oxygenated wort mixed with beer = bad?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Jumbo82

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2007
Messages
499
Reaction score
4
Location
Plymouth
First off, I'm not a 100% certain this is the correct forum for this question, but it seemed like it might be.

I’m a bit concerned that the beer I made this past weekend could end up with oxygenation off-flavors. Here are the details.

I made a wheat beer recently using Forbidden Fruit yeast from Wyeast. It was my first time using this type of yeast, but I made a healthy starter and pitched it into a demi-john with 13 gallons of a 1.046 O.G. wort comprised of 60% wheat and 40% pilsner malt. On Sunday I kegged and bottled the beer, but ended up leaving the last gallon of beer behind due to my racking cane being too short (I’ll know for next time). The beer finished at 1.010 and samples tasted very good.

Also on Sunday I brewed up a nice big wheat to pitch on top of the same yeast cake. I added 3 lbs of honey at flameout to boost the gravity. I ended up with 10 gallons of 1.069 O.G. wort. My thinking was that the previous yeast cake would be perfect for fermenting a big beer like this, so I poured my new wort right on top. In hindsight I should have tried to pour out the gallon of beer that was sitting on top of the yeast cake, but some for reason I didn’t. Now I’m thinking that the oxygenated wort splashing into the already fermented beer might cause off-flavors. I’ve tasted oxygenated beer before, and its not good.

There are two things I’m hoping will work in my favor. First, this oxygenated beer is less than 10% of the total volume, so maybe it won’t be too noticeable. Second, I don’t know all the ins and outs of the reactions that occur during fermentation and I’d like to think that these off-flavors might be consumed during the next fermentation (which was going nicely this morning). I’m sure somebody on this forum is an expert on yeast metabolism and can let me know what to expect. In the meantime, I’ll try to relax and have another homebrew since there isn’t much I can do about it now. Thanks.
 
I doubt there will be a problem. Any oxygen in the wort will be consumed rapidly by the large amount of yeast.

Oxygenation is a problem with hot wort and long-term storage.
 
Back
Top