Oxidised Beer?

[Yjie91]

Hey all, quick question. So my brew of helles beer has finished fermenting, and I've added some hops in a hop bag on Tuesday (3 days ago).

I just found out yesterday that the lid on my cooper's fermenter is slightly warped, resulting in a slightly open lid. Will it be ruined by oxidation?

 

[Chris Walker]

First.... It will not be ruined!

Chances are there is still some CO2 in the head space, reducing (not eliminating) the oxygen exposure.
If you did not disturb the beer too much when adding the hops there will be very little absorption.
You'd probably introduce much more by racking to secondary (which is why so many people no longer do that.)

Also, even if it is slightly oxidized (which most home-brew is to at least some extent) you probably will not notice it until the beer ages for a long time.

 

[Yjie91]

First.... It will not be ruined!

Chances are there is still some CO2 in the head space, reducing (not eliminating) the oxygen exposure.
If you did not disturb the beer too much when adding the hops there will be very little absorption.
You'd probably introduce much more by racking to secondary (which is why so many people no longer do that.)

Also, even if it is slightly oxidized (which most home-brew is to at least some extent) you probably will not notice it until the beer ages for a long time.

Hey, thanks for the reply!

What happened was that the lid was opened slightly to plop the 2 hop bags in, which was done after the gravity readings were steady for 2 days. Following after I left it at that and came back yesterday to find out that the lid was warped to give a slight opening along the curvature of the vat.

I pushed down the lid a couple of times to confirm that it is indeed open, and this cause some pumping of air in and out of the vat. I then tried to tape the lid down, but it eventually open and was only finally partially closed with copious amounts of tape.

So there you have it, the full recount of what actually happened. I'm concerned that the CO2 layer was dissipated by my pumping, and thus introducing outside oxygen and causing oxidation in the beer.

As of now, the beer tastes kinda bitter (maybe due to the hops, as I can smell some of its aroma too), but its not "malt forward" like how the BJCP guidelines say.

 

[Chris Walker]

Yeah, I still think you have nothing to worry about at all.
You will not taste oxygenation this early, so you can rule that out. If you have only just finished primary and just added hops it has done no conditioning. As an aside, tasting it now gives a good comparison to compare it when finished conditioning / carving etc...
Oxygen is absorbed through surface agitation. Since you haven't been splashing around it really should be minimal. Also, just because it has finished primary there will still be a small amount of CO2 release from the yeast cake 'burping'. Not much, but it doesn't need to be much.
It will be fine.... (or at least if it's not I think the cause will be elsewhere.)

Are you going to keg or bottle? - If kegging I would transfer (with CO2 purge) then finish the conditioning there.

 

[Yjie91]

Yeah, I still think you have nothing to worry about at all.
You will not taste oxygenation this early, so you can rule that out. If you have only just finished primary and just added hops it has done no conditioning. As an aside, tasting it now gives a good comparison to compare it when finished conditioning / carving etc...
Oxygen is absorbed through surface agitation. Since you haven't been splashing around it really should be minimal. Also, just because it has finished primary there will still be a small amount of CO2 release from the yeast cake 'burping'. Not much, but it doesn't need to be much.
It will be fine.... (or at least if it's not I think the cause will be elsewhere.)

Are you going to keg or bottle? - If kegging I would transfer (with CO2 purge) then finish the conditioning there.

I am going to bottle. I don't have a keg as of now, so all I can do is to bottle and let it carb naturally.

 

[Chris Walker]

Are you going to go straight to the bottles and use carb drops or rack to bottling bucket and use a priming solution?
If the latter, unless you have very good technique, I think you have more chance of oxidation in the process than you have introduced with the lid issue so far.
Before getting a keg I used to go straight to bottles and use carb drops.

It will condition fine in bottles - room temp for 1 to 2 weeks then store cold.
It might have needed a little longer to clear than its had, but it will still settle fine in the bottles - just might have a tad more sediment.

 

[Yjie91]

Are you going to go straight to the bottles and use carb drops or rack to bottling bucket and use a priming solution?
If the latter, unless you have very good technique, I think you have more chance of oxidation in the process than you have introduced with the lid issue so far.
Before getting a keg I used to go straight to bottles and use carb drops.

It will condition fine in bottles - room temp for 1 to 2 weeks then store cold.
It might have needed a little longer to clear than its had, but it will still settle fine in the bottles - just might have a tad more sediment.

I'm doing the former. Straight up bottling with 2 carb tabs in a bottle and filling up with a bottling wand, cap and condition. So far that method has been very good and has been providing good carbonation and consistent results.

But the malty flavourrrr argghhhhh. It was smooth and awesome for the past few days until yesterday, it became much more bitter and the malt flavour is gone!

 

[divrack]

I'm sorry to say it's ruined.
I'll be round to collect it at 9am to dispose of it in a proper manner.