THE TRUTH About OXIDATION in BEER & 16 Ways to PREVENT IT

[@GenusBrewing]

Thanks for the shout out! You do an awesome job taking a ton of info and making it digestible :)

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Much appreciated!! I learned a ton from you guys!

[@HOMEBREW4LIFE]

Let's get a donation train going!!!!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

THANK YOU!!

[@HOMEBREW4LIFE]

@@TheApartmentBrewer thank you!

[@timpolster]

Thanks for touching upon this subject. I know it is a sore topic, but in my experience, should be the focus of everybody in some way. It took me 16 years of homebrewing to start focusing on oxidation and really learning about what it is and the impacts. I see it more as a pro golfer that tries to limit their loses rather than go for big gains. Lets face it, brewing beer is fairly easy at its base level. As you want to refine your product, you start eliminating negatives. Over time you learn that oxygen is a negative pretty much all the way through the process. 1) Let me start with the big one - HSA or what I would rather say HSO (hot side oxygenation). I appreciate the nod to accepting it exists. But, it takes some time just to figure out what people are talking about with HSO. It starts with the strike water. The strike water needs to be de-aerated to have any chance of noticing any diffference against a normal batch. HSO is about taking flavor away. So if it is gone, the brewer might not even miss it. A true low oxygen hot side technique is about preserving flavor that would normally be lost. The best comparison I can make is imagine drinking a fresh lager in Germany then drinking a fresh lager in an American craft brewery. They both use fresh malt, good equipment etc... but my money is that the German lager will have a different flavor. The flavor difference is the avoidance of oxygen on the hot side of their breweries. Sadly, it happens quickly. Once the strike water touches the grain, the reactions will mute the fresh malt flavors in minutes. Which is what HSO nuts are trying to preserve, the fresh malt flavor. It is delicate and easily overlooked. Like I said, it took me 16 years to get to the point and the last four have been spent unlearning and really improving my beers. 2) Big keg tip - change out every line in your kegerator, gas & liquid to EVA barrier tubing. Bevflex and other beverage tubing has horrible oxygen transmission characteristics. Your beer will die a not so slow death just sitting in your safe-zone keg. 3) Use active yeast. They will scavenge oxygen anytime it is around and they are active. Use this to your advantage like transferring fermenting beer so the yeast will soak up extra O2. 4) Spund/naturally carbonate. This ties into #3 natural CO2 is pure. Bottle CO2 has some oxygen content. So bottle gas will kill your beer over enough time. If you start by carbonating naturally, your only bottle gas input will be for little jolts for serving. This is a rabbit hole no doubt. It is not everybody's focus, I get that. We all love the hobby. If you want to learn where I am coming from, I would check out The Modern Brewhouse. It is a place of great knowledge and learning. If not, that is cool too. Once again, I am glad you speaking about this important topic!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks for the info!

[@andvil01]

As a professional and home brewer here is my set up at home: 1. I do not care about hot side aeration. The dissolved oxygen in mash and boil are very low. Until you solved everything on the cold side, this is not your #1 issue. 2. I ferment in 30 l stainless steel kegs. A float tube takes the beer from the surface. The main fermentaion is with an open valve on the CO2 side. Then I add dryhopping and 200g sugar. Put on the lid, clamp and spunding valve. Pressure according to temperature and CO2 level. If not dry hopped I may have the spunding valve from the very start. 3. Cold crash under pressure. 4. If transfered to a keg, just clean and evacuate the other keg. Put a beer to beer line between the kegs and the spunding valve on the receiving keg. Put a bar on the fermenter. Let the beer slowly over. Adjust the pressure. 5. If bottling, I use a counter pressure filler directly from the fermenter. Flush the bottle, fill it and cap on foam. 6. I have the opportunity to check my beers on an expensive professional analyzer from Anton Paar. Few homebrewers can do that. I normally get oxygen levels at 0,1 ppm, but sometimes as low as 0,05 ppm. I have got up to 0,2 ppm, but I haven't had any oxidation problems. I am aware I have opportunities to take my homebrewing to a high level, and some equipment are expensive, but there is alot you can do for little extra.

[@TheMattMustain]

What is your opinion on the ascorbic acid during mash or metabisulphite at kegging? Those are two techniques I'm just discovering. Unnecessary if following a process like yours? I pressure ferment and close transfer. I'd consider the additions if I knew it would help the shelf life of a stored beer. 🍻

[@andvil01]

@@TheMattMustain You can use both on the cold side. Ascorbic acid will break down during boil. Better add with dry hop. The reason to use sulphite instead is that it occur natural in beer and do not need to be specified under some value. Ascorbic acid do in many countries. Nothing a home brewer need to worry about. A few grams of a mix of sulphite, sorbate and ascorbic acid to a 25 l batch will also prevent growth of Lactobacillus over time. But add after fermentation and no bottle conditioning possible then. A good process is more important than additives, but they can get you just a little further.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks for the info!

[@grahamhawes7089]

My favorite way of purging serving kegs is to use CO2 from fermentation. I hook my fermenter up to the OUT post on a keg, and hook the IN post to some bev line into a jar of sanitizer. CO2 goes into the bottom of the keg before going out the top and through the airlock. Fermentation generates huge quantities of CO2, so oxygen levels should eventually be as low or lower than the fill-with-Starsan-and-push-it-out method.

[@TheMattMustain]

I do the same except using a spunding valve instead of an airlock. Have had great success and only use CO2 to serve now.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Sounds like a great method, thanks for sharing!

[@mattyitto2346]

Hell yeah! I do same thing except the receiving keg filled to the brim with sanitizer and allow the fermentation to push it all out , 100% o2 free and sanitized and ready, using co2 from fermentation is really beneficial

[@grahamhawes7089]

@@mattyitto2346 fun fact, by doing this, you're fermenting at about 1 PSI of pressure. Probably doesn't matter, but interesting to know.

[@patrickglaser1560]

​@@mattyitto2346this is the best method

[@poisonpotato1]

When bottling form fermenter how do you mix the priming sugar in?

[@Narapoia1]

There's a few options. In Australia you can buy sugar lozenges that you add into the bottle then fill from the fermenter tap, some people measure table sugar directly into the bottles. I made a sugar solution (1:1 sugar and water by weight) then dosed each bottle individually with a syringe so I could control the sugar dose exactly across different bottle sizes in my batches. I tried a bottling bucket a few times and it made enough of a difference to the beer that I put up with the hassle of doing it that way.

[@Bullsbrew551]

I’ve been using ascorbic acid in the mash since you talked about it many months ago along with some other techniques, and haven’t had oxidation issues. Cheers! 🍻

[@andvil01]

I would put it in on the cold side. Ascorbic acid or Vitamin C, are not stable at high temperature. Some of it will degrade in the mash and boil.

[@Bullsbrew551]

@@andvil01 thank you for the information.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Nothing beats a bit of cheap insurance. You can add it both hot or cold side, it does slightly different things depending on when you add it but both of them will help reduce the risks of oxidation.

[@PatrickMcDermott-v8t]

Really enjoying all of your videos! Have you done a video on canning and how to avoid oxidation? I need to look into ascorbic acid a bit more and other oxygen scrubbers.

[@pettermandt9200]

For IPA, adding a little bit of metabisulfite with the last dry hop, and a little bit more with the gelatin (clearing) works great for me. Same for NEIPAS, without the gelatin if you´re hazecrazy. I use a smidge of metabisulfite with most of my beer after kegging, just make sure they´re cleaned up, (actually, metabisulfite is not the yeast killed many thinks, you can fermet stuff treated with it just fine - just takes a little more time).

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Yeah, the metabisulfate tip is a good technique I forgot to cover here.

[@boofhead7338]

I have been hard on myself for stuffing up many brews, no one told me about this, thank you.

[@theulsterexpat]

Great video! Great brewing space also, lots of character and potential for a cool bar area

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks!

[@ClawhammerSupply]

Regarding hot side aeration, our understanding is that hot side aeration is only a potential issue after the boil because the boil will more or less eliminate all traces of o2. So the spray valve foaming before the boil is a non issue. Unless you use it after the boil for some reason. And I’m not sure why anyone would.

[@jimdavisson5690]

This is a great discussion at 1:03:00 on the topic from one of our very respected neighbors in Mills River. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fIuZoqp_iNmNhZo Homebrewers are at an even worse disadvantage than our commercial brothers because of the square cube law.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Good to know! As I said, never ever seen an issue from HSA using the system.

[@WilliamPimlett]

Very informative - Thanks!

[@lukasjager2085]

It's funny how our experiences differ. I don't keg, my bottling setup is basically a fermentation bucket with one of these starter bottle fillers, I have to move my fermenters between the sixth floor and my basement and I prime with a sugar solution that I stir into the beer prior to bottling, yet I rarely ever have issues with oxidation. In fact I had more problems with fermentations where I opened the fermenter and threw adjuncts or hops in. That's why I don't dry hop, which is okay since I am not super into IPAs. But if I ever want to make one, I'll get me a bottle of CO2 first. Thanks for the tip and cheers.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Wow, that is a lot of work, but glad you are having success with your beers! Be safe going up and down that many stairs!

[@lukasjager2085]

@@TheApartmentBrewer Maybe I should have mentioned that I have an elevator. That helps a lot :D . There's still a lot of possibly oxygen-introducing shaking involved and I'm always a bit anxious about it. But so far I rarely had issues. If I ever want to switch from "rarely" to "never" your video is where I will go.

[@PartyTimeBrewing]

Lots of great advice! I keep forgetting to add the ascorbic acid and I'm not sure if I knew that it was supposed to go in the mash. Cheers!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Well, it can be added there or at packaging, each with slightly different antioxidative effects. Cheers James!

[@podmember]

Been brewing for 2 years and just lost my first batch to oxidation. I appreciate the tips in this video and will take them to heart. Hopefully this was the first and last time I lose a whole batch like that!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Best of luck in the future!

[@alejandrogiraldo1448]

This info is gold. Thanks for sharing

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Peter-Southern-Victoria-Aust]

Hello from a very cold and snowy south east Australia, early winter down here, I'm brewing lagers under pressure in the Kegland all rounder with one of their spunding valves which they sell and I have attached a hose out of the spunding valve into the outlet of an empty keg, sometimes daisy chain up a few kegs and flush them with co2, then I run it through a filter into the kegs and there is no oxygen contact what so ever and I have never had any problems with my lagers, reuse your co2

[@Peter-Southern-Victoria-Aust]

@@patrickglaser1560 Yes, I sanitize them with starsan, I then flush the beer filter and the lines with co2, put one end of the line on the outlet of the fermzilla then it goes through the filter and the outlet hose sits on the bottom of the keg which is filled with co2 there is no way any oxygen can come in contact with the beer

[@TheMattMustain]

Exactly what I do 🍻

[@johnpayne5623]

Very helpful, thank you.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

You're welcome!

[@F18Paul]

TAB - Great video, as always. Thanks for the reminder about using Ascorbic Acid during the mash. I've been meaning to incorporate that into my routine and just keep forgetting. Also, I see you're sporting a different style watch...may I ask what brand it is? I'm a watch geek too and have been looking a strap version very similar to the one you are wearing in this video.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Glad you enjoyed it! Its a strap I got from amazon actually - that watch is a speedy homage. Not enough cash for the real deal but it makes me happy.

[@michaelward3723]

Love your channel it's very informative. Everyone seems to agree that CO2 is the way to go with purging, but what can I do as I'm not in a position to use a CO2 bottle? I usually bottle most of my beers in plastic bottles and occasionally I use a plastic beer barrel with the small CO2 capsules used in soda streams with a pin valve. Would it be possible to fire 2 or 3 capsules of CO2 into the empty barrell, put a hose on the tap and purge the fermenting bucket and bottles as and when required. Everyone assumes we all have access to large CO2 supplies and sure not everyone does. Cheers Michael (in Scotland)

[@vilefly]

I will have to employ these methods with my meadmaking. So far, I've had beginner's luck. Stumbled into using sodium metabisulfite as a standard procedure. Didn't know I was doing the right thing. Figured I was drawing in air when I siphoned, so I never bottled the last bit that was oxidized. Have had no complaints, but I figure I can do better by using co2 in the bottles before filling.

[@ELRORRITO1]

Nice lots of info. I normally don't bottle my beer unless I give it away to friends and relatives. Currently using my Vessi Counter Pressure Filler and also a Tapcooler Counter Pressure aswell for the onesies and twosies. Love them both. Both used on my Keezer.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Counterpressure is a very good way to go!

[@davidt8546]

Great video. I have been suffering with beer not tasting bad but going brown during cold crash. I had no idea it could be the cold crash itself causing that. Will bottle this time without cold crash and see if it makes a difference. Thanks

[@DanielGonzalez-kg5rw]

Thanks man, can i do something yo help my beer if it Is smelling like oxigen paper?

[@TheBruSho]

I remember not knowing anything about oxidation in my early days 😓... once understood and mastered it makes a major difference in the final beer, Excellent and thorough video!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

It is a big deal! Thanks for watching Trent!

[@njpmn]

Nice summary of a lot of info! I do same transferring fermenter to keg. Push out sanitizer with CO2 (at about 2psi). But I do then connect the 'in' post of the keg to the head space of the fermenter. That little bit of pressure is enough to get the siphon started either from the floating dip tube if fermenting in a keg, or thru the racking cane if in a carboy (I use one of those plastic carboy caps with a carbonation cap in one opening and the racking cane in the other). Getting away from carboys though. I like the new CHS 6.5 gal fermenting kegs, but I started using 6 gal Torpedo's with success at a lower price point. One other thought for you, next 'you might be a homebrewer if' merch idea: "You or someone you know has failed at pronouncing kveik". Cheers!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks for watching!

[@Tab2120]

I made a Neipa a year ago. I did two dry hopping additions 3 and 7 days out. After it had carbonated, about three days later, it turned brown with a slight nail polish aftertaste. It's the worst beer I've ever had. I recently opened one of the bottles I kept, and the beer was crystal clear yellow (I guess because the hop matter fell out?) but still with the nail polish off flavor.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Yup, that's oxidation for ya

[@Isn1831]

Thank you for the tips, if I don’t use a bottling bucket and fill my bottles with co2, how do I add the priming sugar? Do I need to use it if I do this option? Thanks!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I recommend adding your priming sugar into your fermenter, then filling from the fermenter and purging the headspace in bottles with CO2.

[@ElementaryBrewingCo]

I need to pick up some ascorbic acid to try out. Cheers Steve!!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I can't say whether or not it has made a huge difference, but never had oxidation problems in beers I've used it in! Thanks for watching Brian!

[@ianlaker9161]

I use a bottling wand from a bottling bucket with no issues. I have beer that's a year old and sound as a pound (as we British say!). I must admit I DO depend on batch priming to prevent oxidisation. All good advice though and I may alter my practice to lessen the risks.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I imagine if you are priming properly it really would lessen the risks for most beers. Glad its been working out well for you!

[@davelee3360]

What about absorbing acid when kegging?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

That certainly helps!

[@dylandecharmoybouchet5325]

Making my NEIPA...I have been dry hopping in my bucket at high Krausen. Leaving the fermentation for a few days after my spindle tells me it's all done. Then I transfer into my bottles with a auto syphon, 4 batches later and beers being in the bottle no longer than 3 weeks I have never had oxidation in my beers.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Good stuff!

[@dwilkowske]

Thanks for the video! It is a very interesting subject. I am going to be practicing and getting a process down for low oxygen exposure bottling for my next brew. I know that NEIPA are susceptible to oxidation after fermentation but I am planning on brewing a Belgian Tripel later this year and wonder if that style is susceptible to the same oxidation issues?

[@azerbouf]

Your video was very useful for me! Thank you! Ascorbic acid and magnets sounds like a great technique for me.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I'm glad I could help!

[@XkannsenX]

Old video, but there is my two cents about hot side oxydation : at transfer in the kettle before boiling I don't think it's relevant. Boil actually deoxygenate wort (you have to boil for more than 30 minuts). And I hope it's not a problem because lots of pro brew units have the transfer inlet from mash tun to kettle in the high side of the kettle to avoid a check valve if you put it in the lower part of the kettle. Cheers ! (maybe my english is too bad for this one, but I tried 😅)

[@goodolarchie]

Hot side aeration is enough of an issue that guys like Vinny and all the hype haze houses all use de-aerated water as a basis in their HLT. They want consistency and longevity? I do too. In fact I want my kegs of homebrew to hold up longer than packaged pro beers - e.g. a hazy IPA that still tastes great after 4 months. And even though I don't do this for every beer, I've achieved this through all my LODO practices. How? I wouldn't recommend this for propane brewers, but if you're on electric it's actually easy and inexpensive to make D-A water. Just bring your entire sparge and strike water to a shallow boil first thing in the morning of brew day, before letting it drop to strike temp. You can do this the night before if you want, but you'll probably lose a lot of heat overnight, which may be wasteful. In my brewing space, my water is naturally at the ~180F strike temp after about an hour and a half after boil, with the lid off, so that works well for me. (Think of this as the "no chill" method) I've done the math with my wattmeter, I use about 1.5 KwH or $.13 to de-aerate my water. And I often have cleaning to do (e.g. fermenters) that benefit from the very hot/boiling water, so having that first thing is a nice benefit. I still recirc my mash for what it's worth, but I do so gently adjust under the wort level. Maybe I'll make a video of all this one day.

[@DGPHolyHandgrenade]

I'll add that I've been using the Grainfather all in one system since about 2017. Some of my lower gravity beers, small enough to require the micropipework, the silicon hose that's used for recirculating just simply doesnt reach the top of the wort, so there's some direct air contact and minor splashing (the pump isnt crazy powerful) and to date, I've yet to have an oxygenated beer. In fact, going back to 2008, that is one fault that I've never tasted in my own beers. Something I've noticed though is that age can bring forward faults that may be minor or undetectable right out of the fermenter, or freshly in the keg. But 9-12 months later, something changed. I think this comes back to "shelf life" more than anything though. But even on beers that stuck around for a while, like over a year, I've yet to taste oxidized beer on my own beer. I've tasted it in various forms in judging at competitions and perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot more in commercial beers. Particularly imports.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thats awesome, it is always cool to know you have more control over your process as a homebrewer than some professionals!

[@DGPHolyHandgrenade]

On this front I would say most certainly we have more control. Think back to bottling (or kegging) a 5 gallon batch. Now imagine that's a 500 gallon batch...how long do you think it would take you? Need to speed it up, right, all of that automation equipment is a new vector point for oxidation in a commercial beer line. We simply have more control over our low volume processes than the big guys can.

[@zwartschaap001]

Hey @TheApartmentBrewer, thanks a lot for the informative content! Question: is ascorbic acid the same as a Campden tablet? If not, what's the difference and why would you recommend one over the other?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

They are two different chemicals. A campden tablet is potassium metabisulfite. They both work in similar ways if you add them post fermentation, but a campden tablet won't reduce ROS like ascorbic acid will.

[@zwartschaap001]

@@TheApartmentBrewer Awesome, thanks so much for your reply! So In this case it would be advised to use ascorbic acid to reduce ROS during the mash and again (or Campden) post fermentation to reduce oxidation as much as possible?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

@zwartschaap001 I think you can use both but in my experience ascorbic acid in the mash has been more than sufficient

[@zebedeemaloney5154]

What is the best way to do a closed transfer if I am adding a fruit puree at packaging?

[@TheMattMustain]

Fruit puree will restart fermentation. I wouldn't add at packaging. Add to the fermenter instead and wait for secondary fermentation to finish before packaging.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

If you kill the yeast with something like potassium metabisulfite, then you can safely add fruit puree to the beer without being worried about restarting fermentation. That being said, it will definitely sweeten things up. If you don't kill the yeast, as Matt says it will restart fermentation and that should scrub oxygen pretty well.

[@kevinfreund4076]

Thanks for this content. A related but equally confusing topic is aging. It was always my understanding that bottle aging or conditioning in the long term affects beer flavor by introducing small amounts of oxygen(air) to the brew unless you are putting the beer in bourbon, whisky, gin, fig nectar, etc. What are your thoughts and do you think that you might explore bottle aging in one of your videos?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

The microoxodation from bottle or barrel aging is different than the oxidation I'm discussing here. I've done plenty of bottle conditioning and long term beer aging but it would be a good topic for another video!

[@adamsandoval730]

My beer tastes wonderful on the first day but it gets darker and sours in the keg.. is this oxidation from not purging with CO2 prior to kegging?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Could be, oxidation will darken the color and make it taste bad, but it won't really sour the beer so something else may be going on there. It doesn't take much to oxidize a beer and if you aren't purging the keg prior to filling that will do it.

[@adamsandoval730]

Okay, thanks for the reply, i'm going to try purging and adding asc. acid to my next batch and see if that prevents/improves the situation..

[@robertschumann3840]

Holly shit. Lots of info, great video 👍👍. Thank you

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@EtherealPrelude]

Steve, thanks for the great video. I have only recently heard about hot side oxidation. My standard practice has been to stir the heck out of the wort during the chill to facilitate cooling and now I wonder if that might not be such a good idea. In 2021, I used your link to get the rare earth magnets for dry hopping. When I checked your Amazon link again I noticed that you now have the silicone sous vide magnets. Are the metallic ones that you previously linked potentially able to corrode?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Technically yes, but I still havent had problems with them. I would recommend if you are using this technique frequently to use the silicone ones just for peace of mind.

[@Nusbizz]

Do you still use ascorbic, given the video is a year old? What’s the longest a hazy has lasted unoxidized for you? Think ive only lasted 2weeks but now i have a conical!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Yes I still do, last year I actually cracked an unoxidized hazy 5 months after packaging off the tap and saving for later.

[@Chi_Bro_2000]

It’s my first batch and all I’ve got is a bottling bucket that I have to transfer into. We’ll see how this goes I guess

[@nwiley619]

I find that when homebrewing, you can basically yolo your brewday and wont affect the end result too much. (Still keeping everything clean) But batch size and pro brewing you obviously cant.

[@ssadams]

when I do bottle a few using my bottle bucket, I send co2 trough the spigot while filling. I then run a couple psi through the bung hole while filling my bottles. I use pet bottles so I can squeeze out the headspace before putting on caps. I have never had a problem using this procedure. 😁🍺🍺

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Nice technique! Thanks for sharing!

[@EtherealPrelude]

Thanks for the video, Steve. I hadn't heard about hot side oxidation until recently and it has been standard practice for me to use my mash paddle to stir the heck out of the wort while chilling to facilitate more rapid cooling. This is usually about 20 minutes of vigorous stirring. Although the Brulosophy podcast reported that the hot side aerated beer wasn't statistically significant, I wonder if the way I've been doing things might be affecting my beer? In 2021 I used your amazon link to pick up the rare earth magnets for dry hopping and I went back to your link and saw that you've got the silicone sou vide magnets. Are the metallic ones that were previously linked not good to use because corrosion?

[@vexy1987]

Neodynium magnets are toxic. You should only use food safe magnets with anything that contacts your beer.

[@daveSoupy]

How can I check gravity without opening the bucket? That’s what happened to my last batch and why it got oxidized

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Add a ball valve to the bottom of the bucket to allow for samples

[@maxxmcnall]

Wow, what perfect timing. Brewing up my first hazy this weekend! For the closed transfer (we’re using a bucket fermenter), we’re planning on doing the trick you described and filling the keg with sanitizer then flushing it out with cO2. When it comes to transferring the beer from the bucket into the keg, there’s no way to hook our cO2 line to the bucket so can we just use gravity (purging the keg of most it’s cO2), hooking up a line from the spigot on the bucket to the liquid post? I’ve seen videos of people doing this but never have actually attempted myself. Don’t want any surprises when it comes to the transfer day where I’ll already be super nervous about oxidizing an expensive batch of beer

[@dralois]

I'm doing the same thing, using gravity to transfer, works well as long as the beer is clear of particulate. I recommend building a gas side jumper of sorts, gas post to airlock bung, this way you have a full closed transfer without pulling in any air. I've not had oxidation issue since doing it this way, knock on wood.

[@maxxmcnall]

@@dralois this is great to hear! I’m dry hopping using the magnet method and I have a hop spider for the whirlpool so hop particulate hopefully won’t be a problem. Is there something I can buy out there that does this job (rigging a cO2 line to the airlock bung)?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks for watching! I hope the brew went well for you! You can definitely use gravity to keg, its not ideal for hazies but you'll be alright as long as you purge the keg very well and transfer the beer gently. A jumper is easy - one gas disconnect connected to a line, shove the other end of the line into the airlock hole.

[@aronpanikian1371]

Hey man, I’ve tried the filling keg with starsan and pushing out with co2, then hooking up hose from fermenter to out port in keg, and hose from in port of keg to top of fermenter, but beer gets stuck and doesn’t flow into keg. Has that ever happened to you?

[@TheMattMustain]

Is your keg closed when transferring? If so, pull the PRV to occasionally vent the keg or use a spunding valve like I do. The beer will stop flowing if the pressure equalizes between the fermenter and keg. 🍻

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

You'll want to make sure there is a pressure difference between the fermenter and the keg, where the keg is at a lower pressure than the fermenter, or just simply at a lower height. Usually only a few PSI will suffice to get the beer flowing.

[@aronpanikian1371]

@@TheApartmentBrewer thank you! I think my issue is I bled out all the pressure as I was freaked out putting any kind of pressure on my plastic fermenter, haha. I’ll try it again with like 1 psi on my new anvil bucket fermenter. 🙂. Btw, your videos are awesome and have been extremely helpful to me as a new homebrewer!

[@aronpanikian1371]

@@TheMattMustain i think that is my issue, I’m bleeding out all the pressure before I attach to top of fermenter, and even though I’m using gravity with the keg lower than the fermenter, it’s just getting stuck. I’ll try it again, thanks for the help man! 🍻

[@januszkszczotek8587]

If you fill already carbonated beer into bottles with a counter pressure filler or something like the Beer Gun, a good method to clear the headspace from oxygen immediately before capping is to provoke the beer in the bottle to start slight foaming. Then just wait until the foam starts exiting the bottle and immediately cap the bottle. This way you have only foam with CO2 filled bubbles as headspace - no more oxygen. It is sufficient to provoke foaming with slight vibration of the bottle, e.g. by knocking with a screwdriver against the bottle or something similar. Unfortunalely this works only with fully carbonated beer. A further method to reduce oxygenation is to reduce the amount of headspace itself. Be aware, that there must remain some headspace.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Cap on foam!

[@jamesmanfull7098]

For those of us who bottle condition, you advised us to lose the bottling bucket but you never explined how to prime without it.

[@jeffw3092]

You could swap the bucket for a keg, add SMB to the priming mixture, do a closed transfer, and bottle with Beer Gun?

[@Narapoia1]

In Australia you can buy sugar lozenges that you add to the bottle, then fill direct from fermenter. I made a sugar solution and measured it into the bottles individually with a syringe prior to bottling to get the carbonation consistent across different bottle sizes in my batches. I tried a bottling bucket a couple times but the oxygen exposure it creates flattened the hop character of the beer noticeably and made the hassle of dosing the individual bottles worth it. Moving from that process to kegging has improved the quality of the beer again for me just through being able to purge the keg headspace with C02, rather than sealing a bit of oxygen in the top of the bottle when capping.

[@peterdavis4816]

Another little tip - when sanitising your keg prior to packaging, use Sodium Metabisulphate (Na2S2O5) as the sterilising agent. Na2S2O5 is an excellent oxygen scavenger and the tiny bit of steriliser remaining in the keg after being cleared with CO2 will deal with any O2 sneaking in through the closed (or partial closed) transfer.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Good tip I missed!

[@jimdavisson5690]

HSA is something that if you can taste it and don't like it’s affect to the malt flavor, you can do stuff about it. If you don't taste it, happily brew on. It's really just that simple.

[@Srups11HD]

If you if you dry hop at high krausen or at a certain point during fermentation ie a certain gravity above terminal gravity, you can cap the fermenter after hopping. 1 gravity point gives roughly 0.5 volumes/ 0.98 g/L of carbonation, if I remember correctly. i.e. If you cap after 1.013 on a beer that finishes at 1.008 you should get about 2.5 volumes / 4.9 g/L. This will allow your beer to naturally carbonate rather than having to force carbonate. Could save you a bit of your CO2 tank. Obviously only try this with a pressure rated fermenter.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

This is true! You can also throw a spunding valve on afterwards to maintain a certain pressure as well.

[@TroubleBrewing]

Personally I never even think about hot side, but the ascorbic acid trick I may implement because it seems like an quick and cheep way to just make sure…

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Nothing beats cheap insurance!

[@Leo99929]

You can use less than a drop of olive oil instead of aerating your wort prior to fermentation to avoid that introduction of oxygen. I've been doing that for the last 5-10 brews and they've all come out as great beers.

[@DimpieDeBruyn]

Whahahaha ... so you also fell for that crap ... It's total BS ... go look it up again 😁

[@Leo99929]

​@@DimpieDeBruyn Okay, I just did. The initial paper from Grady Hull showed improved overall flavor stability without compromising flavor quality. The Brulosophy experiments show oxygenation from shaking or pure oxygen makes fermentation more vigorous finishing potentially faster and with a lower FG. Also that Olive Oil vs none is faster fermenting with no significant sensory difference. Can you link me to any evidence that says it's BS? Because I can't find any...

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Never tried that, but sounds interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[@michaosiak938]

Adding ascorbic acid when bottling prevents from oxidation too

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Correct, the mash is not the only place you can add it.

[@gtx332]

Watching this makes me think how German and Belgian monks manage to make good beers without any gadgets

[@gulubdur]

I don't have access to CO2. What now?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Minimize oxygen contact after fermentation, lean on using things like metabisulfite or ascorbic acid to help out with that.

[@awolfejanson]

1 question about the magnet dry-hopping method: how long have you left hops suspended in a fermenter this way before removing the magnet and dropping them in? you said in the video that the co2 should protect them for a day or so, but what if i want to dryhop on day 7 or later? have you ever set the magnet method up a week or more in advance?

[@DarthCrumbie]

What is the spray nozzle you have installed on the lid of your kettle? (shown 5:28) I've been looking for something like this for my system?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

It's the clawhammer supply spray nozzle. Ad long as you can put a hole in the lid of your kettle you can install it. No need to buy a full system, they sell it separately.

[@timquesnel5232]

I know I'm gonna get push-back, but hot-side aeration is real! I used to recirculate my mash through a sparge arm and I was always getting brown, murky beers when they should have been bright and clear (except hazys). I ditched that and went to a hose resting on top of a screen and now my beers are the color they should be; along with improving my mash efficiency! Win-win!

[@TheZurazura]

please explain all the bright and lightly colored beers produced with the clawhamer system with it's spray nozzle? The clawhammer system will expose the wort to significantly higher levels of oxygen than the scenario you describe.

[@timquesnel5232]

@@TheZurazura I can't explain it; it makes no sense. All I know is it's working for me. All systems are different.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

It is indeed real! But I think what I'm observing from lots of these comments is that people's experiences seem to differ widely depending on their individual setups.

[@TheOlderandwiser]

adding ascorbic acid to mash - the video showed a boil - which is correct

[@weirding_123]

Mash, it has a similar pH to lactic acid. It would be used to get the correct mash pH for the style/ type of beer that you are brewing with the added bonuses.

[@johnmyers473]

I have an Anvil foundry and Anvil bucket fermenter I do 3 gallon batches. I’m currently fermenting a Mexican Cerveza and want it to be clear I did put whirlfloc tablet at the end of the boIl. I saw someone put a balloon on the stopper to capture CO2 then put it in the fridge to cold crash and it drew it back in. Do you think this is a good method? Do I even need to cold crash? Im still bottling and haven’t moved to kegs yet.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I've heard a few things about this method but never tried it. Seems like it would do pretty well though, unless the balloon were to come off.

[@NikitaVorontsov]

> Keep it civil > Homebrewing Incoming Battlefield! (Hopefully not!) Personally I totally disagree with HSA being a thing....at the Homebrew level! Totally agree with most oxidation things being a MASSIVELY overstated thing brought over from commercial brewing! Same thing works on the programming side imo, where there is literally no point using Enterprise Software Engineering tactics when trying to build a real quick Discord bot!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Cheers Nikita! Yeah I think a lot of folks, no matter the subject area, get very caught up in doing things as close to the professionals as possible, but not always understanding whether or not (or why) it matters

[@jafarym77]

I'm done with those juicy hazy IPAs.. I brewed them three times and I had to dump them every time... So I'm back to my favorite IPAs; west coast IPAs.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

West Coast IPAs are awesome!

[@matthewbrown5677]

No your not starting a fight....just read the German download..... Wow they know what they are doing.

[@Sailor426]

Cold crash in the keg with a floating dip tube now why didn’t I think of that Duh.. thanks man.

[@tommanning7337]

😎👍🏻👍🏻🍺🍺

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Cheers Tom!

[@mattyitto2346]

Don’t brew beer like its wine, racking canes, bottling wands etc all dandy for wine and some beer styles but not hoppy IPA’s or delicate lagers , use sealed vessels, purge lines, wort should only be oxygenated once in its life, treat wort with kid gloves and beer should never see oxygen ever until it goes in the glass, most new homebrewers focus on “infections” too much which is rare with good sanitation practices, should shift their focus on not oxidizing their beer, its a more common way to ruin your beer yet its overlooked

[@gregh1492]

Apparently mash hopping is supposed to create antioxidants

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Something to look into, but feels like a very expensive way to deal with oxygen

[@DimpieDeBruyn]

Topic is still overrated imo ... Oxidation was not spoken about or b|tched about up until the NEIPA craze stuck it's head out ... and suddenly homebrewers became weird people. 😜

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks for watching regardless!

[@JKBTLB]

Good content, but the over-editing is killin' me. Hard cuts after every sentence (or more frequently, in some cases) make it so hard to watch. Good content but man, just let it roll.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks for the feedback. Gotta cut it down though because the vast majority of people really don't want to watch videos like this that go on for too long.

[@leszekchrusciel7719]

good title avoid everything on this channel if you want good beer

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Yay, another troll! Care to elaborate?

[@rynalstanley4845]

I have watched all your video . If I can get your email I'd I have a couple of questions

[@dwilkowske]

Thanks for the video! It is a very interesting subject. I am going to be practicing and getting a process down for low oxygen exposure bottling for my next brew. I know that NEIPA are susceptible to oxidation after fermentation, but I am planning on brewing a Belgian Tripel later this year and wonder if that style is susceptible to the same oxidation issues?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Truthfully all beers are susceptible to the oxidation risk, however Belgian Tripel when compared to NEIPA isn't going to be as at risk, since in most cases you will not be brewing it with Flaked grains or dry hopping.

[@dwilkowske]

@@TheApartmentBrewer Thanks