De-oxidizing during fermentation using corny kegs for secondary

Hey all.

I have gotten back into home brewing after a 7 year lay-off(not that I was really experienced to begin with) and I am hoping to possibly recover from oxidization during the fermenting stage.

My first 2 batches were with WLP300 and the initial fermentation was explosive, but the second 2 batches were using Fermentis yeasts and the initial fermenting seemed to be less of a display and took a much quicker time to subside. I figured I would try reintroducing oxygen by taking off the airlock and swirling.

Besides the latter 2 batches having a much more lighter appearance than the first 2 batches, is the difference in fermenting explosiveness the yeast itself?

The main question is; can I just transfer the 2 batches to corny's and add CO2 to help aleviate the amount of oxygen for the remaining duration of fermentation , sediment issues aside?

Thanks,

Joel

Very confused on what you are talking about. What is the point of trying to get oxygen in after fermentation has started? That is a supreme no-no. Maybe I'm not sure what you're asking.

The explosive vs tame fermentations are generally due to different yeasts. Sometime I high gravity beer will be explosive with a normally tame yeast.

Try to explain what you are asking again. I am confused also. You don't want to add oxygen to your beer after fermentation is going on.

I guess all I can say is that there was such a huge difference between the 2 different yeasts and I figured that maybe adding more oxygen would have helped get the perceived dormant yeasts back to feed again.

If I have to toss, I'll toss it. I was just hoping that maybe there was some way of distinguishing the extra oxygen by kegging and adding CO2.

Oh well, live and learn.

knacker74 said:

I guess all I can say is that there was such a huge difference between the 2 different yeasts and I figured that maybe adding more oxygen would have helped get the perceived dormant yeasts back to feed again.

If I have to toss, I'll toss it. I was just hoping that maybe there was some way of distinguishing the extra oxygen by kegging and adding CO2.

Oh well, live and learn.

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CO2 won't help with that; however, unless you swirled the crap out if it you probably didn't oxidize it too bad. I'd go ahead and keg it whenever your hydrometer says its finished.

I think it depends on how big the beer is. I've read a few articles that suggest re-oxygenating at each phase of fermentation when brewing high gravity beers. It's not after fermentation has started that's the no-no, it's after it's completed when there's no sugar left and no yeast activity to use up the o2 in the beer. I'm also understanding the OP to be saying that kegging and purging the headspace should help out in that it'll make sure the only oxygen in the beer came from his swirling and not from a bunch of new o2 left in there when he kegged.

OH, and that being said. I had a batch I made last year of IIPA that was clear'ish in primary, had been there 14 days. I racked to secondary, didn't purge that carboy with co2, didn't leave much headspace (because it was done, right? I'm only dry hopping now...) and it exploded. This of course was the first beer I brewed up at my parents house so I could use their commercial gas range in a warm kitchen rather than my bayou classic in my cold garage so I didn't find out about it till I came to check on my beer and saw the mess all over their basement floor.

DerCribben said:

I think it depends on how big the beer is. I've read a few articles that suggest re-oxygenating at each phase of fermentation when brewing high gravity beers. It's not after fermentation has started that's the no-no, it's after it's completed when there's no sugar left and no yeast activity to use up the o2 in the beer. I'm also understanding the OP to be saying that kegging and purging the headspace should help out in that it'll make sure the only oxygen in the beer came from his swirling and not from a bunch of new o2 left in there when he kegged.

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Yes but adding a second dose of oxygen with bigger beers means 8-16 hrs after pitching. The purpose is to give the yeast more oxygen for sterol synthesis etc while they are still in the lag phase and growing like mad. Any time after that and at best you will be taking the yeast out of anaerobic fermentation and putting them into aerobic respiration (aka they will produce water and CO2 but no ethanol). Hopefully they will eat up the oxygen quickly and there won't be huge problems. Worst case the yeast don't consume all of the oxygen fast enough and you get a bad case of oxidation.

The OP said that his fermentation had already subsided by the time he tried to add more oxygen. That makes it a definite no-no. Hopefully there was enough of a CO2 blanket in the headspace so that not too much O2 got past it and into the beer. Only way to know for sure is to finish the brew and then taste it. OP, you might consider drinking this one quickly if its drinkable when you tap it. If there is any O2 issues it will only get worse with time.

Purging the head space in the keg will keep any additional oxygen from getting to the beer but it will not help correct any damage. This is a best practice that should always be done when kegging.

Absolutely, if all the fermentable sugars are gone then it's a no-no and I don't even see a reference to the gravity of the beer up there^^. I did want to point out that there were other things to consider. I've spoken to a couple people about the beer that I described and the general consensus was that my yeast had gone dormant due to lack of oxygen and possibly from being over stressed by being pitched into such a high gravity environment with so many simple sugars (it was a 1.075 wort already before I added 5lbs of honey to the boil). Either way, after I racked to secondary another full fermentation clearly occurred from the pile of krausen on my (parents) floor.

Purging headspace won't cure anything, but I think the point was to stop doing further harm.