My Belgian IPA got hit with oxidization somewhere along the way, it was drinking and looking real good for up to the first month as I sampled some here and there and then BAM I noticed a distinct change in color and taste but being new to brewing and making this style I didn't know if it was normal or not. The beer itself now looks like dirty water coming out of the bottle and there is zero hop presence to it and its been this way for probably a month. I did drop the bung into the primary at 1 point but just left it and replaced it so IDK if that had something to do with it. I'm trying to figure out where oxidization hit this batch. At what stage is it most common to occur? I dry hop in primary. Is it during racking when bottling?
How or when would oxidization take place
- Thread starter olotti
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Generally a bung is not going to affect your beer. People lose their bungs in the primary all the time.
Oxygen is bad AFTER primary. Before and very early on in the primary oxygen is used by the yeast for reproduction and for cell health, and is usually very important for good beer quality (liquid yeast. Dry yeast is reportedly fine without oxygenation as it's sterol reserves are built up during the drying process, but that's not the point to this topic).
Once the yeast has used up the available oxygen it really kicks into alcohol and CO2 production and the real action starts. Now once the yeast has taken the oxygen out of the wort/beer the beer is safe. Once the sugars have been eaten, the yeast will go dormant and oxygen introduced will remain in the beer and react with some of the other compounds to create oxidation characteristics.
Remember that it's not the oxygen itself that is noticeable, it's the result of other compounds reacting with the oxygen.
So basically oxygen is bad after the yeast have used all of the oxygen up in the primary.
Avoid splashing your beer when racking. Avoid agitation or splashing when bottling.
Purge air from bottles or kegs if you can before you fill them. Use O2 caps if you can.
Heat accelerates oxidation. Once your beer is carbed, keeping them cool will really help slow down any potential oxidation.
Oxidation is harder to control with bottles because if you keg you already have CO2 and a means of easily purging the air from a keg before filling, and for purging AFTER the keg is filled.
Some beer styles almost require some level of oxidation, but they are usually very strong beers that have been aged. It's almost never a desired trait.
Oxygen is bad AFTER primary. Before and very early on in the primary oxygen is used by the yeast for reproduction and for cell health, and is usually very important for good beer quality (liquid yeast. Dry yeast is reportedly fine without oxygenation as it's sterol reserves are built up during the drying process, but that's not the point to this topic).
Once the yeast has used up the available oxygen it really kicks into alcohol and CO2 production and the real action starts. Now once the yeast has taken the oxygen out of the wort/beer the beer is safe. Once the sugars have been eaten, the yeast will go dormant and oxygen introduced will remain in the beer and react with some of the other compounds to create oxidation characteristics.
Remember that it's not the oxygen itself that is noticeable, it's the result of other compounds reacting with the oxygen.
So basically oxygen is bad after the yeast have used all of the oxygen up in the primary.
Avoid splashing your beer when racking. Avoid agitation or splashing when bottling.
Purge air from bottles or kegs if you can before you fill them. Use O2 caps if you can.
Heat accelerates oxidation. Once your beer is carbed, keeping them cool will really help slow down any potential oxidation.
Oxidation is harder to control with bottles because if you keg you already have CO2 and a means of easily purging the air from a keg before filling, and for purging AFTER the keg is filled.
Some beer styles almost require some level of oxidation, but they are usually very strong beers that have been aged. It's almost never a desired trait.
olotti
Well-Known Member
Thank you for the in-depth reply. So more than likely this happened during bottling I'm guessing. Guess ill have to b a little more careful, so far its the only batch effected.
Tubing leaking air during racking to secondary or bottling bucket is one way. I had the Red Baron wing capper the first couple years & the bell stretched out. This gave the effect of the crown caps not being 100% sealed. so when the beer started carbonating in earnest, it started leaking the Co2 out & sucking some air in. A few bottles in that batch got oxidized. You can smell & taste it right away as moldy cardboard in a musty basement. This is what oxidized beer smells & tastes like. I almost ralphed in the MB watching TV one night when I happened to crack one of the bad bottles. So the crown caps have to be tight as well.
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