Preserving home-brew in crowler cans

[Doc-Da-Mic]

I'm planning to take about 9 gallons of home-brew on vacation in a couple weeks, and I've arranged for a local brewery to let me use their walk-in cooler and crowler seemer to can up all my brew, so I don't have to take kegs and gas and all that stuff.

My question is this: what's the best way to preserve the beer in the cans (they will be stored cold throughout) and prevent oxidation (all the beers are light in color and very sensitive to oxygen). I was thinking I could add a measured amount of Sodium Metabisulfate to each crowler, but I heard someone on a podcast say that this can affect the flavor and that ascorbic acid might be better. Should I make some sort of distilled water solution and pipette it into each can? how far in advance could such a solution be made and still work? or would it have to be made just in time? Is there anything I'm not thinking of?

Anyone have any thoughts, knowledge, or experience with this? I'm specifically looking for an additive solution, rather than just "flush all the cans with CO2 and be super careful," or "just take the kegs." I'm going to be careful, I'm not going to take the kegs.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[Golddiggie]

How long are you planning on keeping the beer before it's consumed? If <3 months, just make sure you fill on foam (after purging the cans with CO2 before filling) and you're good to go.

I've been filling my cans with the Tapcooler (configured for cans) which is a counter pressure filler. Has worked great so far. Just be sure that you put the lid on the can as soon as possible after it's filled. Then seal right away. The shorter the time from filling to being sealed, the better.

 

[OLBrews]

I would blind triangle taste test an unmodified beer and one dosed with sodium metabisulfate or potassium metabisulfate to see if they change your perception of the beer. Use a pipette into each glass and add an equal amount of just water to the control to keep things even. If you cannot taste the difference, I'd dose the entire batch prior to canning. I've only used rates suggested on the brulosophy.com website myself. Keep a couple of cans of unmodified if you can and try them at the end of the trip and report back your results!

 

[Doc-Da-Mic]

Well, it's only going to be about 2 weeks, so I suppose not too long.

If I wanted to use the "trifecta" of KMeta, Ascorbic, and Brewtan B, how do I figure out how much to use for each 32 oz crowler?

 

[Golddiggie]

For only a two week time in can/crowler, I wouldn't bother.

If the setup is such that the source keg won't move (at all) from where it's chilling, I'd just make sure you have a clear pickup area (if there's any sediment) and fill, seal, take and drink. K.I.S.S principle at work here hoss.

IMO, it would SUCK to do treatments to your beer only to have the flavor change to the point where you no longer enjoy it. Especially when I can't see it being needed. Then again the only thing I add to my beer, besides oak, is CO2 after going into the fermenter and the yeas getting pitched.

If you want to try the additives, do it with a testing batch. AFTER the coming vacation. Also do it for small volumes so you don't have much to toss if you don't like it.