Campden tabs add increased risk for skunking?

[ICWiener]

I was talking to someone the other day about brewing and the subject turned to chlorine/chloramine in our municipal water supply. I mentioned that I generally just crush up half a campden tab into my strike and sparge water and forget about it. He was shocked and went on to tell me that brewers absolutely should not do this. His reasoning was that it makes your beer much, much more susceptible to skunking. He gave me his scientific basis for this, but forgive me, I didn't bother to commit it to memory. Something about interference with isomerization of the hops' alpha acids.

He's a very good brewer, an award winner in fact, so I don't take his opinion lightly....but I've never heard this before and I haven't been able to find anything about it on the internet.

I have since brewed several batches and I still use half a campden tab every time. It doesn't seem to mess up my hop forward beers, but at the same time, I haven't experimented with it either. I don't particularly like skunked beer.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[BBL_Brewer]

It'll be interesting to see what AJ has to say about this. Lots of us use campden or k-meta and this is the first I've heard of any skunking.

 

[Yooper]

That's a new one to me too.

I don't see how it can affect isomerization at all, as the chemical reaction (the off-gassing) happens before the mash tun and long before the wort is created let alone before hops are added.

And since skunking happens post-fermentation, that would really be a stretch.

 

[Wynne-R]

That sounds like crazy talk. That’s the first I’ve heard of any problem with Campden.
Speaking of AJ:

Unreacted metabolite becomes sulfur dioxide in solution which either is driven off when the water is heated or reduces something in the mash and this is a good thing.

From the sticky.

It seems any excess is an antioxidant that is easily boiled off.

 

[ajdelange]

This is a new one on me too. I'd love to hear the guy's reasoning though. Obviously many brewers use Campden tablets for chloramine reduction and some use them without chloramine in order to keep the wort in a reduced state and lighten the color. Since the skunking reaction requires light I don't see that bisulfite would have any effect unless the reaction proceeds faster when the system is in a reduced state or something like that. Sounds like fantasy to me but I like to keep an open mind.

 

[ICWiener]

Thanks for the input, everyonw. Pretty much what I thought too...it sounded a little strange.

I'll ask him again next time I see him, get a hold of his reasoning to see if it has any merit.