Is Hot Side Aeration total Bulls#$% or what?

After years of brewing I had become convinced that hot side aeration was completely debunked as being a concern for homebrewers. I'm sure I've heard some of the homebrew "pros" state as much in podcasts, etc. I think I've even heard Charlie Bamforth say that while it's not technically nonexistent, there are many other things that will inflict your beer with oxidation, such as packaging methods and post fermentation handling.

Yet while reading Mastering Homebrew last night, Randy Mosher brought it up as a concern. So while I don't try to agitate unnecessarily, I haven't really tried to be careful while pouring sparge water from my BIAB batches into the first runnings in the boil kettle.

I agree with you, much easier to mess up racking / purging of fermented beer. Most hoppy beer oxidation shows as loss of aroma, flavor, and your left with a bitter malt nasty. Hot side aeration is the wet cardboard descriptor and I have never tasted that in any beer I have made. I also BIAB and try to be careful but not as careful as post fermentation process.

I generally assume HSA is BS. At what point does it go from HSA to aeration that is beneficial to yeast health? I stir my cooling wort with a large restaurant whisk. I do this from the beginning of chilling when the wort is likely in the 200 degree range. Is that bad? I have never tasted wet cardboard in any of my brews. I beat the wort with the whisk like it owes me money. Get a big froth going before transferring to the fermenter. If HSA could occur, I'd figure this would cause it but I sure have not experienced it.

I think HSA is real, its just that it takes a lot of effort to achieve it. I think with our normal brewing practice, its not a concern.

I think Preboil HSA is a myth though.

Here is an experment done on HSA: Is Hot-Side Aeration Fact or Fiction?

In the experment it was found that "the growing amount of evidence supports the notion that HSA, while perhaps not necessarily mythical, does not have a noticeable negative impact on homebrewed beer and hence can be appropriately relegated to the annals of homebrew history"

The exBeerment convinces me. I was sure I had oxidized a batch a long time ago, but, after reading that, I am convinced it must have been something else.

Foosier said:

At what point does it go from HSA to aeration that is beneficial to yeast health?

Click to expand...

Answer: When the wort is cool. The yeast scavenge free oxygen and it's a lot easier to retain O2 with cold beer than hot. Don't waste the effort to whisk it until it's under 90F.

HSA precautions were an observation about major brewery practice that lost its science foundation and became homebrew lore. HSA matters to beer if the finished product is going to be stored for months without temperature control. Think large warehouses and supermarket display stack endcaps.

Make your beer with reasonable care, keep it cold and drink it fresh and HSA is never going to be an issue.

I made a comment on a bulletin board a long time ago that at the PU brewery, for example, sinks were employed to control lauter/sparge, that I thought sinks would probably contribute to HSA and that if HSA was responsible in part for the qualities of PU that I wanted it in my beer too. The thing I remember most about this is that this drove George Fix into the right half plane. He thought that was the most stupid thing he had ever heard.

Unknowingly did a HSA experiment yesterday. I did an extended whirlpool/hop stand with the lid on and towels over kettle to keep the heat stable. When I resumed chilling I notice that there was thick foam all the way up to the lid. Then discovered that a silicone o-ring had a small split in it and, although it didn't leak, it allowed air to suck in while the pump was running.

My main concern is infection from sucking all that room air in, but HSA is also a remote possibility. Left some wort in a covered, sanitized jar to see how long it takes to naturally ferment. Nothing yet, but the other 10 gallons had a good 2" of krausen after about 12 hours, so hoping for the best.

Reading this thread eases my mind a little about the HSA.