Why does the brewing network worry a bout Hot Side Aeration? Plus a quick question.

i was listening to a sunday session podcast tonight where they were preaching against hot side aeration after the boil. We all know this to be a myth now, so why would they say that it is something to worry about? I have personally never experienced oxidation in any of my beers and i start to whirlpool as soon as my beer is done boiling.

also, because i do not feel like starting a third thread, do you think it would be a good idea to boil my top off water which is in an unopened kentwood bottle before topping off or is it sanitary enough to mix in the wort straight out of the bottle.

Do we all know it to be a myth? I didn't get the memo.

What does it mean for hot side aeration to be a myth? That it doesn't happen?

remilard said:

Do we all know it to be a myth? I didn't get the memo.

What does it mean for hot side aeration to be a myth? That it doesn't happen?

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yeah, that is the impression i have gotten from personal experience and talking to alot of you guys.

Someone brought up a good point in another thread. Many of us homebrewers may not recognize oxidaton and therefore we assume it's not happening to us. I, for one, am not sure I would be able to detect the taste. So I decided I need to learn before going deeper into worrying about hot side A. I don't even think experiened brewers and expert brewers aggree (actually, I'm sure of it).
But (maybe like you) I treat every batch like a newborn and try to avoid any possible injuries to the baby beer. Then again, like an experienced parent, I also worry less about certain injuries. Trust your experience.

Your other queston: I've used tap water, I've used an aleady-opened water jug wth no problems. If you worry... I would dump it in the boil before flame out. Have a 5 gallon and a 5 1/2 gallon mark etched into your spoon so you have an idea how close your volume is. Then just chill the volume you want for the fermentor.

I don't think that most of the brewers on the BN give much thought to hot side aeration any longer. If Charles Bamforth doesn't think it's a huge concern, I'd tend to agree.

Brew Strong Hot Side Aeration: http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/475

cdburg said:

I don't think that most of the brewers on the BN give much thought to hot side aeration any longer. If Charles Bamforth doesn't think it's a huge concern, I'd tend to agree.

Brew Strong Hot Side Aeration: http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/475

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Yea, seriously, Charles Bamforth is about as knowledgeable as one can be regarding brewing science. I agree.

I used to be fairly certain I knew what oxidized beer tasted like. On my first batch, I made the noob mistake of shaking the hell out of my fermentor trying to get my gravity to drop. I had no idea at the time that I was introducing oxygen into my beer. That beer ended up having a very distinct smell and flavor that I can best describe as a dry bitterness.

The more reading I do, the more paranoid I get about the issue. I would definitely know the flavor of my first homebrew if I smelled/tasted it again and I have not had that issue with any of my subsequent batches. But at the same time I worry that maybe what I was tasting in that batch wasn't what I thought it was. When I bottle my next batch I am going to purposely introduce oxygen into one of my bottles and mark it so I can be sure I know what I'm looking for.

I'm also entering my first competition this month, so hopefully once the results come in, I'll know if oxidation is present in any of my recent batches.

Being an overblown concern for homebrewers isn't really the same as it being a "myth". It does exist, it's chemistry.

cdburg said:

I don't think that most of the brewers on the BN give much thought to hot side aeration any longer. If Charles Bamforth doesn't think it's a huge concern, I'd tend to agree.

Brew Strong Hot Side Aeration: http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/475

Click to expand...

Right, but Bamforth doesn't think it is a myth. He holds the (minority) opinion that it is net positive.

I'm not aware of anyone with a remotely qualified opinion that believes it doesn't happen.

So maybe it is a myth that it is a bad thing, maybe it is a myth that it is significant, but that the entire thing is a myth is not something that we all believe, it is something widely believed by technically deficient homebrewers who don't think critically about the information they are being fed by their peers.