopping? Cause even the best techniques for dry hopping usually still add some oxygen...
Guess it just boils down to a potentially unnecessary step in the grand scheme of things, but thinking I may give it a try one of these days on a split batch of IPA.

 

Sure, my whole blog is dedicated to minimizing oxidation and how the use of sulfites and other antioxidants can be implemented in beer making.

www.lowoxygenbrewing.com

 

Or just drink your beer quickly.