Cleaning up oxidation flaws

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steve crawshaw
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Cleaning up oxidation flaws

Post by steve crawshaw »

Despite my heroic efforts to reduce exposure to air when transferring hoppy beers from FV to keg (and keg to keg), I was recently upset to find out that an otherwise very good hoppy american session ale was starting to show signs of oxidation - short finish, cardboard taste. This was in a keg. I read up on this problem, which I observe in hoppy beers more than other styles. In the Beersmith podcast with charlie bamforth on beer stability CB states that you can get rid of this flaw with yeast. So i decided to put it to the test. I made a small starter using mauribrew dried yeast and pitched into the keg when it was at high krauesen. Have left it for a week or so now. I tasted it last night and the oxidation flavour (trans 2 nonal I believe) has gone!

There is however a hint of diacetyl, which I hope will disappear with time. It is certainly nicer than the "untreated" beer and has gone from being a tipper into a drinker.

In the podcast CB also talks about using sodium metabisulphite as a precautionary measure to improve stability and reduce oxidation. I think I will try this for a subsequent hoppy style as I am quite sensitive to oxidised flavour in hoppy beers and I don't like tipping beer. Not too worried about rheinheitsgebot..

Anyway, if you encounter this issue, adding yeast in the keg appears to resolve it, so worth a go..

cheers
steve
I like to keep a bottle of stimulant handy in case I see a snake, which I also keep handy.
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rodneygullick
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Re: Cleaning up oxidation flaws

Post by rodneygullick »

hi Steve I was once told by one of our members that if I dry hop before fermentation had finished the fermenting wert would drag all of the flavor out , now you are saying put yeast in after you dry hop ?
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steve crawshaw
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Re: Cleaning up oxidation flaws

Post by steve crawshaw »

rodneygullick wrote:hi Steve I was once told by one of our members that if I dry hop before fermentation had finished the fermenting wert would drag all of the flavor out , now you are saying put yeast in after you dry hop ?
My experience is that you will lose a little of the flavour if you dry hop before complete attenuation, but it is worth it to ensure that you don't introduce oxidation flaws at the dry hop stage (because the still - active yeast will absorb the oxygen). My approach now is to dry hop with pellets in primary when ~80% of fermentation is complete, rack to keg at the completion of primary and then dry hop in keg with leaf hops in a bag. I think m. Tonsmeire has very good guidance on making IPA's here

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/20 ... e-ipa.html

and hop bills
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/20 ... lysis.html

My current issue is that however hard I try to stop oxidation during transfer I seem to end up with staling after a few weeks in keg. The addition of yeast seems to cure that, but in future I will try adding sodium metabisulphite to the keg to see if this works. I should emphasis that i am only getting this problem with well - hopped beers.
cheers
steve
I like to keep a bottle of stimulant handy in case I see a snake, which I also keep handy.
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rodneygullick
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Re: Cleaning up oxidation flaws

Post by rodneygullick »

I dry hop with pellets in the fermenter after 2 weeks fermentation I will not put them in the barrel as it is taking me a long time @4pints a w
eek to empty (if left in the barrel for a long time they will go rotten and leave a funny taste to the beer) I've got one fermenting at the moment ,I was thinking of dry hopping with the mosaic I had from you (100g) that will be a week on Tuesday the fermentation should be almost finished by then I will leave them in the fermentation bin for a week before racking into my pressure barrel and bottles
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