remilard

Recipes 

According to Fix, about 30% of the oxygen in the headspace of the bottle is consumed during bottle conditioning.

As for how much oxygen is required for oxidation to occur. Zero, oxidation does not require oxygen. Oxygen is just one (particularly powerful) of many oxidizing agents.

wildwest450

Recipes 

I just bought a bag for the 9/9/09 swap, they came with no directions. My understanding is that they have to be wet to be activated.

You have to actually cap then tip the bottle in order to soak the cap, or dip them in sanitizer. I found a thread earlier that said once wet they take a day or two to actually absorb the oxygen.

If that's the case they should have a very long shelf life, unless you live in 100% humidity.

yeoldebrewer

Recipes 

I've ordered mine from Austin Home Brew and they recommend no sanitization--just using them right out of the bag. But I usually sanitize them with cheap vodka or a 50/50 mix of Everclear and water. I don't see why alcohol would deactivate the O2 absorbing stuff.

Ascorbic acid added to the wort will supposedly delay oxidation, but dunno...

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Robizzle01

Recipes 

It sounds like you guys are trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Have you ever experienced oxidized beer that you bottled yourself? If so, can you attribute that to anything in particular, or do you experience it semi-regularly when nothing out of the ordinary occurred in your process?

I haven't been brewing all that long, but I haven't heard or experienced this problem. It sounds like a gimmick product to me.