How effective are these? They cant absorb oxegen forever and its not like they have to be activated prior to being put on the bottle. It would seem they would start working as soon as they roll off the production line and stop working at some point. So how effective could they be? Is there something Im not understanding here?
O2 absorbing caps?
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remilard
Well-Known Member
They absorb oxygen when they are wet.
Once you bottle with them, they will get wet, which starts the O2 "collecting" (I don't think they actually absorb O2 as much as modify it in some way. I mean, they can't really just "hold on" to O2...).
The process takes a while, so you are not going to ruin them by spritzing with sanitizer just before capping.
I got some when my LHBS didn't have the regular caps and they seem to be ok. I have not tried them long term enough to know if they are better for preventing oxidation than regular caps, but the price difference is not enough to make me want to use the regular caps anyway.
The best thing you can do to prevent oxidation is to handle your beer properly during the fermentation and bottling stage. Minimize the exposure to O2 by not splashing, and blanket your containers with CO2 if possible. And "cap on foam" which pushes the O2 out of the bottle just before the cap is pressed on.
The process takes a while, so you are not going to ruin them by spritzing with sanitizer just before capping.
I got some when my LHBS didn't have the regular caps and they seem to be ok. I have not tried them long term enough to know if they are better for preventing oxidation than regular caps, but the price difference is not enough to make me want to use the regular caps anyway.
The best thing you can do to prevent oxidation is to handle your beer properly during the fermentation and bottling stage. Minimize the exposure to O2 by not splashing, and blanket your containers with CO2 if possible. And "cap on foam" which pushes the O2 out of the bottle just before the cap is pressed on.
Justibone
Well-Known Member
I had a possible oxidation problem with a batch of homebrew, and I decided that the price difference was so little, and homebrew so precious (time and money), that these caps are totally worth it if they work even a tiny bit.
WrongCoastBrewery
Well-Known Member
"Cap on foam" refers to litterally putting a cap on a bottle when foam occupies the head space. Since foam is a little beer and a lot of CO2, the CO2 displaces (pushes out) the oxygen left in the headspace. The foam will then die down and you will have a lovely headspace full of CO2. Ahhh, nothing like a little CO2 cloud when you crack open that homebrew.
remilard
Well-Known Member
It's probably hard to do with uncarbonated beer but when bottles are filled with carbonated beer the standard practice is to agitate the beer causing enough foam to fill the headspace (and displace oxygen) and then cap. Commercial filling lines do this by squirting a small amount of water into the beer, homebrewers do it by smacking the bottle in some fashion.
mlg5039
Well-Known Member
I bottle on starsan foam.
brewingkitty
Well-Known Member
i had some various cases from my kegs bottled up to ~6 months with o2 caps and didn't detect a problem aside from my bottling method losing half the carbonation. 
remilard
Well-Known Member
brewingkitty
Well-Known Member
Then that would be a drop of starsan. A bubble implies a hollow sphere filled with air. Once the starsan bubble "pops" it releases said air...i'm going to go out on a limb here.... wait for it.... starsan is in the bubbles.
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