Did I oxidize my beer?

[Ian McLoughlin]

Just did my first bottling day - two things

I used a spring tip bottle filler from Northern Brewer to fill my bottles and sanitized the hell out of the inside of it however didn't think to get the outsides of the tube that get immersed in the beer as it fills the bottle until I had already filled up several bottles, are theses ones possibly gonna get spoiled?

also there were a few bottles where an air pocket in the tubing leading from bottling bucket to the spring tip filler created some oxidation when filling, some bubbles formed, are these ones likely to have an off flavor?

thanks for any feedback - hope it turns out well

 

[seatazzz]

You should be just fine. The alcohol in your beer will mitigate anything that could possibly grow from that little bit of exposure, and I'm curious as to how you sanitized the inside of your bottle filler without doing the outside? Also a few bubbles aren't any concern either. Back when I still bottled, I would fill three or four and let them sit on the table until I capped them, then do four more. Never had any oxidation issues.

 

[Ian McLoughlin]

I just poured a bit of sanitizer from the spigot of my bottling bucked which i filled with sanitizer solution directly into it, then just held down the tip to let it run through - worked pretty well I think - thanks for the feedback!

 

[VirginiaHops1]

It's possible but much harder to infect finished beer with alcohol in it. You're probably fine there. I had major oxidation issues when I bottled though.

 

[Dgallo]

It’s certainly possible that you oxidized you beer to some extent. Many folks don’t even realize that they oxidized their beer because they think the beer needs to change color to be oxidized. Oxidation occurs long before that and effects aroma and flavor. If your beer changes color you have major oxygen issues.

Keep an eye on if. If they become oxidized, review some of the NEIPA threads on the top. Us hop heads are honestly the best at anti 02 practices because these beers are the most susceptible to oxidation.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

If you are carbonating in the bottle, then the small amount of oxygen introduced during bottling will be cleaned up by the secondary (or trinary) fermentation.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

If you are carbonating in the bottle, then the small amount of oxygen introduced during bottling will be cleaned up by the secondary (or trinary) fermentation.

But how quickly does it clean it up? It takes a bottle 1-2 weeks to carb up, sitting at room temperature which accelerates oxidation. So the yeast is working pretty slow and all the while O2 is getting into the beer. A lot of the damage is also done with all the transferring to a bottling bucket and then the unpurged bottle. Some styles you can get away with it. Eliminating the bottling bucket and purging your bottles will definitely help a lot.

 

[balrog]

Also, some of the bubbles seen when siphoning and such are actually CO2 coming out of solution and not O2.