Oxidation :(

[SudsyPaul]

So I brought my beer to a local homebrew throwdown, and I placed 5th out of 12 (not shabby considering I was the newbie and only started homebrewing 5 months ago). We were given a basic malt-bill and free-reign of the hop schedule for a given list of hops. We had to aim/hit 40 IBU with our hops, though.

We had 1 BJCP judge and another dude that's practicing to be a judge. The BJCP judge scored me at 35/50 (which I'm super happy with), but I took a huge hit in the "Flavor" category (11/20).

Both judges told me I have oxidation (sherry taste/aroma).

I'm not kegging, yet, so my beer was bottle-conditioned for 3 weeks at ~70f. I'm pretty careful when I'm bottling to not aerate everything too much, but it seems like I'm a bit ****ty at that.

Any tips on improving my bottling technique? I use a 1/2" auto siphon to rack to my bottling bucket and I use a 3/8" auto-siphon with bottling wand to fill the bottles. I put caps on as I fill and then use a stand capper after I'm done filling all the bottles.
I use 355ml (12oz?) bottles for everything with oxygen absorbing caps.

I'm hoping to start kegging in the next few months and this won't be an issue, anymore... but until then (and if those purchases are delayed), I should probably get a handle on my bottling skills.

 

[JayDubWill]

Sounds like you bottle like most people do. Are you getting a lot splashing when transfering to the bottling bucket? I'm curious how you are doing your primary fermentation. In a carboy or bucket? How long in primary, did you secondary? Did you have to move the bucket/carboy around at all?

 

[Wynne-R]

When you start the siphon it will gurgle, and it will do it again when the fermentor is almost empty. I save those bits to separate bottles. I either pour it out or add to the next starter. I bottled it once and it was papery.

What kind of beer was it? A little sherry in a barleywine is not too bad, but it’s undrinkable in a pale. How old was it?

BTW, 11 is not a bad score for BJCP taste. 15 is fantastic. Below 10 is majorly flawed or way out of style. Above 15 is unbelievably good. Those last few points are hard to get.

 

[SudsyPaul]

Hmm... good idea on the bucket before and after.

I made a pale ale, and it was only 3 weeks old. I'm gonna start drinking it and save a couple to see if I can detect the taste of oxidation over time. I need to start learning about flaws a bit more so that I can notice when they happen.

I dropped this brew in a secondary, which could have also been when I can oxidized it. I don't recall how careful I was with that. I rarely rack to secondaries, so that change in procedure could have been somewhere where I wasn't as meticulous with oxidation.

I never move the buckets until I'm ready to bottle, and even then, the buckets are only gently moved from one side of the room to the other (like 8 feet of lateral movement - and I'm big enough to not shake when I lift the buckets/carboys)

I doubt I'll ever get over 40 in my scores, but a solid 40 would be awesome! Best score of the night was a 43, and they came in 4th for people's choice, lol.