I know this has probably been discussed/answered in other threads somewhere. However, my google-ability is not very good and I never know the right words to search for to find what I'm looking for, LOL.
Here's the question I'm trying to answer: Is there something that can be added to a keg that can prevent, or help reduce, oxidation in hazy IPAs when filling howlers/growlers?
Here's the backstory....
We have a group of people that we fill howlers and growlers for whenever we put something new on tap. We bought a bunch of these howlers with our logo on them...
In 2020, we brewed a hazy that we shared with the group. At that point, these howlers were fairly new and we didn't have a lot of experience with them. We were filling them up to the very top of the glass and capping them. We were practically capping them on liquid. The thought process was that if we fill them that full, there's no room for air or oxygen, and if we don't have any oxygen in the howler, the beer should be well protected.
We started having a few of these explode. They would all break here in the circled area below...
Ultimately, after more failures and more breaks, we came to the conclusion that we were overfilling the howlers and the CO2 escaping from the beer was causing them to blow out the bottoms right in that crease in the circled area above. Since we have stopped filling to the top of the glass and only filling to the 1L / 32oz mark on the glass, we have had no blow outs.
Fast forward to 2021, we brewed another hazy and shared with the group. We now filled the howlers to the 1L / 32 oz line and people were drinking them fast enough that the flavor wasn't affected too much, but when we got a couple of pictures of the beer, it was clearly oxidized. It went from bright yellow to that well known dark brown, almost purple, oxidized look. We started sticking a CO2 tube in the neck of the howler when filling to try and flush it out and it helped some of them but not all of them.
We're going to be brewing another hazy here in a couple of months. We want to be able to have people enjoy this the way it was meant to - bright and fresh! I know howlers and bottles are not ideal for hazies, and that's why a lot of people just don't bottle them. I've also seen talk of adding different ingredients at time of kegging to help prevent oxidation and improve shelf stability.
What are my options here as far as additions that can be added to the keg to possibly help reduce this - if there are any options at that?
- I know those K-Meta and Na-Meta ingredients are antioxidants but not sure if those can be added to fermented, carbonated beer without affecting flavor.
- Can they just be added to the howler or do you add them to the keg?
As far as how we brew these, we're not doing LODO by any means, but once the beer is in the fermenter, it doesn't see oxygen again. We ferment in a unitank, we're dry hopping after fermentation is complete using an oxygen free, purgeable dry hop apparatus, we carbonate in the tank, we closed pressure transfer to kegs that have been 100% purged of oxygen by pushing full volume of sanitizer out using CO2. The kegs themselves last for months and no oxidation issues. Once we put the last one in howlers, it was a matter of 2-3 days and it was turning that brown/purple.
Here's the question I'm trying to answer: Is there something that can be added to a keg that can prevent, or help reduce, oxidation in hazy IPAs when filling howlers/growlers?
Here's the backstory....
We have a group of people that we fill howlers and growlers for whenever we put something new on tap. We bought a bunch of these howlers with our logo on them...
In 2020, we brewed a hazy that we shared with the group. At that point, these howlers were fairly new and we didn't have a lot of experience with them. We were filling them up to the very top of the glass and capping them. We were practically capping them on liquid. The thought process was that if we fill them that full, there's no room for air or oxygen, and if we don't have any oxygen in the howler, the beer should be well protected.
We started having a few of these explode. They would all break here in the circled area below...
Ultimately, after more failures and more breaks, we came to the conclusion that we were overfilling the howlers and the CO2 escaping from the beer was causing them to blow out the bottoms right in that crease in the circled area above. Since we have stopped filling to the top of the glass and only filling to the 1L / 32oz mark on the glass, we have had no blow outs.
Fast forward to 2021, we brewed another hazy and shared with the group. We now filled the howlers to the 1L / 32 oz line and people were drinking them fast enough that the flavor wasn't affected too much, but when we got a couple of pictures of the beer, it was clearly oxidized. It went from bright yellow to that well known dark brown, almost purple, oxidized look. We started sticking a CO2 tube in the neck of the howler when filling to try and flush it out and it helped some of them but not all of them.
We're going to be brewing another hazy here in a couple of months. We want to be able to have people enjoy this the way it was meant to - bright and fresh! I know howlers and bottles are not ideal for hazies, and that's why a lot of people just don't bottle them. I've also seen talk of adding different ingredients at time of kegging to help prevent oxidation and improve shelf stability.
What are my options here as far as additions that can be added to the keg to possibly help reduce this - if there are any options at that?
- I know those K-Meta and Na-Meta ingredients are antioxidants but not sure if those can be added to fermented, carbonated beer without affecting flavor.
- Can they just be added to the howler or do you add them to the keg?
As far as how we brew these, we're not doing LODO by any means, but once the beer is in the fermenter, it doesn't see oxygen again. We ferment in a unitank, we're dry hopping after fermentation is complete using an oxygen free, purgeable dry hop apparatus, we carbonate in the tank, we closed pressure transfer to kegs that have been 100% purged of oxygen by pushing full volume of sanitizer out using CO2. The kegs themselves last for months and no oxidation issues. Once we put the last one in howlers, it was a matter of 2-3 days and it was turning that brown/purple.