What do you do to prevent oxidation?

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MrBJones

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We all know what NOT to do (don't splash, don't have bubbles in lines, etc). But what active steps do you take? For instance...
Put a layer of CO2 over the surface in the bottling bucket?
Fill bottles' head space with CO2?
Use oxygen absorbing/barrier caps?
Minimize time spent bottling?
Anything else, at any other stage?
 
Purge the keg about 6-8 times at 30 PSI after kegging. I pay 0 attention to oxygen at any other stage of brewing. I've never had an oxidized beer as far as I know. I really think it's a bogeyman that some homebrewers spend excessive amounts of energy to avoid.
 
Purge the keg about 6-8 times at 30 PSI after kegging. I pay 0 attention to oxygen at any other stage of brewing. I've never had an oxidized beer as far as I know. I really think it's a bogeyman that some homebrewers spend excessive amounts of energy to avoid.

Right on. I have a keg of cream ale that has been in the kegerator for 8 months. I made it for the girl friend and I keep asking her if it tastes OK and she says it does. All I do is what you said above.
 
Another for purging a keg and nothing much else. Unless you have some equipment problem, or are careless it should not be an issue.
 
Kegging via closed transfer. Dry hopping in the keg. purging the hell out of the keg before racking beer into it. My fermenter is opened twice usually. Once to fill it with wort and once to clean it out when the beer is in the keg. Oxidation isn't difficult to avoid but it's also not difficult for it to ruin your beer. And that really is dependent on the style of beer you're brewing. a big stout, porter, old ale, etc. wont cry about a little o2 but hop bursted IPA will go stale as you look at if don't do your due intelligence.
 
I use O2 absorbing caps. I've had one batch early on in my brewing that went bad due to oxidation. It was because I was using a dip tube in my bottling bucket that was too small and messing up the flow. I since have quite using the dip tube and just tilt the bucket towards the end and haven't had an issue since.
 
I dry hop in conical with a few points of fermentation left. Cold crash with makeup C02. Closed transfer from fermenter to keg, and do just a few purges of the keg since I displaced sanitizer solution in the keg with CO2
 
I do everything possible to avoid exposure to O2 after initial oxygenation in the fermenter. I create a positive CO2 pressure environment during any opening of the fermenter after that point.
I also triple purge the keg before racking AND continuously purge during the racking process.
My palette is extremely sensitive to oxidation so I avoid it entirely.
This is my procedure for IPAs. Less hoppy beers dont seem to be so inclined to stale.
 
Nothing on the hot side. Pretty much everything possible on the cold side after fermentation...
 
1) fill keg with star san
2) force star san out using co2
3) connect co2 to top of fermenter via a secondary regulator
4) connect purged keg and line to fementer
5) transfer to keg whilst resupplying headspace of fermenter with Co2
6) add hops if necessary
7) purge the head space with 30 burps @ 10 psi.

If you bottle then most beers are fine except APA's and IPA's which are preserved much better on keg imo to the LODO process

For hoppy styles it's really important. As little as 0.1ppm can diminsh hop aroma.
 
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