did I properly oxidize my beer?

They say to beat your enemy, you have to know your enemy. As homebrewers, oxidation is our enemy. I don't know if I ever drank an oxidized beer before, so I don't know what it would taste like or what I'm trying hard to avoid.

So I was bottling the other night and ended up with half a bottle full at the end like I always do, and so I decided to try something. I capped it and then promptly shook the living crap out of it in an attempt to oxidize it. I'll drink it in a few weeks and figure I'll then know what oxidized beer tastes like and why it's my enemy. do you think shaking it like I did oxidized it properly?

Probably, yes.

Interesting experiment. Let us know how it turns out.

Damn, you stole my idea! I just made an irish red and I was going to take a gallon of it and shake the crap out of it for oxidation experiments. Looks like I'll just have to do a collaboration then, eh?

HOOTER said:

Interesting experiment. Let us know how it turns out.

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https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=42855

I did the same basic thing a while back...with awful results

brewt00l, did I read the linked thread correctly? all you did was get a little air in the hose when filling your bottles and you could taste the cardboard? I've gotten a little bubbles in my line when filling bottles before, but haven't noticed any beers (yet) that taste off.

EvilTOJ, you may want to scale down your experiment - ruining a bottle or two is one thing but a whole gallon?

My concern about oxidizing it properly came from the fact that I added priming sugar to the bucket, and by the time I got the last of it into the last bottle, about 20 minutes to a half hour elapsed, then it was another 5 to 10 minutes or so before I got around to capping the bottle. I don't know how fast the yeast start eating the priming sugar and producing CO2, but I was thinking maybe enough CO2 was produced to push out most of the oxygen in the bottle by the time I got the cap on it that all I was doing was shaking up CO2 into the beer, which wouldn't hurt it at all. I doubt it thouguh.

This may sound wierd, but I can't wait to try my oxidized beer.

earlytimes said:

brewt00l, did I read the linked thread correctly? all you did was get a little air in the hose when filling your bottles and you could taste the cardboard? I've gotten a little bubbles in my line when filling bottles before, but haven't noticed any beers (yet) that taste off.

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I let the air go into the spigot inlet, through the line and get into solution via the bottling wand...same basic thing that you prb did by shaking up that excess headspace in the bottle. The result was unmistakable...you'll know it the moment you pour the bottle if you oxidized it.

The red ale I'm not really happy with, so I figured it'd be perfect for experimenting. I wasn't thinking an ENTIRE gallon, just filling up one of my gallon apple juice jugs maybe 2/3rds and shaking the crap out of it. I wanted to have more than one or two bottles and keep trying them to compare at, say, 1-week intervals with non-aerated beer to see how they taste.

If I don't like em I'll just include them in my next beer swap.

OK I'm totally kidding. Seriously.

EvilTOJ said:

If I don't like em I'll just include them in my next beer swap.

OK I'm totally kidding. Seriously.

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Now I see why your name on the boards is EvilTOJ!

update:

I drank the oxidized beer this weekend after 4 weeks in the bottle, or at least took a few sips of it. It was an Irish Red ale. The non-oxidized beers are pretty good, but this one was horrid. I could only choke down a few ounces of it. I've heard the taste described as wet cardboard, but I don't know if that's how I'd describe it. Although it has been a while since I chewed on wet cardboard, so maybe I forgot what it tasted like. I don't know how to describe it other than putrid. It did remind me of something I tasted before, but I must have blocked it out of my memory because it was so bad. Now I see why we are trying to avoid oxidized beer.

My question is if beer can oxidize like that with just a bit of air in line how do you bottle all 5 Gals before it oxidizes. When you siphon you need to have the lid off at least a bit that lets air in on that large surface area. Im scared now.

GunnerMan said:

My question is if beer can oxidize like that with just a bit of air in line how do you bottle all 5 Gals before it oxidizes. When you siphon you need to have the lid off at least a bit that lets air in on that large surface area. Im scared now.

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I think you might have misunderstood. I shook the living crap out of my bottle as soon as I bottled it, and it's that beer that tastes like the crap I shook out of it. I always get a few bubbles in the siphon hose and never tasted anything like I did the other day in this oxidized beer. Just don't shake it up or get too many bubbles in it after it's fermented and you'll be ok.