How much oxygen is too much?

[ike8228]

I’ve been working on minimizing my oxygen exposure, but there are times I just can’t figure out how people avoid it. I still don’t understand how people keep taking samples to test gravity without opening something up to get the sample. How about during the bottling phase, the time it’s exposed to air in the bottle while filling. I dont keg yet but I’ve read lots about that please don’t rehash that, I’m not there yet. I’ve purged my bottling bucket with co2 and come up with a way to ‘suckback’ co2 instead of o2 during cold crash. I’ve been using a large basting syringe with a small tube to suck out samples, but still have to take the air lock out to get the tube in. Same with adding dry hops, opening up the fermenter to add. Using oxygen absorbing caps after bottling too. Etc...

My question is how much is too much? Does it matter for some amount of time? The time to fill the bottle for example. Is that enough to damage it? Opening the lock quick and tossing in hops. I know it may be minimal but looking for some feedback on exposure levels in general.

I know some say it doesn’t matter, but many swear by it.

Thoughts?

 

[RPh_Guy]

The more you can reduce oxygen, the better.

Some oxygen exposure is pretty much inevitable when bottling, but there are techniques to make that small amount of exposure irrelevant.

We have a whole subforum dedicated to low oxygen brewing:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/forums/lodo-discussion-and-techniques.282/

Cheers

 

[RM-MN]

The people who espouse low oxygen say it had the biggest impact on the pale ales and IPA's where you lose the nice hop aroma. If you don't let your beer sit in bottles for a long period (3-4 months) this isn't a huge problem. Beer has been made for centuries without the low oxygen being a major worry.

 

[McKnuckle]

Avoiding oxygen on the cold side is difficult with basic homebrewer equipment such as buckets. To get more serious about it, the first thing that has to change is your fermenter. One that allows for a sample to be taken without opening the top is key. That means either a spigot (available on many inexpensive types) or a tap (requires some pressure, which in turn requires a keg or unitank style fermenter).

A second step is to stop relying on full hydrometer samples to confirm gravity. The refractometer compensation calculators are "good enough" and will, at the very least, confirm that fermentation has concluded. If you can sacrifice a little theoretical FG precision (1 point maybe, if that?), then you can avoid the exposure time and physical incursion required to pull a hydro sample.

For bottling, go directly off the spigot using a short length of tubing and a bottling wand. Bottling buckets should be one of the first things to go. More advanced equipment includes closed transfers and kegs, as you know.

For bottle priming, measure and dose each bottle, or use sugar drops to avoid needing to mix all your beer in a bucket. Hate doing that with 50 bottles? Brew small batches.

For the vast majority of brewers, these techniques will really help with the freshness of pale beers.

 

[RPh_Guy]

directly off the spigot using a short length of tubing and a bottling wand.

I use a bottling wand that fits directly onto the spigot.

For bottle priming, measure and dose each bottle, or use sugar drops to avoid needing to mix all your beer in a bucket.

Priming the fermenter works too.

Lots of good advice!

 

[ike8228]

I purge my sealed bottle bucket and put an airlock on it so the co2 can exit as beer enters. I fill from the spigot with my prime already in the bucket. Then use a wand. My 5 gallon batches are still being done in glass carboys. But I have two 12.5 gallon SS conicals with dump valves at the bump. Not sure the exact terms but one at the very bottom for dumping trub and one on the angle for the beer release. I plan on switch into those after a couple more batches. I should be able to take samples and bottle directly from those.

 

[Dustin_J]

Keep in mind too that actively fermenting yeast will scavenge oxygen in a hurry. That's why a lot of the folks trying to minimize oxidation on the cold side spund (in kegs or bottles) or prime and wait a bit before transferring - there's some protection against whatever inevitably gets picked up during the transfer. It's not carte blanch to go crazy, but it does provide a bit of a safety net for samples, transfers, etc.