Use of antioxidant at homebrewing

[rafaelpinto]

Hey fellows,

I have been trying to brew the most powerful hoppy beer with no success. No matter the amount, no matter the quality, no matter the technic... The result never pleases me enough. So people suggested that I started keggin, which would prevent oxidation of the hop essential oils.

Anyway, I was reading about Astaxanthin, which is the most powerful antioxidant found in nature (way stronger than green tea and vitamin C, for example), which made me wonder:

would the use of food industry antioxidant be beneficial and sustainable in small scale homebrewing?

 

[Howhownow]

Not even going to touch this one, but curious about more educated responses.

 

[flars]

I don't think antioxidant and anti-oxidation are in the same category.

 

[JonM]

I don't think that'll get the result you're after.

I did remember seeing this thread, and saw lots of helpful suggestions. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/when-ton-hops-gives-no-aroma-488174/

Have you tried Yooper's suggestion for controlling pH?

I think we need to see your recipe, finished water profile, and process if we're to be of any help.

 

[Talgrath]

Hey fellows,

I have been trying to brew the most powerful hoppy beer with no success. No matter the amount, no matter the quality, no matter the technic... The result never pleases me enough. So people suggested that I started keggin, which would prevent oxidation of the hop essential oils.

Anyway, I was reading about Astaxanthin, which is the most powerful antioxidant found in nature (way stronger than green tea and vitamin C, for example), which made me wonder:

would the use of food industry antioxidant be beneficial and sustainable in small scale homebrewing?

Anti-oxidants that you refer to do not remove oxygen, they remove so-called "free radicals" that cause oxidation in animal tissue...supposedly. These links have more info. Even if oxygenation is the issue, anti-oxidants won't help.

http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/food-nutrition/facts/antioxidant1.htm

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/antioxidants/

 

[wsmith1625]

I've heard other members reference laying CO2 over their wort. I believe this helps out with oxygenation, but I have never tried it myself. CO2 is fairly cheap, but the tanks can be expensive. The plus side, once you have the CO2 tank, you are 1 step closer to kegging.

 

[Warthaug]

Anti-oxidants are simply chemicals that react well with oxidants. In our bodies the most common oxidant they react with is free radicals (which are produced in prodigious amounts by our day-to-day metabolism). However, they will react just fine with oxygen as well; just at a much lower rate. Indeed, when we handle antioxidants in my lab we have to take great care to avoid oxygen exposure as this will deplete their activity (e.g. we flush the storage containers with nitrogen after each opening of the container, and store the chemicals in a vacuum desiccator).

That said, I doubt adding antioxidants would help you much.

In fact, I am dubious that oxidation is your issue; oxidation of hops takes place over time (i.e. you'd have enough hop character at the beginning, and then loose it), and also tends to develop pretty specific off-flavours (cardboard, soap, grass).

My guess is that your extraction of hop character is lacking. Firstly, which caracter are you missing - bitterness or the flavour/aroma? Bitterness can be improved easily - boil longer & use higher-alpha hops.

improving flavour and aroma is a bit more sophisticated, but still relatively easy. Selection of appropriate hops, and ensuring your supplier is packaging them/storing them properly is key. You also need to ensure that storage on your end is upto par - keep the bags sealed and freeze them until you use them. As mentioned above, pH can really affect extraction and controlling that can greatly improve oil extraction. Adding gypsum can enhance the sensory quality of the hops, but this needs to be balanced with your water. Alternate hopping profiles (e.g. mid/late addition, plus whirlpooling, plus dry-hoping) can help greatly, as can serial dry hops.

Don't give up, but make sure you're targeting the right problem first!

Bryan

 

[JonM]

Now THAT is a killer response! ^

 

[ajdelange]

would the use of food industry antioxidant be beneficial and sustainable in small scale homebrewing?

Yes, and some home and commercial brewers do this but I have not heard of this particular reducing agent being used. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is sometimes used but it has been said that oxidized ascorbic acid (the object is to have the anti oxidant scavenge the oxidizing agents, thereby reducing them and in the process itself becoming oxidized) tastes worse than the oxidation products it eliminates so that most brewers who use it use it with sodium or potassium metabisulfite. Those latter two salts, which are also good reducing agents (anti oxidants) are also used by themselves.

Most brewers prefer to keep their beers in the reduced state by insuring that their worts are rich in 'reductones'. This is done by protecting hot wort from oxygen (air). Another easy way to keep beer in a reduced state is to keep it exposed to live yeast for as long as you can.

All that said, I agree with the others who have said that your problem probably is not oxidation.

 

[rafaelpinto]

Thank you all for the replies.

Take a look at the crazy antioxidant I mentioned: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBowCs3l9KY[/ame]