Oxygen "Absorbing" Caps

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Welp... I guess I won't be sanitizing or soaking my 02 absorbing caps anymore!! Wish I read this thread yesterday when I bottled 5 gallons of DIPA with two dryhop stages.
 
i don't really agree with no sanitizing. i don't think the reaction of those caps happens in seconds. also no pro breweries that i know of use those caps so i don't think it's that crucial/makes that much of a difference. it would be interesting if someone on here capped half their batch with non 02 absorbing and half with 02 absorbing and tried them periodically to see if it made any difference...
 
Posts #17 & 18 made the most sense not to sanitize the 02 caps for me. If you have an issue with not sanitizing them, then don't waste your money on them.
 
EyePeeA said:
Posts #17 & 18 made the most sense not to sanitize the 02 caps for me. If you have an issue with not sanitizing them, then don't waste your money on them.

But you don't lose the benefit if you sanitize them.
 
But you don't lose the benefit if you sanitize them.

According to Austinhomebrew, you do.

If you sanitize them you lose the oxygen absobing properties.

If you sanitize the O2 caps you lose the benefit and the extra money spent on the caps.

Additionally, both BierMuncher and Austinhombrew claim to have bottled hundreds of batches with unsanitized 02 caps and never had any infections doing so. That is good enough for me.

I suppose if you wanted to hedge your bets, you could create a slightly stronger sanitizing solution and dip the individual caps in quickly before bottling each individual bottle.
 
I have a pile of them waiting on the counter. Dunk in Star-San solution, load into my capper, and cap. The cap has less than 10 seconds before it's sealed onto the bottle. I know the chemical reaction can't be that fast. I don't know if the low pH of the Star San solution (2-3) affects its O2 absorption, but I am assuming it will still work.

I don't invert the bottles, so there's no point in waiting 30 seconds. It will kill anything on the cap surface after being sealed to the bottle. Again, the benefit of these caps may be marginal, but I generally use them on my bigger beers that I age for more than a year. After all of the time invested in these brews, it's worth a few extra cents to possibly preserve their condition.
 
According to Austinhomebrew, you do.

The caps use an oxidizing iron compound to sequester a small amount of oxygen from the headspace. The reaction happens over the course of days and weeks, not minutes or seconds.

I encourage you to do whatever makes you happy. There are all manner of things people elect not to sanitize, frequently without problems. A friend of mine has never used anything but water to clean his fermentor, and he sees no reason to change his practices. That's fine. But, it's simply incorrect to say that wetting the caps nullifies their effect (assuming they have any in the first place).
 
I agree that there are more than a few working methods which are practiced by successful brewers. But when it boils down to it, we don't really "know" how long it takes for the reaction to occur, or even how long we should dip our caps in sanitizer solution to effectively sanitize them, or if sanitizing caps even matters since you are now dealing with alcohol as opposed to a sugary wort. I've seen suggestions of immediately to 30 seconds to several minutes, and now you are saying days or weeks. It is really all just a crap shoot.
 
I agree that there are more than a few working methods which are practiced by successful brewers. But when it boils down to it, we don't really "know" how long it takes for the reaction to occur, or even how long we should dip our caps in sanitizer solution to effectively sanitize them, or if sanitizing caps even matters since you are now dealing with alcohol as opposed to a sugary wort. I've seen suggestions of immediately to 30 seconds to several minutes, and now you are saying days or weeks. It is really all just a crap shoot.

Not really. Iron salts react at known rates, which (at room temperatures) are far, far beyond the scope relevant for a normal capping process.
 
Jezus guys, this was all clarified in 2009.....I'v posted this a zillion times since then. That's the problem when folks necro posted in the oldest thread as opposed to the hundreds more recent ones.

revvy said:
Soaking them is what activates the oxygen absorbing magic. It actually takes a week for them to do their job on the bottle.

On Basic brewing James Spencer contacted the maker of Oxygen Absorbing Caps (Crown Beverage), and actually recommended you santize them quickly, evidently the "Oxygen Absorbing Effect" of the caps is not immediate and they need to be wet for a period of time before the magic happens, like days.

Click to listen

It's within the first few minutes of the podcast. Right after the opening and announcements.

They recommend sanitizing ONLY the caps you are using, and sanitizing just before bottling. But you do need to wet them, and it's probably the smartest idea to go and do it, with the sanitizer
 
Thanks for the further clarification guys. I joined HBT 5 months ago, so it's a good thing you posted about this again, Revvy.

Sanitizing ONLY the caps you are using definitely makes sense. You don't want to sanitize too many caps and then have to store them for later use, at which point they may be ineffective.
 
Case closed. Sanitize the caps and enjoy the benefits. The manufacturer confirmed that it takes days to complete it's work. This seems to be case closed.
 
Sorry to bring up old topics, but once you put the caps in sanitize do you need to turn the bottles over? if so how long should you leave them like that? Also do you sanitize them one at a time or all at once?

This is my second batch but first with the absorbing caps.
 
You don't have to store them upside down at all. It eats what O2 is in the headspace. But yes sanitize the caps first. They must be used within one hour after touching liquid. I usually throw about 20 in at a time so I limit my waste.
 
Old thread, new question. Will these affect the carb up in bottle conditioning? Don't we need some oxygen for that?
 
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